Kyiv cannot yet say with certainty that Russia used North Korean ballistic missiles during strikes on Ukraine, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said on national television, The Kyiv Independent reports.

Missiles supplied by North Korea to Russia have been used in major attacks in Ukraine in recent days, the White House announced Thursday, condemning Pyongyang’s “significant and troubling escalation” of support for Moscow, AFP reported.

“Our information indicates that North Korea has recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launch systems and multiple-use ballistic missiles,” some of which were later used to strike Ukraine on Dec. 30 and again on Jan. 2, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the carrier.

Ignat said that confirmation that the missiles came from North Korea came from the United States, but Ukrainian experts still need to examine the fragments and then say whether it can be concluded that they are of North Korean production.

Many of the weapons in North Korea’s arsenal date back to the Soviet era and are difficult to distinguish from those in Russian possession, he added.

• What North Korean missiles did Russia use to strike Ukraine and what does Pyongyang hope to gain from the agreement with Moscow

What missiles did Russia use?

While the White House did not say what type of missiles Pyongyang sent to Russia, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said they had a range of about 900 km and released a table showing the short-range KN-23 and KN-25. ballistic missiles (SRBM), according to Reuters, which asked several experts about these projectiles.

Joost Oolimans, a Dutch researcher and military expert who analyzes North Korea’s armed forces, said images posted on Ukrainian social media clearly show fragments of a ring housing the control vanes characteristic of North Korea’s Hwasong-11 missile family, which includes KN-23 and KN-24 missiles.

The solid-fuel KN-23 was first tested in May 2019 and is designed to evade air defenses by flying at a lower trajectory, experts consulted by Reuters said.

North Korea has tested it from wheeled launchers, railcars, a buried silo and a sunken submarine.

“Despite external characteristics and what some may say about it, this family of missiles does not appear to be significantly related to the Russian 9K720 Iskander missile, but is instead an indigenous development of North Korea,” Olimans said.

The KN-24, which also runs on solid fuel, was first tested in 2019 and appears to have entered mass production and is being deployed in military units.

The KN-24 resembles the US Army’s MGM-140 Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and, like the KN-23, is designed to evade air defenses by flying on a flatter trajectory than traditional ballistic missiles.

Since the North Koreans may have customized their launchers based on their extensive experience with older Soviet equipment, the learning curve for Russian crews operating the imported systems may not be particularly long, said analyst Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. USA.

“North Korean technical advisers may be present in Russia for consultations on the use of these systems,” he said.