Russia firing North Korean missiles at Ukraine: Zelensky
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- Zelensky accused Russia of using North Korean ballistic missiles in a Zaporizhzhia strike that killed seven people — all Metinvest metallurgical plant employees — and injured at least 24, declaring Russia 'cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea.'
- Ukraine's military says dozens of North Korean missiles have been fired into its territory since the February 2022 full-scale invasion, and Zelensky warned over the weekend that up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers are being sent to fight with Russian forces.
- North Korean troops deployed to Russia's Kursk region — 11,000 initially sent — suffered nearly 40% casualties in just three months of fighting, according to Western officials who briefed the BBC in January 2025.
- Ukraine struck Wildberries logistics warehouses in Russia's Voronezh region and the Tanevo oil refinery in Tatarstan — 1,100 km from the border — killing at least 13 including one child, in one of the deadliest single attacks on Russia since the invasion began.
- Ukraine's Air Force fired 120 drones overnight but notably did not disclose how many missiles were fired or intercepted, following a statement urging media not to write 'sensationalised headlines' about the country's air defence interceptor shortage.
- Russian strikes damaged a children's hospital in Kyiv (no injuries reported), killed one person in Sumy via gliding bombs, and hit substations in Kherson and Kharkiv causing power outages.
Why it matters: Zelensky's public call-out of North Korean weaponry signals a deliberate escalation in framing — turning a bilateral war into a multilateral one to pressure Kyiv's allies. The Air Force's silence on missile interception numbers, paired with its plea against 'sensationalised headlines,' is a tacit admission Ukraine is running low on interceptors at the precise moment Russia is diversifying its missile sources.
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