North Korean missiles fired on Ukraine: Russians suspected of using non‑domestic weaponry
The military portal reports that the Russians are believed to have launched five missiles towards Kharkiv on Wednesday morning (February 7). As a result of the bombardment, buildings in the industrial zone suffered damage. Specialists who examined the weapons employed by the Russians managed to identify the remnants of two distinct missiles. Early inspections suggest that these are not of Russian manufacture.
Experts suggest that the Russians employed Hwasong-11Ga (KN-23) ballistic missiles originating from North Korea. They deduced this from the remnants found in the bombarded area. Concurrently, this marks another instance of the enemy's army utilizing this weapon to assault Ukraine. The KN-23s were first used in large-scale bombardments on December 30, 2023, and January 2, 2024, Greenwich Time.
To remind you, the KN-23 missiles are a potent weapon recently employed by the Russians. Previously, Valeriy Riabych, an expert from Defense Express, rated the KN-23 as a "very serious missile". This is principally due to the North Korean missile's ability to ferry a warhead weighing approximately 500 kilograms (kg) over a broader range than the Iskander. To date, Ukrainians have documented that the KN-23 can comfortably span a distance of about 640 kilometers (km).
Notably, the Hwasong-11Ga ballistic missile (officially named KN-23) is among the weapons that few reports have circulated about online. However, public documents suggest that the exterior of the KN-23 resembles the Russian Iskander-M. It is approximately 9 meters in length and around 1 meter in diameter. The short-range, solid-fuel missile, designed in 2018, is powered by the same unit that drives the older KN-11 missile. Yet, the maximum speed that this ammunition can reach remains unknown.
According to data provided by American intelligence, Moscow is believed to have received an undisclosed quantity of ballistic missiles from North Korea last year, which presumably included the KN-23, and quite possibly the KN-24 as well.
