Ukraine's military spy chief says Russia would have struggled without North Korea's arms

• Ukraine's military spymaster Kyrylo Budanov says Russia is reliant on North Korean weapons.
• "Without their help, the situation would have been catastrophic," Budanov told the Financial Times.

Russia would have been in a tough spot without North Korea's arms, says Ukraine's military spymaster.

Kyrylo Budanov told the Financial Times in a report published on Sunday, that, to his knowledge, North Korea is now Russia's largest supplier of weapons.

"They did transfer a significant amount of artillery ammunition," Budanov said. "This allowed Russia to breathe a little. Without their help, the situation would have been catastrophic."

Russia's war against Ukraine has seen it bear the brunt of the West's crippling sanctions. A shortage of arms meant the Russians had to turn to allies like Iran and North Korea for supplies.

But turning to North Korea for weapons, Budanov says, isn't something that the Russians are proud of.

"This has always been considered beneath them," he told the Financial Times. "It's an indignity."

On January 5, the UK's defense secretary claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had to beg North Korea for their weapons.

"The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea to keep his illegal invasion going," Grant Shapps wrote in an X post.

Representatives for Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.