A North Korean missile unit is being deployed to western Russia and could ultimately receive 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for use against Ukraine, according to an official with Ukraine’s military intelligence agency.
The reported move comes as Ukraine faces a severe shortage of advanced air-defence systems. Russia has increasingly relied on ballistic missiles, which are among the most difficult weapons for Ukrainian forces to intercept.
Moscow has launched dozens of North Korean ballistic missiles at Ukraine since late 2023. The arrival of North Korean missile personnel would deepen an already broad military partnership between Russia and Pyongyang.
Andrii Cherniak, of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, said Russia planned to station a unit of about 90 North Korean personnel in the western Russian region of Voronezh, alongside its 112th Missile Brigade.
Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence
The CIA declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘A significant threat’
Pyongyang has already delivered another 40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles, along with personnel, to Russia, Mr Cherniak said. The final structure of the deployment and the total number of missiles are expected to be settled during high-level talks next month.
Russia anticipates that the deployment will include 120 North Korean ballistic missiles and six launchers, he said.
The exact responsibilities North Korean personnel would assume within Russia’s missile operations remain unclear.
Mr Cherniak’s account appears to align with Russia’s launch last week of two North Korean missiles at Ukraine, the first such strikes since August.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, said the additional North Korean capability represented a serious danger for Kyiv.
“Ballistic missile defence is one of Ukraine’s greatest vulnerabilities so any increase in the quantities of ballistic missiles they face will pose a greater challenge,” he said.
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Ukraine is especially concerned about the condition of its air defences this winter, when Russia may once again launch sustained attacks on the power grid, as it has done in previous years, Mr Lee added.
Mr Cherniak said his assessment was based on intelligence that could not be made public because of its sensitive nature.
The Russian Defence Ministry and North Korea’s embassy at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un sits with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Beijing, China last year
North Korea has emerged as one of Russia’s closest allies since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The two countries formalised that relationship with a mutual defence pact in 2024.
Ukrainian officials say North Korea has provided millions of artillery shells for Russia’s war effort and dispatched 14,000 troops to the Kursk region in 2024 to help repel a Ukrainian ground incursion.
Ukrainian authorities said last week that a North Korean missile destroyed a home in the central Ukrainian village of Radushne, killing at least five members of one family.
High civilian death tolls
Mr Cherniak said the strike was the first recorded use of North Korean ballistic missiles since August 2025. He said it involved missiles from the newly delivered batch of 40, corroborating earlier Reuters reporting.
Ukraine’s military sources say North Korea’s KN-23 and KN-24 missiles can travel farther and carry larger payloads than Russia’s comparable Iskander missiles. They are, however, significantly less accurate and have been associated with strikes that caused heavy civilian casualties.
The deployment of KN-23 and KN-24 missiles is consistent with Russia’s broader effort to increase its use of ballistic weapons, including the Iskander 9M723, which can generally be intercepted only by US-made Patriot air-defence systems.
Russia began launching KN-23 and KN-24 missiles at Ukraine in late 2023. Mr Cherniak said North Korea had supplied 150 of the missiles between the end of 2023 and August 2025.
He said about 9,500 North Korean troops were currently in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, but were not directly participating in military operations against Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that the Kremlin was seeking an additional 30,000 North Korean troops and that Russia was preparing to receive them in the Voronezh region.
