Russia used North Korean missiles in a deadly attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on August 11. Zaporizhzhya “was struck with North Korean ballistic missiles, [anti-ship] Zircons, and guided aerial bombs. Ukraine is struggling to defend itself as deliveries of US-made Patriot systems and other anti-ballistic interceptor missiles have dwindled. Russia has fired a number of North Korean missiles since 2023 in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022.krainian officials said a North Korean missile was apparently used in a Russian attack that killed six members of a family in a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region on July 30. In 2024, around 12,000 North Korean troops were deployed in Russia’s Kursk region following a surprise incursion by Ukrainian forces.