Pyongyang has supplied Moscow’s army with long-range rocket and artillery systems, some of which have been moved to Russia’s Kursk region for an assault involving North Korean soldiers to push out Ukrainian forces, a Ukrainian intelligence assessment has found.

In recent weeks, North Korea provided some 50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems that can fire standard rockets and guided ones, said the assessment, which was shared with the Financial Times.

The new weapons deliveries from North Korea mark the latest expansion of the authoritarian state’s support for Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

Michael Kofman, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said they follow a pattern of deepening North Korean involvement, “from sending large volumes of ammunition, weapons, and becoming a direct party to this war, which could help Russian forces retake the Kursk region”.

North Korea has already played a critical role in providing millions of rounds of artillery ammunition for the Russian military in 2023, he noted.

It has deepened its involvement this year by sending more than 12,000 troops, according to multiple western intelligence assessments, further internationalising the conflict.

The deliveries come at a pivotal moment, as the Ukrainian and Russian armies fight for territorial advantage before the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has vowed to force a swift end to the nearly three-year war.

Ukrainian officials provided information about the weapons after a photograph showing North Korean howitzers began circulating on social media this week.

The photograph, which open-source analysts were able to geolocate to central Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, showed several howitzers covered in camouflage netting and being transported by rail westward.

The heavyweight weapons systems can fire shells upwards of 60km. The M1989 howitzers, produced in 1989, are slightly upgraded versions of the original M1979 models first produced in the late 1970s, which Pyongyang supplied to Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war.

The upgraded rocket system is based on the Soviet-designed BM-27 “Uragan”, or Hurricane system, a self-propelled 220mm multiple rocket launcher designed to deliver cluster munitions. North Korea said in May it had successfully tested the updated system with precision-guided munitions.

A senior Ukrainian official told the FT that Pyongyang now wants to test the weapons in combat. Kyiv expects them to be used against its forces that are currently holding some 600 sq km of territory inside Russia’s Kursk region. 

According to Ukrainian and western intelligence officials, Russia has massed a force of 50,000 troops, including 10,000 North Korean soldiers outfitted with Russian uniforms and arms, and are readying for an assault that could take place at any time. 

Ukraine’s forces in Kursk have lost nearly half of the 1,100 sq km of territory they captured in a surprise August incursion, according to military analysts. Kyiv is trying to hold the 600 sq km still under its control to use as leverage in any future negotiations with Russia.

But with Russia’s army on the march across much of the 1,000km frontline, North Korean troops bolstering their ranks and Ukrainian forces exhausted and stretched thin, they face a difficult task. 

In recent months, Russia has used its advantages in manpower and firepower to seize more than 1,200 sq km in Ukraine, according to Deep State, a Kyiv-based war tracking group closely tied to the defence ministry.

The group said nearly 500 sq km of territory was occupied in October alone. Much of what Ukraine has lost is in the eastern Donetsk region, where its defences around the strategic cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove are buckling.

Russia’s gains, though, came at an enormous cost, said UK defence chief Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. He estimated that Moscow’s forces suffered about 1,500 dead and injured “every single day” in October, its worst month of casualties since its invasion in February 2022. Radakin put Moscow’s overall casualties at around 700,000.

Ukrainian officials told the FT on November 4 that their forces had fired at North Korean soldiers for the first time in Kursk. But the North Koreans, the first foreign military forces to enter the war, have not yet been part of larger ground assaults.

Ukrainian officials believe the North Korean troops, who include some of their country’s top special forces units, will play two roles in the looming Russian operation: some will fight among its infantry forces, while others will be used to hold and control territory retaken in the operation.

“North Korean troops can tactically benefit Russian forces in Kursk, although much depends on the numbers and how they are used,” Kofman said.

By using them in Kursk, he said, Moscow can free its forces “to continue offensive operations elsewhere in Ukraine’s east”.

North Korea previously supplied Russia with ballistic missiles and artillery shells. In exchange, Moscow has provided Pyongyang with military technologies to help with its missile programmes, as well as “money”, a senior Ukrainian official said. 

South Korea, the EU and the US, which have condemned the deployment of North Korean forces, have expressed concern that Moscow could reward Pyongyang with nuclear and ballistic technology.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — About 30 miles north of Washington, D.C. is a winding road surrounded by leafy trees and lots of churches. But not just churches.

There’s a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Cambodian Buddhist Society, Muslim Community Center, the Maryland Hindu Milan Mandir, and even a home with a sign out front advertising psychic readings.

This stretch of New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland is so packed with houses of worship, it’s been called the Embassy Row of Religions. But locals know it as the Highway to Heaven.

The Highway to Heaven sits on the eastern part of Montgomery County, Maryland, which was determined to be the most religiously diverse county in the country, according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). The U.S. Census does not collect data about religious affiliation, so the PRRI Census of American Religion is considered to be one of the most reliable sources of data on the topic.

Melissa Deckman is the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the survey. She said the counties with the most religious diversity have some common denominators.

“[They are] the most populated counties in the country, but they’re also the most racially and ethnically diverse,” said Deckman.

