Oleg Davigora17:15, 05/07/24

Ukrainian authorities are still investigating whether Pyongyang sent instructors to observe ballistic missile launches, according to Kostin’s office.

Ukrainian state prosecutors say they have examined debris from 21 of the roughly 50 North Korean ballistic missiles launched by Russia between late December and late February.

In previously undisclosed details of the missile investigation, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin also told Reuters that the failure rate of North Korean weapons was high.

“About half of the North Korean missiles lost their programmed trajectories and exploded in the air; in such cases, the wreckage was not recovered,” Kostin’s office said.

Prosecutors said that when debris could not be collected from the impact sites, the Hwasong-11 missiles, also known as KN-23 in the West, were identified by studying their flight paths, speeds and launch sites.

The last recorded use of the KN-23 was on February 27, prosecutors said, adding that the total number of launches it detected was consistent with intelligence that North Korea had delivered about 50 ballistic missiles to Russia.

According to Kostin’s office, out of 21 cases of debris collection, in particular, three were fired at the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the region adjacent to it. The rest were hit in the Kharkiv, Poltava, Donetsk and Kirovohrad regions.

As a result of the attacks, which began on December 30, 2023, 24 people were killed, 115 were injured and a number of residential buildings and industrial facilities were damaged, according to the message.

About 50 missiles were launched from several facilities, in particular in the western regions of Russia – Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk, he added.

Ukrainian authorities are still investigating whether Pyongyang sent instructors to observe ballistic missile launches, according to Kostin’s office.

Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the DPRK – details

According to the US, Russia received ballistic missiles and artillery shells from North Korea after the country’s leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare summit last September.

North Korean missiles have accounted for only a small fraction of Russia’s strikes in its war with Ukraine, but their likely use has raised alarm from Seoul to Washington, as it could mark the end of nearly two decades of consensus among the permanent members of the UN Security Council on preventing Pyongyang from expanding its nuclear programs and ballistic missiles.

(C)UNIAN 2024