Ukraine last recorded North Korean missile use in August 2025, source saysRussia may have received new batch of North Korean missiles, source saysSource says North Korean ballistic missiles are powerful but inaccurateUkraine wants West to supply more anti-ballistic \u200bair defences<\/p>\n
LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) – Russia likely used a North Korean missile for a deadly strike that killed \u200ca family near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, two sources said, in what would be the first time such a weapon has been fired in the war in nearly a year.<\/p>\n
Russia has launched North Korean missiles at Ukrainian targets before, but their deployment after a lengthy gap points to \u200ba fresh stock of weapons that Moscow can draw on as it intensifies missile attacks, the sources added.<\/p>\n
Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Russia pounded Ukraine<\/a> \u200bwith dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an overnight attack that killed at least nine \u2060people, officials said, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of high-end air defences.<\/p>\n The use \u200bof North Korean missiles would fit a pattern in which Russia has been shifting to using more ballistic missiles like its Iskander \u200b9M723, which can only be intercepted by U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said one of the missiles flattened a home in the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih, killing two parents and three of their children.<\/p>\n The fate of their remaining four children was \u200bunclear, as was that of their 1-1\/2-year-old grandson, he said. He did not name the type of missile Russia fired.<\/p>\n The Russian Defence \u200bMinistry and Ukrainian Air Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The North Korean embassy in London did not answer a phone \u200ccall to \u2060request comment outside office hours.<\/p>\n POWERFUL MISSILE<\/p>\n One of the sources, who is in the military, said Ukrainian radars had picked up two missile tracks characteristic of North Korean KN-23 or KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles flying towards Kryvyi Rih during the attack.<\/p>\n Two radar tracks typically indicate four missiles were fired, the source said, adding that other impact sites were not known to him.<\/p>\n For a conclusive assessment, investigators needed \u200bto study missile fragments found \u200bat the site, a process \u2060still under way, the source said, adding that he was nonetheless confident it was a North Korean missile.<\/p>\n Russia began firing North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 missiles at Ukraine towards the end of 2023.<\/p>\n North \u200bKorea also sent 14,000 troops to help Moscow’s forces repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk \u200bregion in 2024 \u2060and supplied millions of artillery shells, opens new tab<\/a> for the Russian war effort.<\/p>\n Last week, Zelenskiy warned the Kremlin wanted North Korea to send another 30,000 troops and said Russian preparations were under way to receive them in Voronezh region.<\/p>\n The North Korean missiles used in Ukraine have a larger warhead \u2060and longer \u200brange than Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, but they are less accurate, the \u200bmilitary source said.<\/p>\n The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, said August 8, 2025, was the last time Ukraine confirmed a Russian strike \u200busing a North Korean missile.<\/p>\n Reporting by Tom Balmforth in London and Lizzie Johnson in Kyiv; editing by Mike Collett-White and Rod Nickel<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n