According to CNN sources within Ukrainian military officials, around one-third of Russian ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine employed North Korean weapons with Western circuits that were obtained in sanctions circumvention.
Russians launched more than 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles against Ukraine this year, according to a Ukrainian defense officer. That accounts for over one-third of the nearly 200 ballistic missiles launched thus far in 2024.
“We see that since the spring, Russia has been using ballistic missiles and attack drones much more to strike Ukraine. And less use of cruise missiles,” – told CNN Ukrainian Air Force’s acting head of communications, Yuriy Ignat.
The missiles are part of North Korea’s growing support for Moscow, which includes more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers stationed in Russia.
Due to a recent report by Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), a civil society organisation, nine Western manufacturers produce critical components for North Korean missiles, including companies in the United States, the Netherlands, and the UK. Some KN-23/24 missile components were manufactured as recently as 2023.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, strikes with North Korean missiles have killed at least 28 persons and injured 213 this year.
“Everything that works to guide the missile, to make it fly, is all foreign components. All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean in it. The only thing Korean is the metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes,” according to the head of the Military Research Laboratory of Kyiv’s Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.
Due to a 2024 research study by the British investigative organisation Conflict Armament Research (CAR), 75% of components come from US businesses.
Damien Spleeters, CAR’s deputy director of operations, determines that Chinese enterprises purchased the components from manufacturers and intermediaries. CAR and others believe that distribution corporations are the key concern.
Ukrainian officials claim that one of the primary issues is Western nations’ failure to enforce the sanctions regime.
Also Ukrainian intelligence officials report that Western components continue to travel directly to Iran and Russia.
Earlier we have reported about components from the US and EU found in North Korean missiles that Russia fired at Ukraine, Swiss components in drones and more.
