Ukraine says North Korean missile unit is being deployed to western Russia

Ukraine says North Korea is deploying a missile unit with six launchers and 120 ballistic missiles to western Russia, in a move it says is intended to support strikes on Ukraine. Andrii Cherniak, head of Ukraine's intelligence agency, said the unit would be based in Voronezh and would include about 90 North Korean soldiers. The claim points to a further deepening of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow during the war in Ukraine.

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Cherniak said the information came from intelligence that could not be disclosed in full because of sensitivity, and the report could not be independently verified. The alleged deployment comes as Ukraine continues to face repeated Russian missile attacks and says its air defences remain under strain. The report also says Russia has increasingly relied on ballistic missiles, which are harder for conventional air defences to intercept quickly.

The development matters because ballistic missile defence has become one of Ukraine's most pressing vulnerabilities, particularly as winter approaches and the risk of attacks on energy infrastructure rises. A senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute said any increase in the number of ballistic missiles facing Ukraine would create a greater challenge for Kyiv. The same assessment said the coming months could be especially difficult if Russia again targets the power grid with heavy strikes.

The report adds to a broader pattern of North Korean support for Russia's war effort. According to South Korean assessments cited in the report, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last year. It has also supplied large quantities of military equipment, including ballistic missiles and artillery, to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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That assistance has already raised concern among Western governments about the widening international dimension of the conflict. The article also links the alleged deployment to earlier battlefield cooperation between the two countries. It says Vladimir Putin previously praised the bravery and heroism of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk border region.

Separately, Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that early data suggested a North Korean missile had been used in an attack that killed six people in a Ukrainian village. Those claims underline how North Korean weapons and personnel are increasingly being discussed as part of the war. What remains unclear is whether the reported missile unit has fully arrived in Voronezh and how quickly it could be used in combat operations.

The Russian Defence Ministry and North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to the report. The key questions now are whether the deployment is confirmed by other sources and whether it leads to a further rise in missile attacks on Ukraine.

#NorthKorea #Russia #Ukraine #ballisticmissiles #Voronezh

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