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booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riotsIran rejects US claim to Hormuz as ship attacks mount600 drones head for Moscow as Russia strikes Kyiv and Kryvyi RihDeath toll passes 50 after magnitude 7.7 quake off FloresIsraeli strikes kill 11 in south Lebanon, deadliest since June truceColombia asks Trump to suspend tariffs as quake toll climbsRhine hits record low at Kaub as Hungary sinks barges to cool reactorUS readies unprecedented economic measures against IranUS boat strikes pass 200 dead as Ecuadorean fishermen describe attacksBond traders struggle to price $70bn of credit backstops behind AI buildoutAlibaba says its open AI models passed three billion downloadsDeath toll rises to 68 after Lake Kariba ferry sinkingTaliban mark five years in power as UN warns of rights crisisEU aircraft join fight against Belgium's record wildfireUS presses Netanyahu over settlers as Qusra homes are occupiedMokha port halts operations as Houthi missiles hit MaribSeoul proposes talks to end the Korean war as North rejects drillsChina-led perovskite solar plant outperforms silicon in three-month field testOpenAI revenue run rate passes $40bn as revenue chief departsHamas leader in Cairo as Kushner trip nearsWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the responseTurkish parliament passes amnesty law for PKK membersMorocco detains scores near Ceuta as feared mass crossing fails to materialiseChina publishes ecology reports to bolster South China Sea claimsMyanmar says more than 300,000 Rohingya verified for repatriationPetrobras detects signs of oil off the mouth of the AmazonChina condemns Japanese politicians' moves at Yasukuni ShrineUS inflation cools as wages again lag behind pricesModi offers free exam coaching after youth protests in IndiaOil from grounded Russian tanker reaches Oman's coastPanama Canal cuts draught again as Mexico pitches rival corridorUkraine's idle ports cost $1.75bn as farm exports fallFormer Chinese premier Zhu Rongji diesAt least 20 killed in communal clashes in central NigeriaIran accuses Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riots
Bota
Symbolic image: North Korean missile suspected after Russian barrage kills eight in UkraineSymbolic image

North Korean missile suspected after Russian barrage kills eight in Ukraine

7 sources

A Russian missile and drone barrage across Ukraine overnight into Thursday killed at least eight civilians, six of them members of one family in the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih. In his evening address, President Zelensky said preliminary data indicated the missile that destroyed the family's house was North Korean, which Reuters' sources say would be the first such use in nearly a year. Russia's Defence Ministry says it struck military airfields, arms plants and logistics sites.

What happened

Russia launched a large missile and drone attack across Ukraine overnight into Thursday, 30 July. Officials said Russia fired dozens of missiles, many of them ballistic, and hundreds of attack drones in the overnight assault. Ukrainian officials put the toll at at least eight civilians killed and dozens injured. In Radushne, a village southeast of Kryvyi Rih, one missile destroyed the home of the Voronov family: the head of the city's defence council reported six dead and eight injured, and rescuers recovered the parents and four of their children from the rubble. A strike on Lviv injured at least 26 people and damaged more than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens, while Kyiv's emergency service reported one person killed, two injured and fires in two districts. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces hit military airfields, arms plants and military communications and logistics facilities in Kyiv, Lviv and five regions.

The view from outside

Outlets outside the war report the strike mainly through the North Korean angle. Reuters, carried by the South China Morning Post and Daily Sabah, cites a military source who says this would be the first use of a North Korean missile in the war since August, pointing to a fresh stock available to Moscow. Daily Sabah, using AP material, frames the barrage as Moscow exploiting Kyiv's shortage of Western anti-ballistic defences, with US interceptor stocks drained by the Iran war.

What could happen next

What is new since Thursday morning is the attribution: Zelensky said in his evening address that preliminary data pointed to a North Korean missile at Radushne, while the city's defence council head had earlier described the weapon as a Russian Iskander-M. Investigators are still examining fragments at the site, and the Russian Defence Ministry has spoken only of military targets. Poland is assessing a 10-metre crater in a field 80 kilometres from the Ukrainian border that it says was likely caused by a Russian missile. Zelensky, who met Trump in Washington on Tuesday, 28 July, says Ukraine now needs air defence missiles rather than condemnation.

How the camps see it

  • Russia: The Defence Ministry says the massive strike hit only military targets, and state agency TASS argues the Lviv plants LDARZ and LORTA, which make engines for Flamingo cruise missiles and electronics for Neptune missiles, were listed as strategic enterprises.

  • Ukraine: Kyiv says Russia struck residential areas in ten regions, killing a family of six in Radushne with what Zelensky calls a North Korean ballistic missile, and demands air defence missiles rather than sympathy.

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