Russia using North Korean missiles to strike Ukraine, Zelensky says

Ukraine and Russia have continued striking each other overnight, with President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Moscow of using North Korean missiles.

Ukraine said strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia - which killed seven people and injured at least 24 - involved ballistic missiles from Russia's ally.

In Voronezh, western Russia, warehouses of the biggest online retailer Wildberries were hit by Ukraine. The company, known as Russia's Amazon, has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks.

The attacks come a day after at least 13 people were killed, including one child, in Ukrainian drone strikes on the Russian republic of Tatarstan, more than 1,100 km (680 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

In a video address on Monday evening, Zelensky said "for the first time" Russia "cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea".

"The more North Korean strikes there are here in Ukraine, in Europe, the more their missiles and soldiers are used, the more they correct their shortcomings and blind spots", Zelensky said, adding that this poses a danger to the rest of the world.

He has not presented any evidence to back up his comments.

It is not the first time Zelensky as well as other senior Ukrainian and Western officials have accused Russia of receiving military assistance from North Korea.

Ukraine's military has said that says dozens of North Korean missiles have been fired by Russia into its territory since Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Ukrainian president warned over the weekend that as many as 50,000 North Korean soldiers were being sent to fight with Russian forces.

Some 11,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to help Moscow push Ukrainian troops out of the western Russian region of Kursk following their cross-border incursion in August 2024.

In January 2025, Western officials told the BBC that North Korean troops had suffered nearly 40% casualties in the fighting there in just three months.

In his Monday's address, Zelensky also hailed a successful air strike on a Russian petrochemical plant in western Siberia on Monday as a "very significant achievement" by the Ukrainian military.

He promised "more Ukrainian deep strikes, which should demonstrate to Russia and the Russians that peace is necessary".

Zaporizhzhia regional head Ivan Fedorov posted photos of vehicles and buildings on fire, saying Moscow had struck the city using missiles and guided bombs.

All seven casualties were employees of Ukraine's Zaporizhstal metallurgical plant, which later halted all its operations.

One person was injured in strikes on the capital Kyiv, where air raid sirens sounded twice during the night. Explosions could be heard on the outskirts of the capital, triggering fires.

Local officials later said a children's hospital was damaged - but there were no injuries as staff and patients were sheltering.

Two women have been injured in a Russian drone strike on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, according to regional head Serhii Kryvosheienko.

He later said that one person was killed when Russia attacked the city with gliding bombs in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, strikes on substations in Kherson and Kharkiv resulted in power outages.

Ukrainian officials say Russia fired 120 drones overnight and a range of different missiles, but for the first time they have not given a number of missiles fired or intercepted.

It follows an Air Force statement on Monday urging the media not to write "sensationalised headlines" or "spread pessimism" about the shortage of air defence interceptors.

Separately, there have been reports of a fire and explosions at a logistics centre of Wildberries in the Voronezh region.

Wildberries has not yet confirmed the attack, but said that its facilities in the region, which borders Ukraine, have been evacuated.

In July, Ukrainian drone attacks on several retail warehouses belonging to Wildberries disrupted the operations of a large number of small and medium-sized Russian businesses.

Kyiv said at the time it was targeting logistics hubs used by Russians to buy military equipment, and disrupting supplies to the Russian army.

The attack on Tatarstan this week was one of the deadliest single attacks on Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At least 75 people were injured in the strikes, with Ukraine's Armed Forces saying it had hit the city's Tanevo oil refinery.

Verified images on social media showed large plumes of smoke and flames rising into the sky in daytime, with air raid sirens howling in the background.

The Uzbek consulate in Tatarstan said seven of those killed were citizens of Uzbekistan.

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