Russia just gave North Korea its fastest attack drone technology
1 hour ago · 4 October 2026Share
A Shahed-131 kamikaze drone retrieved by the U.S. military. File photo. U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency · Public domain
Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia just handed North Korea the tech behind its newest attack drones.
He said it a few hours ago in Kyiv, standing next to Friedrich Merz, Germany's Chancellor, who was there to announce new aid for Ukraine.
A journalist asked him straight out. Did Russia share its latest jet-drone technology with North Korea?
Zelensky says quote "Yes, of course".
That's Ukraine's president answering that question in three words, on the record, at a press conference.
And he kept going.
Zelensky says quote "They're sharing with North Korea all the technologies."
He said he wasn't sure about ballistic missile technology specifically. But he thinks it's likely. Why? Because North Korea has been helping Russia with missiles.
So let's be precise about what this actually is.
Zelensky isn't saying Ukraine has proof. He's saying he believes it, and he's told you exactly why he believes it.
Now, the drones themselves.
They're called Geran. Russia's version of Iran's Shahed drone, except these ones have jet engines instead of propellers.
The Geran-4 flies up to 500 kilometres an hour. The Geran-5 flies up to 600.
And that speed is the whole problem for Ukraine.
A slow propeller drone can get shot down by a machine gun on the back of a pickup truck. Or chased down by a small FPV drone.
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The Korean Peninsula divides Korea Bay and the Yellow Sea from the Sea of Japan, with the peninsula's mountainous terrain visible. File photo. Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC · Public domain
Something moving at 600 kilometres an hour gives you almost no time to do either.
He points to Iran. Early in the war, Iran gave Russia the technology to build its own Shahed drones. Later, when Iran came under attack from the US and Israel, Russia sent drones back to Iran.
Take the tech, build your own, then arm your ally. That's the pattern he says is repeating right now, with North Korea.
And North Korea's side of this is already well known.
It has sent Russia millions of artillery shells since early in the war. It has supplied ballistic missiles that Russia regularly fires at Ukrainian cities. And thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight alongside Russian troops.
This isn't the first warning Zelensky has given either.
A week before this press conference, he said Russia was about to bring in another 10,000 North Korean troops.
Around the same time, he said Russia plans to spend $12 billion next year building up its production of jet-powered drones and loitering munitions.
So what don't we know?
Zelensky hasn't said what evidence sits behind his belief. Nobody has said exactly what was handed over. And nobody has said whether North Korea plans to use this jet-drone technology against South Korea or anyone else nearby.
No Russian official has responded to the claim. North Korea hasn't said anything either.
At the same event, Germany announced a new aid package for Ukraine worth around $1.5 billion. Some of it is for drone interceptors. Which is a direct answer to exactly the threat Zelensky was describing.
If Zelensky is right, Ukraine's war is now exporting its newest weapons technology outward. To a country nowhere near the battlefield. In exchange for the missiles and troops that have been arriving the other way for two years.
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