“Ukraine suffers from North Korean missiles, which can work thanks to Western components. Source: CNN with reference to sources Details: The publication notes that about a third of the missiles with which the Russian Federation attacks Ukraine are North Korean, operating on Western schemes obtained in violation of sanctions.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Ukraine suffers from North Korean missiles, which can work thanks to Western components.
Source: CNN citing sources
Details: The publication notes that about a third of the missiles with which the Russian Federation attacks Ukraine are North Korean, which work on Western schemes obtained in violation of sanctions.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, this year Russia launched about 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles over Ukraine. That accounts for nearly one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles, which CNN estimates is nearly a third of the 194 ballistic missiles launched so far.
August and September saw a surge in ballistic missile attacks, when Ukraine first spoke publicly about its use of the KN-23.
The publication adds that because of this, Ukrainian officials gave CNN access to fragments of weapons debris, which testify to the obvious scope of American and European schemes in their guidance systems.
According to a recent report by the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission of Ukraine (NACU), nine Western manufacturers, including companies from the United States, the Netherlands and Great Britain, produce the most important components used in North Korean missiles. Some of the analyzed parts of the KN-23/24 missiles were manufactured as early as 2023, which indicates their rapid delivery to North Korea.
CNN showed one of the warehouses where Ukrainian investigators are analyzing the wreckage, looking for small details that indicate its origin.
In the warehouse, in particular, there were many damaged drones and burnt parts of missiles, and in various buildings hundreds of microchips were stored, which were carefully sorted by the names of the types of weapons – “Shakhedi”, “Iskander”, KN-23.
“Everything that works to control the missile, to make it fly, are all foreign components. All the electronics are foreign. There is nothing Korean,” said Andrii Kulchytskyi, head of the military research laboratory of the Kyiv Research Institute of Forensics.
“The only thing that is Korean is metal, which quickly rusts and corrodes,” he added.
A representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that their investigations are complicated by damage to the missile fragments, but it can still be determined that “the vast majority of components are Western. Probably 70% are American, from well-known companies… They also use components made in Germany and Switzerland.”
A report published earlier this year by UK-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) found that 75% of the components of one of the first North Korean missiles used to attack Ukraine were made by US-based companies.
According to weapons tracking experts, there is no reliable information on exactly how the components end up in North Korea. But everything points to the fact that the likely supply channel is China, experts say.
“We have traced some of these components and the last known custodians are Chinese companies,” said Damien Splitters, deputy director of operations at CAR, which independently documents diverted weapons. This means that Chinese firms bought components from manufacturers and a number of middlemen.
CAR and others believe that the main problem is the intermediary companies, not the manufacturers.
According to CAR, there are more than 250 companies whose components have been found in North Korean missiles. But most of these electronics are sold through five major distributors based in the US and Canada.
The US Department of Commerce has already tightened controls on companies and front persons that supply sanctioned goods to Russia and Belarus.
Ukrainian officials claim that one of the main problems is poor compliance with sanctions by Western countries.
Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the representative of the President of Ukraine on sanctions policy, expressed hope that the new administration of the newly elected US President Donald Trump will try to strengthen control over illegal trade.
“No manufacturing company has yet been prosecuted for any of these shipments,” he said in an interview with CNN. , in the Russian missiles that hit Ukraine, (they) would really start doing more in this sense.”
This echoes the opinion of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which earlier this year criticized US manufacturers for not doing enough to vet potential buyers despite having sufficient “resources, funding and expertise”.
According to a representative of Ukrainian intelligence, the redirection of components to Iran and directly to Russia also continues.
“Russia uses Western components in the entire segment of both lethal weapons and reconnaissance drones,” a representative of the Defense Ministry’s General Directorate of Intelligence told CNN in an interview, noting that the downing of one of Russia’s heavy drones, the Okhotnik, showed that it was made mostly from American components. We also have to do the right thing to close these supply channels,” he said.
We will remind: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga called on allies to strengthen sanctions and export controls after the discovery of freshly made Western components in a North Korean missile shot down in Ukraine.
Western intelligence estimates that half of the roughly three million artillery shells per year used by Russia come from North Korea.
Evidence also emerged in September of new deliveries of North Korean ballistic missiles to Moscow.