Russia used North Korean missile in deadly strike on Ukraine village, Zelensky says

Russia used a North Korean missile for a strike on a village that killed five members of the same family, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, in what would be the first time such a weapon has been fired in the ‌war in nearly a year.

Russia has launched North Korean missiles at Ukrainian targets before, but their first deployment since August points to a fresh stock of weapons that Moscow can draw on as it steps up missile attacks, a military source said.

Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an overnight attack that killed at least nine people, officials said, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of high-end air defences.

The use of North Korean missiles ⁠would fit a pattern in which Russia has been shifting to using more ballistic missiles like its Iskander 9M723, which can be intercepted ‌only by US-made Patriot air defence systems, the military source said.

Zelensky said one missile flattened a home in the village of Radushne near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing two parents and three of their children. The fate ‌of their remaining four children was unclear, as was that of their 1½-year-old grandson, he said.

In his evening address, ⁠Zelensky said preliminary data showed the ⁠missile used to hit Radushne was North Korean. Reuters had reported earlier that the missile used for the strike was likely to be North Korean, according to two sources.