Zelenskyy warns Putin is preparing for escalation by bringing in North Korean military equipment

JUST IN: Zelenskyy warns Putin is preparing for escalation, ramping up ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment and preparing mobilization, and urges more sanctions and air defense, after overnight Russian strikes killed six in Zaporizhzhia and three more in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

North Korean ballistic missiles hit Zaporizhzhia. Six dead, nineteen wounded.

That was Monday night. By morning, strikes on Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk had killed three more. And Zelenskyy — here he is — says this is the pattern, not the exception. His words: Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation. Ramped-up missile production, North Korean equipment coming in, mobilization plans on the table.

His ask is the same one he's been making for months — more sanctions on the firms feeding Russia's war machine, and more air defense. Because right now Ukraine leans hard on American Patriots to stop ballistic missiles, and Trump cast doubt last month on letting Kyiv build them at home. Kyiv officials are openly worried about what a winter assault looks like without them.

So watch the interceptors. New Patriot deliveries or production rights announced for Ukraine within a month.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cnbc.com