London ¨C Russia likely used a North Korean missile for a deadly strike that killed a family near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, two sources said, in what ?would be the first time such a weapon has been fired in the war in nearly a ?year.
Russia has ?launched North Korean missiles at Ukrainian targets before, but their deployment after a lengthy ?gap points to a fresh stock of weapons that Moscow can draw on as it intensifies missile attacks, the sources added. Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an overnight attack that ?killed at least nine people, officials said, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of ?high-end air defenses.
The use of North Korean missiles would fit a pattern in which Russia has been shifting to using more ballistic missiles like its Iskander 9M723, which can only ?be intercepted by U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, ?one of the sources said.
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