Similarities to North Korean missile seen in debris examined in Kharkiv
In Kharkiv, the examination of the debris of tail part of the missile Russia recently launched on Kharkiv suggests it could have been supplied by North Korea but currently the information needs to be additionally verified.
That’s according to Dmytro Chubenko, the spokesman for the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, said this, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"After the impact, very large parts remained intact, including the tail part, by which we were able to see that it was an atypical Iskander missile,” the spokesman said, adding that examinations are underway.
Chubenko noted that previously there were no recorded cases where the Russians tried to hide the markings on the missiles they fired at Kharkiv region.
"The attempt to erase the numbers on certain parts indicates a desire to hide information about the missile. In addition, we can see from the internal equipment: the inscriptions inside are not too neat and are made randomly. Usually, in such missiles, made both in the Soviet Union and already in Russia, the inscriptions are very neat, everything is done very thoroughly, in some cases even the names of the factory staff are put in order to establish those responsible – who exactly did what. There is no such thing here. And the inscriptions, numbers, abbreviations that are there, they are of different types," said Chubenko.
Experts have doubts not only because of quality, he added. It has been established that there are technical differences in the examined debris and an actual Iskander missile.
"This missile is slightly larger than Iskander, literally 10 mm in diameter. It differs internally: it is a winding of wires, since the Iskander has protection against EW, special controls. Here it is lacking, here the wires just run inside the missile," said Chubenko.
There are other technical differences. However, experts cannot say for sure that this is a Korean-made missile. The prosecutor's office suggests that either the Russian Federation switched to more negligent missile production, or it could be a missile manufactured by another country.
"According to the information that is available on the internet, including the photos from the North Korean parades, looking at the nozzles, looking at the tail part of this missile – it looks very similar. And, indeed, the North Korean missile was manufactured based on the Iskander. That is why we are leaning towards the version that maybe it is a missile provided by North Korea. But I’d like to note that there is currently no direct evidence to claim that it was North Korea or some other country," Chubenko noted.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, at a briefing on January 5, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said that experts found fragments of missiles, likely not of Russian production, with tampered markings.
Photo: ArmyInform