Kyiv: Russia could have removed Ukrainian engines from Cyclone rockets and sent them to North Korea
There are between 7 and 20 Cyclone-2 and Cyclone-3 rockets with Ukrainian RD-250 engines in Russia, and it is likely that these are the engines that Ukraine is accused of supplying to North Korea, stated the Chairman of the State Space Agency, Yuri Radchenko.
“According to operational information, Russia currently has between 7 and 20 Cyclone-2 and Cyclone-3 missiles, which have these engines (RD-250). There is documentation,” he said.
According to him, these engines were previously manufactured in Ukraine and delivered to the Russian Federation as part of missiles in accordance with the Russian space program.
At the same time, the head of the State Space Agency noted that Ukraine now has no way to produce and supply such engines.
Radchenko did not rule out the possibility that the engines in North Korea could have come from Russia.
“Among manufactured products, they [the Russians] can supply these engines to anyone. This possibility has not been discounted, given the relationship between Russia and North Korea,” he stressed.
On August 14, the website of the American daily newspaper The New York Times published an article entitled “North Korea's Missile Success Is Linked to Ukrainian Plant, Investigators Say”. The article, citing as a source a study by Michael Elleman from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said that North Korea’s recent successes in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile “were made possible through the purchase of powerful missile engines on the black market, probably from the Ukrainian plant, which has historical links to the Russian missile program.”