North Korea has moved beyond supplying ammunition and foot soldiers to Russia. It’s now sending entire missile units, complete with trained operators and their own hardware, to fight in Ukraine.
Ukrainian military intelligence disclosed on August 5 that approximately 90 North Korean personnel have been deployed to Russia’s Voronezh Oblast, where they’ll be folded into Russia’s 112th Missile Brigade. The unit is expected to operate as many as 120 ballistic missiles from six launchers aimed at Ukrainian positions.
From artillery shells to ballistic missiles
Andrii Cherniak, a representative for Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (known by its Ukrainian acronym HUR), confirmed that North Korea had already delivered an initial batch of around 40 KN-23/KN-24 missiles along with trained personnel earlier in 2026.
The KN-23 and KN-24 are North Korea’s domestically developed short-range ballistic missiles. Think of them as Pyongyang’s answer to Russia’s Iskander system, designed for tactical strikes against military targets at ranges of several hundred kilometers.
