North Korea deploys missile unit to Russia for Ukraine strikes
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- North Korea has begun deploying a missile unit of around 90 personnel to Russia's Voronezh region, expected to field 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers aimed at Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence official Andrii Cherniak.
- Pyongyang sent a new batch of 40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles and personnel to Russia, with total deployment configuration to be finalised at top-level talks in September, Cherniak said.
- Russia last week fired its first two North Korean missiles at Ukraine since August 2025, including one that flattened a residential home in Radushne and killed five members of the same family, Ukrainian authorities said.
- North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 missiles carry greater range and payload than Russia's Iskander but are significantly less accurate, Ukrainian military sources said, linking them to strikes with high civilian death tolls.
- North Korea supplied roughly 150 missiles to Russia from late 2023 through August 2025 and currently has around 9,500 troops stationed in Russia's Kursk region, though they are not directly engaged in combat operations.
- Ukraine's air defences face a critical winter ahead, with Foreign Policy Research Institute's Rob Lee warning that ballistic missile defence is Kyiv's 'greatest vulnerability' and US-made Patriot systems are the only defence against Iskander-type threats.
- Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defence pact in 2024, and Moscow is preparing to receive an additional 30,000 North Korean troops in the Voronezh region, President Zelensky said in July 2026.
Why it matters: With North Korea supplying longer-range but less accurate KN-23/KN-24 missiles that Russia's own Iskanders can't match in payload, and Ukraine dependent on scarce US Patriot interceptors to stop them, Kyiv's ability to defend its power grid this winter becomes the decisive variable. Russia gains a deeper munitions pipeline from Pyongyang just as missile defence shortages bite hardest.
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