Kyiv ‘can’t confirm yet’ if Russia used N Korean missiles

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine said on Friday it was so far unable to confirm that Russia had used North Korean missiles to attack it after Washington accused Moscow of using weapons provided by Pyongyang.

The White House laid out the claims late on Thursday and also said Moscow was seeking missiles from its ally Iran, as it burns through stockpiles of key munitions nearly two years into its invasion of Ukraine.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby described the deliveries as a “significant and concerning escalation” but Kyiv hours after the announcement said Ukraine had yet to independently find evidence to support the claims.

“So far, we have no information that such missiles have been used. The United States made a statement to that effect,” Ukraine´s air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told state media.

“So experts will study the wreckage, and then we can say whether this is a fact or not. I can´t confirm it yet,” he added.

In their grinding war of attrition, which the Kremlin had hoped would conclude in just days, Kyiv and Moscow have struggled to refill stockpiles of artillery shells, drones and long-range missiles.

The Pyongyang-supplied missiles with ranges of around 900-kms were fired by Russia in two attacks on Ukraine within the past week, Kirby said.

He said that Russia had launched at least one of the North Korean-supplied missiles on December 30, which landed in an open field in the Zaporizhzhia region.

It is one of four regions that the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in 2020 but still do not control entirely.

Moscow´s forces then fired “multiple” ballistic missiles into Ukraine as part of a mass aerial attack on January 2, he added.