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DISPATCH 03/26 · 11 Aug 2026
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News · Ukraine

Ukraine's air defense stopped none of 11 missiles. Zelensky says North Korean ones were in the salvo.

North Korea is supplying the one class of weapon Ukraine can no longer intercept, and Pyongyang collects performance feedback from every Russian launch.

Ukraine's air defense stopped none of 11 missiles. Zelensky says North Korean ones were in the salvo.
FIG.01 · Ukraine Illustration. Generated key image, not a photo of the event.

North Korea is supplying the one class of weapon Ukraine can no longer intercept, and Pyongyang collects performance feedback from every Russian launch.

Russia struck Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia overnight into Aug. 11 with Zircon anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M and North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, plus 120 drones, Ukraine's Air Force said. Air defenses intercepted none of the 11 missiles. They downed or suppressed 98 of the drones by 9 a.m.

The missiles came out of Russia's Kursk, Rostov, Voronezh and Oryol oblasts, per the Air Force.

"The city was struck with North Korean ballistic missiles, Zircons and guided aerial bombs," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, calling the Zaporizhzhia strike "a vicious attack, calculated to inflict maximum damage specifically on civilian infrastructure."

Six people were killed and 19 injured in Zaporizhzhia, Mayor Rehina Kharchenko wrote on Telegram, with four apartment buildings damaged. Drone and artillery attacks across five districts of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast killed three more and wounded five, according to regional military administration head Oleksandr Ganzha.

San Francisco, California, USA

Marcus Schuler edits BattlePolicy, a daily defense-technology brief connecting the companies and capabilities behind modern war to the contest among Europe, the US, Russia, and China.

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