British intelligence update on Tuesday said due to a shortage of ammunition, Russia is using outdated shells in the war against Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London said in its daily update that the ammunition had previously been deemed unserviceable.
“In recent weeks, Russian artillery ammunition shortages have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front.
“This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.”
The Russian defence industry was increasingly taking on the traits of a command economy, the MoD update said.
The leadership in Moscow has recognized that the industry is at a crucial weak point in the “increasingly attritional” war, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Prosecutors have sought nine-year prison terms for two Liberian government officials charged with raping two South Korean teenage girls while visiting the port city of Busan to attend an international event.
Sources said this on Tuesday.
The two in their 50s and 30s, respectively, were charged with enticing two female middle school students near Busan Station into their hotel room on the evening of Sept. 22, 2022, and raping them.
They allegedly lured the teenagers by promising to treat them to alcohol and food, and demanded sexual intercourse through smartphone translation services, according to investigations.
The victims refused and left the room but the men brought them back and raped them.
The Liberians were also charged with confining the victims for about 20 minutes in the hotel room while blocking the entrance of the victims’ acquaintances that came over to help the victims later that evening.
The accused were visiting Busan to attend the 2022 Korea Maritime Week, an event jointly organised by South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the International Maritime Organisation.
The two had claimed diplomatic immunity, but police concluded that they were not entitled to protection under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations because they did not hold the status of diplomats assigned to work in South Korea. (Yonhap/NAN)
