Russia has attacked the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine with non-Russian-made missiles. According to a presidential advisor, they would be North Korean missiles, a version defended yesterday by the United States.
Oleh Synehubov, governor of Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne that missiles produced outside of Russia were fired at the province in late December and early January.
"We are carrying out all the necessary examinations. I will say for now that the markings have been erased from these missiles, but what we can see (is that) the country that produced them is not the Russian Federation," Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne quoted the governor of Kharkiv.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian air force stated on Friday morning that kyiv did not yet have information on whether the missiles were North Korean.
However, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential advisor, did affirm on social media on Friday that Russia had attacked Ukraine with North Korean missiles, thus confirming Washington's statement on Thursday in which it cited declassified information from its intelligence services. Unlike the United States, Podolyak did not provide evidence that the missiles were North Korean.
"As part of its genocidal war, the Russian Federation has attacked the territory of Ukraine for the first time with missiles supplied by North Korea," Podolyak wrote on the X social network.
Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby said his "information indicates that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles," using North Korea's official name. On December 30, he added, "Russian forces launched at least one of these North Korean ballistic missiles toward Ukraine," adding that it appeared to have landed in open fields.
Then on Tuesday, Russia launched "multiple" North Korean missiles as part of a broader wave of intense airstrikes, Kirby said. Washington was still assessing the impact of those missiles.
Kirby called North Korea's arms transfer to Russia a "significant and concerning escalation" and said the United States would impose additional sanctions against those who facilitate arms deals.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied making any arms deals, but pledged last year to deepen their military relations.
The use of the missiles drew condemnation from Britain, as well as South Korea, which had reported in November that North Korea may have supplied SRBMs to Russia as part of a broader arms deal that also included anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft, artillery and mortar projectiles, and rifles.
Russia has recently launched some of its most intense attacks on Ukraine since the war began nearly two years ago. kyiv said on Tuesday that Russia had launched more than 300 attack drones and missiles of various types in cities across Ukraine since Friday.
