Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of relying on North Korean missiles to sustain its military campaign against Ukraine. In a video address delivered Monday evening, Zelensky stated that for the first time, Russia is unable to wage war without reinforcements from North Korea.
He warned that the increased use of North Korean missiles and soldiers allows Moscow to identify and correct its own tactical shortcomings, which he described as a danger to the rest of the world.
Zelensky also warned over the weekend that as many as 50,000 North Korean soldiers were being sent to fight alongside Russian forces.
The accusation follows a deadly Russian strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia, which resulted in at least six deaths and left at least 19 others injured. Zaporizhzhia Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov reported that the attack involved a combination of missiles and guided bombs, causing significant damage to industrial facilities, infrastructure, and non-residential buildings.
Fedorov shared images showing fires engulfing vehicles and structures in the region.
Tensions remain high across the country, with Ukrainian officials reporting that Russia launched 120 drones and a range of different missiles overnight. For the first time, officials did not provide a specific number of missiles fired or intercepted. This follows an Air Force statement on Monday urging the media not to write sensationalized headlines or spread pessimism regarding the shortage of air defense interceptors.
In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded twice throughout the night, and a strike damaged a hospital, though officials noted that patients and staff were sheltering at the time.
Elsewhere, strikes on substations in Kherson and Kharkiv resulted in power outages. Additionally, two women, aged 52 and 66, were injured in a Russian drone strike on Sumy, according to Sergiy Kryvosheenko, head of the Sumy City Military Administration. The strike also damaged civilian vehicles, warehouse buildings, and infrastructure facilities.
As the conflict intensifies, Ukraine has expanded its own deep-strike operations. Zelensky praised a successful Ukrainian air strike on a Russian petrochemical plant in western Siberia on Monday, calling it a very significant achievement by the military.
He promised more Ukrainian deep strikes to demonstrate to Russia that peace is necessary. Separately, there have been reports of a fire and explosions at a logistics center of Russia's biggest online retailer, Wildberries, in the Voronezh region.
While the company has not confirmed the attack, it stated that its facilities in the region, which borders Ukraine, have been evacuated. In July, Ukrainian drone attacks on several Wildberries warehouses disrupted the operations of many small and medium-sized Russian businesses, with Kyiv stating it was targeting logistics hubs used to supply the Russian army.
These developments occur in the wake of a massive Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian republic of Tatarstan, located more than 1,100 km (680 miles) from the Ukrainian border. That attack, which targeted the Tanevo oil refinery, was one of the deadliest single attacks on Russia since the start of the full-scale war in 2022. At least 13 people were killed, including one child, and at least 75 people were injured.
The Uzbek consulate in Tatarstan stated that seven of those killed were citizens of Uzbekistan. Verified images on social media showed large plumes of smoke and flames rising into the sky during the day, with air raid sirens howling in the background.
