Russia Fired North Korean Missiles in Deadly Ukraine Attack
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- Russia killed at least 10 people in overnight attacks across Ukraine on Aug 11, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of firing North Korean ballistic missiles alongside Zircons and guided aerial bombs at the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
- Zaporizhstal steel plant lost seven employees and had 21+ colleagues wounded when the ballistic strike caught workers rushing to shelters immediately after air alerts sounded.
- Zelensky alleged Russia received "additional ballistic missiles from North Korea" and claimed "a decision has been made for 30,000 to 50,000 North Koreans to be deployed on the territory of Russia," though Kyiv provided no timeframe or sourcing for the figures.
- Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv also suffered strikes — three killed in Dnipropetrovsk by drones and missiles, while an infectious diseases hospital and a children's hospital were hit in Kyiv (no injuries, as patients and staff were in shelters); Sumy and Odesa strikes killed three more.
- Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense pact in 2024, ahead of Pyongyang sending troops to fight in Russia's Kursk region; Seoul called the military cooperation "an issue that directly affects our security and constitutes a violation of UN Security Council resolutions."
- Ukraine faces an acute shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors — the only system capable of stopping ballistic missiles — since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began in February, per the report, with the UN finding civilian deaths are now at their highest since the war's first months in 2022.
Why it matters: The confirmed use of North Korean ballistic missiles against a civilian steel-plant workforce marks a concrete escalation of Moscow-Pyongyang military cooperation and bolsters Zelensky's warnings to Asia-Pacific allies. Combined with Ukraine's Patriot interceptor shortage — worsening since February — and the UN's finding that civilian deaths are now at their highest since 2022, the defensive math for Kyiv is visibly tightening with each barrage.
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