Just 40% of residents in Montgomery County are white, another 20% are Hispanic. The county also has larger populations of African-Americans and Asian-Americans, said Deckman. “There are higher percentages of residents who are Hindu, who are Buddhist, who are Muslim.”

Other counties at the top of PRRI’s diversity list included Kings County, New York, which includes Brooklyn; Suffolk County, Massachusetts; and San Francisco County, California. Counties with the least religious diversity included Holmes County, Mississippi; Macon County, Alabama; and Appling County, Georgia

A wall in an exterior corridor of the Muslim Community Center on the Highway to Heaven in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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Interfaith cooperation

On a sunny Saturday morning, families from the Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church gather for worship. (For Seventh-day Adventists, the sabbath is Saturday as opposed to Sunday as in most Christian denominations.)

But the congregation isn’t actually meeting at their own church. Instead, men in suits greet worshippers at the door of the Lutheran Church of St. Andrew — about a mile and a half up the road.

In August, Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church suffered a fire, and the congregation is still unable to use the building.Crystal E. Ward, the church’s executive pastor, said it’s been a positive experience to have supportive communities of faith nearby.

“The Lutheran church and the pastor here [have] been so welcoming and gracious to us to allow us a space where we can worship. So we’re here worshiping every Saturday.”

These kinds of interfaith partnerships are often the goal, but the geographic closeness on the Highway to Heaven may make them more possible.

“There’s a mosque, the Muslim Community Center, which are amazing interfaith partners and do a lot in the community,” said Kate Chance, the Faith Community Outreach Manager for the Office of Community Partnerships in Montgomery County.

“They have a health clinic to support folks, and right next to it is the Ukrainian church. And so they share parking lots. They’re very good friends. But when the Ukrainian church was supporting Ukrainian newcomers, they’re taking the newcomers to the MCC’s health clinic.”

Communities with deep roots

Two miles north of the Muslim Community Center and St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church is Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church. It’s a striking building — tall, wooden, and topped with a polygonal pyramid that can be seen from the road. It would look out of place anywhere else in Silver Spring. But on the Highway to Heaven, the log construction (typical in the Carpathian Mountains) is just one of many thoughtfully built houses of worship.

Holy Trinity Particular Ukrainian Catholic Church follows the Byzantine Rite and sits on the “Highway to Heaven” in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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“This is the church that I grew up in. I had my first communion. I was a part of this congregation before the church was even built, we had our first church in Washington, DC in a house,” said Lila Johnson. She drives with her family around an hour and fifteen minutes each way to come to this church.

She enjoys celebrating the mass entirely in Ukrainian — just like her parents and grandparents did.

“The mass is just moving and beautiful, and I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else,” said Johnson

On the Highway to Heaven, there are enough options that most people don’t have to.

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Mike Tyson, left, and Jake Paul faced off in the live bout on FridayNetflix’s push into streaming live events was put to its biggest test on Friday with the boxing match-up between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, a YouTube influencer who became a professional fighter in 2020.

The bout, which was won by Paul, 27, who beat Tyson, 58, on points, was available to all of Netflix’s 280mn subscribers at no extra charge, a departure from the expensive pay-per-view or premium TV packages that have long been associated with professional boxing. 

Boxing used to be a lucrative business for the pay-TV networks HBO and Showtime, but both exited the sport as its popularity declined. 

For Netflix, the Tyson-Paul bout was aimed at attracting new subscribers — particularly to its advertising-supported service, analysts say. The company’s ad tier, launched in late 2022, has about 70mn subscribers. 

The boxing “megaevent . . . should boost audience engagement and attract advertising-tier subscribers, viewers and dollars”, analysts at JPMorgan said.  

On social media, some fans complained about buffering problems during the fight. The website Down Detector reported that more than 84,000 viewers reported problems.

The unusual bout featuring Tyson, the fiercest and most controversial boxer of his generation, and Paul, a brash social media star, appeared to be part of a strategy to target younger male viewers. In January, Netflix signed a $5bn, 10-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment’s weekly Raw programme in the US, by far the group’s biggest foray into streaming live events. 

Netflix has had success with what it calls “sports-adjacent” programming, including documentaries such as Formula 1: Drive to Survive and Beckham. But it is starting to feature more live sporting events, including a planned National Football League game on Christmas Day — prompting speculation on Wall Street that it plans to eventually secure a rights deal with a major sports league.

Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive, has tried to damp the speculation, saying Netflix does not want to enter a typical sports rights deal in which most of the financial benefit goes to a league.  

“Where we can really differentiate and outcompete everybody is in the storytelling of sports, the drama of sports,” Sarandos said on an earnings call earlier this year. 

Netflix’s position contrasts with its streaming rivals, including Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google’s YouTube, which gobbled up sports professional sports rights — Amazon has NFL’s Thursday Night Football, Apple hosts Major League Baseball’s Friday Night Baseball and YouTube is the home of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket roster of games. But analysts at Morgan Stanley have said they expect Netflix to eventually enter the competition for sports rights as traditional TV networks decline and existing deals with major US sports leagues expire by 2030. 

Netflix began experimenting with live programming last year with a comedy special by Chris Rock, which faced technical problems. It has also live-streamed the SAG awards and a “roast” of retired American football star Tom Brady.