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Russian forces fired North Korean missiles at a “key” energy facility overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, as he once again urged allies to accelerate deliveries of interceptor missiles.
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“Technical assessments are ongoing at the sites hit by ballistic missiles. According to preliminary findings, at one of the key energy facilities that was damaged, the Russians used KN-23 missiles manufactured and supplied by North Korea,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 36 ballistic missiles at the capital Kyiv and the surrounding region and that four were shot down.
The KN-23 missile
The KN-23 is a North Korean short-range ballistic missile with a top range of around 690 km, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Threat site.
It is thought to have been first tested in May 2019 and is similar in appearance to the Russian-made Iskander-M missile.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said in April this year that the KN-23 has been used in previous attacks on Ukraine, adding that the weapon was “extremely difficult for air defence systems to deal with.”
North Korea is believed to have sent more than 16,000 troops to support Russian forces since October 2024, as well as providing munitions. In June of that year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.
Winter attacks
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia’s latest attacks had targeted “critical energy infrastructure” as Moscow once again ramps up strikes ahead of the winter months. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid during wartime winter periods in a campaign to break the country’s resolve.
“Moscow is deliberately seeking to leave millions of Ukrainians without electricity, heating, and water as winter approaches,” Sybiha wrote on X.
Zelenskyy said the strikes were also likely part of a Kremlin ploy to put additional pressure on Ukraine’s negotiating position ahead of planned trilateral talks between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington in Abu Dhabi.
Overnight strikes on the Kyiv region left at least six people, including a child, injured, and damaged a bridge and energy facilities, local authorities and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Pivnichnyi Bridge had been hit, while energy infrastructure in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions had also been damaged.
“The situation regarding the capital’s energy supply is extremely difficult. Consequently, there are disruptions to the city’s heating and water supply systems,” he wrote on Telegram.
The strikes targeted a substation connecting the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear plants to Kyiv, as well as substations in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kharkiv, and Dnipro regions, per Zelenskyy. A kindergarten was also partially destroyed, he added.
