Russia is deploying six launchers for North Korean ballistic missiles in Voronezh Oblast, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on 20 August. The assessment cited Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR).

Russia has already used North Korean missiles in deadly strikes across Ukraine, and Pyongyang is supplying more of them. From Voronezh Oblast, the weapons could threaten Kyiv and six other regions, adding to the ballistic arsenal Moscow can use in mass attacks intended to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.

Six launchers expand Russia’s missile threat

The North Korean missiles could reach Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, ISW said.

The unit may eventually field 120 missiles. HUR said North Korea had transferred around 50 KN-23, KN-24, and upgraded KN-30 ballistic missiles to Russia by July.

The KN-30 can carry a 2,500-kilogram warhead, though ISW has seen no evidence of Russia using it against Ukraine. Other North Korean missiles have larger warheads than Russia’s Iskander-M but are less accurate, Ukrainian military expert Anatolii Khrapchynskyi said.

Those missiles could join Russia’s combined attacks. ISW expects Moscow to stockpile ballistic and cruise missiles for several days before launching large barrages intended to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses.

ISW pointed to the 19–20 August attack as the latest example of that pattern. The barrage lasted nearly nine hours and killed at least 15 people in Kyiv. Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted most drones and cruise missiles, but no longer routinely reports how many ballistic missiles Russia launches or Ukraine intercepts.

North Korean missiles have already killed civilians

Preliminary evidence indicated that Russia used a North Korean ballistic missile in a 30 July strike on Radushne, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, that killed five members of one family.

On 10 August, a North Korean missile killed seven Zaporizhstal steelworkers and injured 21 others in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said. The workers were heading to a shelter when the missile struck.

Ballistic missiles travel at high speed and leave civilians little time to seek cover. They are also harder to intercept than drones or cruise missiles, while Ukraine has limited supplies of the Patriot interceptors used against them.

Russia consolidated several units composed of Ukrainian prisoners of war and alleged defectors into a single brigade and labeled it "volunteer," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported. The move scales up a practice ISW has tracked since 2022, when Moscow first began pressing captured Ukrainian soldiers into combat formations. ISW assessed the practice as a likely violation of the Geneva Convention, which bars using prisoners of war in military operations.

Moscow merges five POW units into one brigade

Russia's Defense Ministry Volunteer Corps announced on 6 August that it had formed the "first Ukrainian Volunteer Spetsnaz Brigade." The formation absorbed at least five existing units: the "Maksim Krivonos" and "Aleksei Berest" battalions, and the "Aleksandr Matrosov," "Martyn Pushkar," and "Slobodskoy" detachments. Each of these units reportedly drew members from captured Ukrainian soldiers or Ukrainians who allegedly defected to Russia.

The Volunteer Corps framed the new brigade as a formation of willing participants. At least one Russian military blogger, however, openly stated the brigade is composed of Ukrainian prisoners of war. ISW noted the admission as significant.

2023

ISW: Russia officially deploys Ukrainian POWs to front lines

One of the merged units, the Krivonos battalion, previously figured in a Russian propaganda operation. Moscow presented a Polish citizen as a defector to that battalion in 2025. Months later, a court in occupied Luhansk Oblast sentenced the same man to 13 years as a mercenary.

A practice ISW has tracked since 2022

ISW first documented Russia forming combat units from Ukrainian prisoners in November 2022. The most recent confirmed case before this brigade was the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion, which operated as part of the DNR interior ministry's Kaskad unit in western Donetsk Oblast starting in December 2023.