By Tom Balmforth
LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) – Russia likely used a North Korean missile for a deadly strike that killed a 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.
Russia has launched North Korean missiles at Ukrainian targets before, but their deployment after a lengthy gap points to a fresh stock of weapons that Moscow can draw on as it intensifies missile attacks, the sources added.
Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an overnight attack that killed at least nine people, officials said, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of high-end air defences.
The use of North Korean missiles would fit a pattern in which Russia has been shifting to using more ballistic missiles like its Iskander 9M723, which can only be intercepted by U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems, one of the sources said.
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.
The fate of their remaining four children was unclear, as was that of their 1-1/2-year-old grandson, he said. He did not name the type of missile Russia fired.
The Russian Defence Ministry and Ukrainian Air Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The North Korean embassy in London did not answer a phone call to request comment outside office hours.
POWERFUL MISSILE
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.
Two radar tracks typically indicate four missiles were fired, the source said, adding that other impact sites were not known to him.
For a conclusive assessment, investigators needed to study missile fragments found at the site, a process still under way, the source said, adding that he was nonetheless confident it was a North Korean missile.
Russia began firing North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 missiles at Ukraine towards the end of 2023.
North Korea also sent 14,000 troops to help Moscow’s forces repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in 2024 and supplied millions of artillery shells for the Russian war effort.
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.
The North Korean missiles used in Ukraine have a larger warhead and longer range than Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, but they are less accurate, the military source said.
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 using a North Korean missile.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth in London and Lizzie Johnson in Kyiv; editing by Mike Collett-White and Rod Nickel)
Comments