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.” Kirby said on Wednesday that the support from Iran and North Korea is “not going to change the course of the war,” with the US remaining committed to providing Ukraine with continued security assistance.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.US officials have said they will work to expose and counter the shipments to Russia from Iran and North Korea and target the networks that enable these shipments, but they have not explicitly laid out how they plan to do that.“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,” Price said on Tuesday, pointing to export controls and sanctions that have starved Russia of the inputs to make certain weapons."