As recently as two weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines argued that “export controls are forcing Russia to turn to countries like Iran and North Korea for supplies, including UAVs, artillery shells and rockets.” But the shipments may now help Russia to bolster an important part of its war effort: a grinding artillery fight on the front lines.In the weeks before the new intelligence was acquired, some military and intelligence officials were beginning to believe that North Korea was backing away from its agreement to provide weaponry to Russia, multiple officials explained to CNN.US officials have argued publicly that Russia has been forced to turn to North Korea and Iran for weaponry both because it has burned through its stockpiles in a conflict that has stretched many months longer than anticipated and because US and western export controls have made it more difficult for Russia to acquire the technological components it needs to rebuild its stocks on its own.“The Russians, by many accounts, are really wearing thin when it comes to some of those inputs that it needs to prosecute its war on Ukraine,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday, pointing to export controls and sanctions that have starved Russia of the inputs to make certain weapons.The precise state of of Russia’s conventional munitions stocks isn’t publicly known, but Russia is “burning through tens of thousands of rounds a day,” said Adam Mount, the director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, who specializes in North Korea."