Recent report by Conflict Armament Research confirms Moscow has used weapons made by North Korea.
February 22, 2024 3:33 pm CET
KYIV — Russia has used at least 20 North Korean ballistic missiles in attacks on Ukraine since late December, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Thursday.
The Russia-fired Hwasong-11 missiles — also known as KN-23 and KN-24 — have killed at least 24 civilians and injured at least 100 in Ukraine, investigators claim.
The SBU presented debris of what looked like a KN-23 ballistic missile, according to a statement Thursday.
The first time Russia used North Korean missiles was recorded on Dec. 30, 2023, during the shelling of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the SBU said. The next attack with North Korean missiles was recorded at the beginning of January in Kyiv, it said.
Four residents of an apartment building in Kyiv died, and more than 50 were seriously injured, according to the security service. Russians used North Korean missiles also to shell five front-line villages in the Donetsk region in February, killing 17 civilians.
“The invaders also fired North Korean missiles at the private homes of Kharkiv residents and thereby killed three civilians. More than 60 residents of Kharkiv were seriously injured,” SBU spokesman Artem Dehtiarenko said in the statement.
A recent report published by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) also confirms the use of North Korean missiles by Russia against Ukraine. Even though North Korea is under international sanctions, its ballistic missiles rely on more than 290 foreign components.
“CAR investigators, documenting missile remnants after an attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, found not only that many of these components bear the brands of companies based primarily in the United States but that a large number were produced within the last three years,” the report reads.
The SBU opened two criminal proceedings related to the missile use and is now trying to establish logistic routes for the supply of North Korean weapons to Russia.