North Korea has begun deploying a missile unit to western Russia equipped with up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for potential strikes against Ukraine, according to Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence.
The unit, comprising roughly 90 North Korean personnel, will be based in the Voronezh region within Russia's 112th Missile Brigade. Pyongyang has also dispatched a new batch of 40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles, with further configuration to be finalized at top-level talks next month. The KN-23 and KN-24 systems carry a larger payload and greater range than Russia's Iskander equivalent but are considered less accurate, Ukrainian military assessments indicate.
The deployment follows Russia's first use of North Korean missiles against Ukraine since last August, including a strike that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said killed at least five members of a single family in the village of Radushne. Approximately 9,500 North Korean troops remain stationed in Russia's Kursk region, though they are not currently engaged in direct combat operations.