Ukraine is being hit with a surge of attacks using North Korean missiles. Western components help make it possible

Kyiv, Ukraine CNN —

Ukraine has been hit by a surge in Russian ballistic missile attacks, about a third of which used North Korean weapons that can only fly because they run on Western circuitry, obtained despite sanctions, according to Ukrainian military officials.

Russia has fired about 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles at Ukraine this year, according to a Ukrainian defense official. That accounts for nearly one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles fired so far in 2024, a CNN tally of attacks publicly acknowledged by Ukraine’s air force shows.

August and September saw a spike in ballistic missile attacks, when Ukraine first publicly detailed the use of the KN-23.

“We see that since the spring, Russia has been using ballistic missiles and attack drones much more to strike Ukraine. And less use of cruise missiles,” the acting head of communications of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, told CNN.

These less-sophisticated missiles are part of North Korea’s growing support to Moscow, which also includes about 11,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia’s Kursk region.

As the expanding role of the North Korean missiles becomes clear, Ukrainian officials have given CNN rare access to fragments from the wreckage of the weapons, which show the apparent extent of US- and European-made or designed circuitry in their guidance systems.

Investigators at Kyiv’s Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise examine the debris of KN-23 missiles that Russia has used to attack Ukraine.

Crucial components used in the North Korean missiles are produced by nine Western manufacturers, including companies based in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, according to a recent report by Ukraine’s Independent