North Korea is deploying a missile unit with six launchers and 120 ballistic missiles to western Russia in a bid to strike Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Intelligence Agency head, Andrii Cherniak, told Reuters the missile unit, which has 90 North Korean soldiers, would be in Voronezh, Russia.
Ukraine is already struggling to defend against Russian missiles, with a low arsenal of air defences.
Russia has continued to use more ballistic missiles, which are hard for traditional air defences to shoot down in time.
Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that early data suggests Putin deployed a North Korean missile in an attack that killed six people in a Ukrainian village.
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Putin previously praised the bravery and heroism of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside his own troops to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region.
According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last year.
It has also sent large quantities of military equipment, including ballistic missiles and artillery, to help fuel Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, said the North Korean resources were a significant threat for Kyiv.
“Ballistic missile defence is one of Ukraine’s greatest vulnerabilities so any increase in the quantities of ballistic missiles they face will pose a greater challenge,” he said.
A particularly big concern for Ukraine will be the state of its air defences this winter, when Russia could again target the power grid with heavy attacks as in past years, he added.
Reuters could not independently verify Cherniak’s assertions, which he said were based on intelligence that could not be disclosed because of the sensitivities.
The Russian Defence Ministry and North Korea’s embassy at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
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