Add The New York Post on Google Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky mocked Russia for getting so desperate that it is now relying more and more on North Korea after Pyongyang missiles were allegedly used on Tuesday in an attack that killed 10 people.
Moscow fired the North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles overnight in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, with a 15-year-old boy listed among the dead and at least 24 others wounded, regional officials said.
As Russia is set to receive more ballistic missiles and troops from North Korea, Zelensky said it was evident that Moscow was running low on weapons and manpower and now needs outside aid to fuel its invasion.
“For the first time in its history, Russia cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea,” Zelensky said in his latest address.
“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” he added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long been providing aid to Moscow after he signed a strategic partnership agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2024.
About 14,000 Pyongyang soldiers were deployed to retake Russian land in 2024 after Putin was left humiliated by a surprise counter-invasion, with the two countries’ relationship only growing stronger since.
Just days before Tuesday’s airstrikes, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency put out an alert that a North Korean missile unit was deployed to Russia and believed to be carrying 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers.
Russia has been relying heavily on its ballistic missile strikes to try and overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses in ever-escalating attacks.
Ukraine is currently experiencing a shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, which serve as Kyiv’s sole air defense weapon capable of downing ballistic missiles.
Russia has allegedly deployed the North Korean unit in the western Voronezh region, said Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence.
The deployment is said to be a part of the Kremlin’s military build up for a massive winter assault aimed at inflicting major damage on Ukraine’s infrastructure and minimizing its latest victories.
“Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives,” the ISW added.
Along with the missile unit, the Voronezh region is also expected to receive another 30,000 Pyongyang troops to be deployed with the Russian army, Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president warned that North Korea’s direct involvement in a conflict that has come to define modern war will allow Pyongyang’s military to evolve and threaten its regional rivals.
“The more North Korean strikes there are here in Ukraine, in Europe, the more their missiles and soldiers are used, the more they correct their shortcomings and blind spots, the greater the danger will later be for Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and other countries in the region,” Zelensky said.
