Russian strikes kill 10 in Ukraine
Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with missiles, drones and glide bombs on Tuesday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow is getting new military help from North Korea for its more than 4-year-old invasion.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an overnight attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where officials said seven people were killed and 24 wounded. Three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said.
In addition to the ballistic missiles, North Korea is preparing to deploy more of its troops to Russia, Zelenskyy said. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2024, pledging mutual aid if either country faces aggression. Kim has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of weapons to support Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine says Russia is scaling up its production of ballistic missiles, aiming to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air defense interceptors that can stop them, and claims Moscow is preparing to recruit more troops for a new push on the front line that stretches 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) along eastern and southern Ukraine. “Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilisation — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
