North Korea has sent a ballistic missile unit into Russian territory for use against Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military intelligence official, marking what analysts describe as Pyongyang’s deepest involvement in a foreign war since the Korean War of the 1950s.
An official with Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency said the newly deployed unit, comprising roughly 90 North Korean personnel, is being positioned in Russia’s Voronezh region and could eventually operate up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers aimed at Ukrainian targets. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the United States is aware of the deployment. The Ukrainian official said 40 North Korean missiles have already reached Russian forces, with at least two fired at Ukraine during a lethal strike last week.
The claims add to a growing body of reporting on North Korea’s military support for Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, which has evolved from ammunition shipments into direct troop deployments, and now, according to Kyiv, specialised missile crews.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that Moscow was seeking to bring as many as 30,000 North Korean troops into Russia and was readying facilities in Voronezh to house them, though Reuters said it could not independently verify the figure.
Pyongyang’s involvement dates back to 2024, when it sent an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region to help repel a Ukrainian incursion, according to Ukrainian and South Korean assessments. Russia and North Korea publicly acknowledged in April 2025 that North Korean soldiers had fought Ukrainian forces there, with Pyongyang saying the deployment had been ordered directly by leader Kim Jong Un. The Ukrainian official said this month that roughly 9,500 North Korean troops remain in Kursk, though they are not currently engaged in combat operations against Ukraine.
Beyond combat troops, Russian officials have said North Korea is providing additional manpower for reconstruction and demining work. Russia’s Security Council Secretary, Sergei Shoigu, said in June 2025 that Pyongyang would send 1,000 military engineers and 5,000 construction workers to Kursk. That same month, South Korean lawmakers cited a national intelligence briefing indicating Pyongyang had begun recruiting personnel for a further deployment, even as it continued shipping artillery ammunition and missiles to Moscow. It remains unclear exactly how many of these workers have arrived or whether any have taken on combat roles.
Weapons transfers make up the bulk of North Korea’s contribution to the Russian war effort. Kyiv’s military intelligence agency says Pyongyang has supplied roughly 4 million artillery shells since mid-2023 and 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles by the start of 2025, along with long-range artillery and multiple rocket-launch systems. A Reuters review conducted with the UK-based Open Source Centre identified 64 voyages by four Russian-flagged cargo vessels between North Korea’s Rajin port and Russian harbours from September 2023 to March 2025, carrying close to 16,000 containers of munitions. Ukrainian officials estimate North Korean supplies now cover roughly half of Russia’s frontline ammunition needs.
The cooperation is underpinned by a mutual defence treaty Putin and Kim signed during the Russian leader’s June 2024 visit to Pyongyang, which commits each side to assist the other in the event of external aggression. Kim defended the troop deployments last year as an exercise of North Korea’s sovereign right to support what he called a “brother nation,” while analysts say Pyongyang is being compensated with hard currency, oil, food aid and access to Russian military technology. North Korean forces are also believed to be gaining rare exposure to drone warfare, electronic jamming and coordinated artillery tactics that Pyongyang’s own military planners can study.
Washington and its allies maintain that the arrangement breaches United Nations Security Council sanctions that have applied to North Korea since 2006 over its nuclear and missile programmes, which explicitly bar member states from hosting North Korean military trainers or advisers. The United States added new sanctions targeting Russian and North Korean entities in December 2024, and South Korea has separately blacklisted individuals and organisations it links to the military cooperation. NATO has previously warned that deepening ties between Russia, North Korea, China and Iran represent a security concern that extends well beyond Europe.
Source: Defense News (Reuters)
Original report: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2026/08/07/how-north-korean-forces-are-bolstering-russias-war-against-ukraine/