Ukraine has been hit by a surge in Russian ballistic missile attacks, with about a third of them using North Korean weapons that can only fly because they run on Western circuitry obtained despite sanctions, according to Ukrainian military officials.
Russia has fired about 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles at Ukraine this year, a Ukrainian defense official said. That represents about one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles launched so far in 2024, according to CNN’s tally of attacks publicly acknowledged by the Ukrainian Air Force.
August and September saw a sharp spike in ballistic missile attacks, when Ukraine first publicly announced its use of KN-23 missiles.
The acting head of communications for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat, told CNN: “We see that since spring, Russia is using ballistic missiles and attack drones more to hit Ukraine. “They are using cruise missiles less.
These less sophisticated missiles are part of North Korea’s growing support for Moscow, which also includes some 11,000 North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region.
As the growing role of North Korean missiles became clear, Ukrainian officials gave CNN rare access to fragments of weapon debris, which show the clear extent of US- and European-made or designed electronic circuitry in their guidance systems.
According to a recent report by Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Committee, a civil society organization, the core components used in North Korean missiles are produced by nine Western companies, including companies based in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Some of the KN-23/24 missile parts they analyzed were produced in 2023, suggesting a rapid delivery pipeline to North Korea.
Ukrainian investigators found evidence suggesting that key components used in North Korean missiles are produced by at least nine Western manufacturers. CNN has blurred parts of this image.
Ukrainian investigators have found evidence suggesting that key components used in North Korean missiles are produced by at least nine Western manufacturers.
Andrei Kulchitsky, head of the Military Research Laboratory of the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Experts, said: “Everything that guides the missile, makes it fly, is foreign components. All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean about it,” he said.
“The only thing Korean is the metal, which rusts and corrodes quickly,” he added.
A Ukrainian defense intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their investigation was hampered by damage to the missile’s fragments, but it was still possible to determine that “the vast majority of the components are Western components. Probably 70% of them are American, from well-known companies, and they also use components made in Germany and Switzerland.”
Earlier this year, a report by the UK-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) organization revealed that 75% of the components in one of the first North Korean missiles used to attack Ukraine were from US-based companies.
