Russia struck Ukraine overnight July 29 to 30 with more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones, a barrage that killed multiple members of one family when a missile leveled their home in Radushne, near Kryvyi Rih. Preliminary evidence points to a North Korean ballistic missile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement, though expert examinations are still underway.
The strike marks Moscow’s first confirmed use of a North Korean missile in nearly a year. It draws on a stockpile Pyongyang has built as an offshore supply line, United24 reported, citing a military source who noted North Korea has already funneled between eight million and eleven million artillery shells to Russia over two and a half years.
The shift toward ballistic weapons like the Iskander-M, according to Kyiv Post, exploits a structural gap: these missiles can only be reliably intercepted by Patriot systems, which Ukraine has in short supply amid delayed Western deliveries and no domestic alternative.
The same barrage sent a missile across the border into Poland, Euromaidan Press reported, prompting a NATO scramble and underscoring how Russia’s saturation tactics now carry direct risk of spillover into allied airspace.
