Russia deploys North Korean missile unit to Ukraine, Moscow-Pyongyang axis deepens: report

Russia has begun deploying a North Korean rocket portion equipped with up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for usage successful its warfare against Ukraine, a Ukrainian quality authoritative told told Reuters connected Wednesday.

The reported escalation marks a deepening subject concern betwixt Moscow and Pyongyang, with astir 90 North Korean unit expected to beryllium stationed successful Russia's occidental Voronezh portion to enactment the caller unit, according to Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).

Cherniak besides claimed Pyongyang has already delivered a caller batch of 40 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles to Russian forces, Reuters said.

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Russia has reportedly begun deploying a North Korean rocket portion equipped with up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for usage successful its warfare against Ukraine. (Alexander Kazakov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Final details of the deployment are expected to beryllium finalized during high-level bilateral talks adjacent month.

The quality study follows a monolithic Russian barrage against Kyiv and the surrounding portion connected Aug. 4. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow launched 24 ballistic missiles, 4 cruise missiles and 115 drones overnight, sidesplitting astatine slightest 17 people.

Zelenskyy argued much lives could person been saved had Western allies replenished Ukraine's depleted stockpiles of aerial defence interceptors.

Zelenskyy antecedently warned that Moscow had been preparing since June to person further North Korean subject unit successful the Voronezh region, according to to reports.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has deepened his antiaircraft ties with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. (Getty Images)

Cherniak told Reuters a Russian onslaught successful precocious July marked the archetypal recorded usage of North Korean ballistic missiles against Ukrainian targets since August 2025.

According to HUR estimates, Russia has received astir 150 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles from North Korea since precocious 2023.

Military analysts accidental Russia is progressively relying connected ballistic weapons due to the fact that they necessitate precocious defence systems — specified arsenic the U.S.-made Patriot — to intercept.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that Russia is deliberately incorporating much ballistic missiles into its long-range onslaught packages to maximize unit connected Ukraine's constricted aerial defenses.

ISW added that North Korea is gaining captious battlefield information from the conflict, allowing Pyongyang to refine its rocket show utilizing Russian operational experience.

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North Korea has emerged arsenic 1 of Moscow's cardinal subject allies. (KCNA via Reuters)

North Korea has emerged arsenic 1 of Moscow's cardinal subject allies since the full-scale penetration of Ukraine began.

Reuters reported that Pyongyang has supplied millions of artillery shells and antecedently sent 14,000 troops to Russia's Kursk portion to antagonistic Ukraine's 2024 cross-border incursion.

Cherniak besides noted that astir 9,500 North Korean troops are inactive successful Kursk, though they are not engaged successful progressive combat close now.

A study by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) states that, since Russia's 2022 penetration of Ukraine, North Korea has supplied Moscow with ample quantities of artillery and rocket ammunition, cannon and rocket artillery systems and ballistic missiles.

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The argumentation institute described the Russia-North Korea narration arsenic 1 of the "most consequential among the Axis" and the lone concern successful which 1 subordinate has deployed troops successful combat to assistance another.