UK says Russian warehouse in Tver attacked by Ukraine contained North Korean munitions

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September 21 () –

The UK Ministry of Defence has said that an ammunition depot in Russia’s Tver region, which was destroyed in an attack by the Ukrainian armed forces earlier this week despite being located some 500 kilometres from the border, contained ammunition supplied by North Korea.

“This depot is a storage site for the 107th Arsenal of the Russian Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, and almost certainly housed ammunition of various calibres for front-line use (…) It was also reported that ammunition purchased from North Korea was stored here,” the UK said.

According to the Ministry of Defense in its regular intelligence report on the war in Ukraine, the warehouse had been renovated in 2018 and was one of Russia’s main strategic munitions depots, supplying projectiles for the offensive on Ukraine.

“The recent improvements to the site had been due to previous poor storage of ageing explosive material which led to a series of explosions at several depots,” the London-based company said, noting that an incident in 2011 damaged 3,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 30,000 people.

The Ukrainian attack earlier this week triggered a chain reaction, probably due to “poor ammunition storage,” leading to a huge loss of shells and military capabilities. The explosion was felt in the area like a small earthquake measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale.

“Russian air defence continues to have problems with deep strike operations in Ukraine, despite claiming to have intercepted more than 50 drones in this attack,” British intelligence said, concluding that these losses could “disrupt” defence operations in Kursk.