Russia kills 10 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy flags North Korea missile support

Russia struck cities across Ukraine with missiles, drones and glide bombs, killing at least 10 civilians. The attacks deepened fears of escalation as Zelenskyy linked Moscow's firepower to growing North Korean support.

In Short

• Zaporizhzhia attack killed seven and injured 24, local authorities said
• Dnipropetrovsk shelling and drones killed three, including a 15-year-old boy
• Kyiv hospital grounds were hit, but sheltered children and staff escaped

Russia attacked cities across Ukraine with missiles, drones and glide bombs on Tuesday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes showed Moscow was getting new military help from North Korea for its invasion, now in its fifth year.

Zelenskyy also said Russia was preparing to step up the war, as Ukraine warned that Moscow was increasing ballistic missile production and could launch a fresh push along the 1,250-km front line in the east and south. The warning comes as Ukraine faces a shortage of Patriot air defence interceptors, which it says are crucial to stopping ballistic missiles.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an overnight attack, Zelenskyy said. Local officials said seven people were killed and 24 were injured. In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed in Russian drone and artillery attacks, authorities said.

Zelenskyy said late on Monday that, apart from supplying ballistic missiles, North Korea was preparing to send more troops to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2024, pledging mutual aid if either country faces aggression. Kim has already sent thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy said the battlefield experience would help Pyongyang threaten other countries in its region.

"Every step Russia takes - increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilisation - all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation," Zelenskyy said on social media. In an unusual move, Ukraine's air force did not say in its daily report how many missiles Russia launched overnight. It was not clear whether the omission was deliberate, and Kyiv officials did not immediately comment.

US-led efforts to end the war have lost momentum as Washington grew frustrated with the lack of progress and shifted attention to the Iran war. "The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives," the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in an analysis on Monday. "Ukraine's Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war," it said.

Russian forces also struck parts of Kyiv overnight, officials said. One strike hit the grounds of a children's hospital, leaving two craters and shattering windows, according to the State Emergency Service. It said children and medical workers were in bomb shelters and nobody was hurt. In another part of the capital, a Russian strike caused a warehouse fire that spread across about 1,200 square metres, emergency officials said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had struck "military industrial facilities and transport and logistics centres" in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia with "ground-based precision weapons". It said it had hit civilian storage facilities housing drones in Kyiv and a metallurgical plant in Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine's air force said Russia targeted both cities with Zircon anti-ship missiles and Iskander ballistic missiles, while also launching 120 long-range strike drones across the country.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences intercepted nearly 400 Ukrainian drones over 14 regions and Crimea, the peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russia's biggest online retailer, Wildberries, said its logistics facilities in the Voronezh region came under attack and caught fire, but the blaze was put out and the stored goods were "largely undamaged". Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries warehouses and Russian oil facilities in what it says is a strategy to force Putin to negotiate an end to the invasion. Ukraine's General Staff said its forces also struck an oil refinery in Orsk in Russia's Orenburg region near the Kazakhstan border, about 1,500 km from Ukraine, causing a fire. The military said the refinery, which processes about 44 million barrels of crude a year and produces petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, was being assessed for damage.

The attacks on Tuesday, the deaths in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, the strikes in Kyiv and the reports of drone attacks inside Russia underlined the widening pressure in the war, as Ukraine warned that Moscow was preparing for escalation rather than peace.

With PTI Inputs

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