Russia and Ukraine exchange drone and missile attacks.

Following a week of escalating rhetoric during which Russia tested a new missile on Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine exchanged airstrikes. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has launched about 1,500 strikes on Ukraine since Sunday night, targeting roughly half of the country’s regions and injuring scores of people.

 The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, reported that it had hit targets in the Bryansk and Kursk border regions as well as a significant oil facility south of Moscow. Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time during a week of war escalation that culminated in Russia’s launch of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

According to reports, in response to Moscow’s deployment of North Korean forces, US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to employ longer-range Atacms missiles against targets within Russia. Oleh Synehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, reported that a missile strike on the city had injured 23 persons and that rescue efforts were underway.

He said the attack was carried out using an S-400 missile. Ten people were hurt in a missile strike that damaged residential structures, schools, and a university sports hall, according to Odesa’s emergency department. Three further persons were hurt in strikes in the Kherson region, according to regional officials, and one each in the Zaporizhzhya and Chernihiv regions.

The Ukrainian military reported that they used drones to attack the Kaluganefteprodukt oil depot in the Kaluga region, southeast of Moscow, throughout the course of the night. According to sources who spoke to Ukrainian media, the strike resulted in a fire and many explosions at the location. The Russian military has not responded to the attack, but Vladislav Shapsha, the regional governor, said that “a fire on the territory of an industrial enterprise” was sparked by drone debris that was shot down by air defenses. He stated that a total of eight drones were destroyed. Without identifying the targets, Ukraine’s military also reported attacks in the Bryansk and Kursk districts.

However, Russian military bloggers claimed that eight Atacms missiles provided by the US had attacked the Khalino air base in the Kursk region. North Korean troops are reportedly present in this area, which limits US authorization for the use of the Atacms. They are believed to be part of a Russian effort to expel Ukrainian forces from a tiny portion of the Kursk region that they unexpectedly took in the fall. Russia’s defense ministry did not specify where it fired down the eight ballistic missiles that came from Ukraine.

In an attempt to create challenging circumstances as winter draws near, Russian soldiers have also started striking Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Before Donald Trump takes office as US president in January and tries to put an end to the war, both nations are currently attempting to gain a military edge. He has promised to put an end to the battle in a matter of hours, but he has not said how.