WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Missile that killed 12 in Russian strike on Kyiv was North Korean, Zelenskiy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday the Russian missile that struck a residential building in Kyiv overnight and killed 12 people was supplied by North Korea, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

A North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) missile hit a residential block in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of Kyiv's centre during a major aerial attack by Russia, a Ukrainian military source told Reuters.

"According to preliminary information, the Russians used a ballistic missile manufactured in North Korea. Our special services are verifying all the details," Zelenskiy said on X, without providing further details.

Russia made no comment on Zelenskiy's remarks. Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers that would violate U.N. embargoes.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea grew rapidly as Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

By the start of 2025, Pyongyang had supplied Russia with 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles, Ukraine's military spy agency says.

KN-23 (KN-23A) missiles are armed with warheads of up to one tonne, which is more powerful than the Russian equivalent missiles, the Ukrainian source said.

In the initial readout after the Russian attack, Kyiv said seven ballistic missiles were used in total, identifying them broadly as Iskander-M/KN-23.

North Korea's involvement in Ukraine has alarmed not only European capitals but also South Korea and its allies in Asia, who fear that lessons learned from war could be unleashed on them one day.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Massive Ukrainian drone raid on Crimea repelled – Moscow

The Russian military has downed almost a hundred Ukrainian drones overnight across several Russian regions, including half of them over the Crimean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

In a statement on Thursday morning, the ministry said Russian air defense forces destroyed or intercepted a total of 87 fixed-wing Ukrainian drones.

Of the total, 45 drones were shot down over Crimea. Elsewhere, ten each were intercepted in the border Belgorod and Kursk regions, and eight in Voronezh. Four drones were downed in each of Bryansk, Lipetsk, and Nizhny Novgorod regions, while two were intercepted near Moscow. The statement did not specify whether any of the drones caused damage or casualties.

Crimea, which joined Russia after voting in a public referendum in 2014 following a Western-backed coup in Kiev, is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and has frequently been targeted throughout the conflict with Ukraine. Moscow has accused Kiev of attacking the peninsula’s civilian infrastructure, including the strategic Crimean bridge that connects it to the mainland.

The issue of Crimea is reportedly at the center of negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict. According to multiple media reports, US President Donald Trump has floated a draft proposal that includes American recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and an agreement to bar Ukraine from NATO membership, which has long been a key concern for Moscow.

However, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has refused to discuss recognition of Crimea as Russian, with a Washington Post report claiming that his rebuttal of the US peace roadmap had “angered” officials in Washington.

Trump has described Zelensky’s stance as “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago,” while accusing the Ukrainian leader of prolonging the conflict.

Reuters/RT