This week, fierce fighting continued to rage on the eastern fronts. Russia unleashed massive missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and towns far behind the front lines, targeting in particular the country’s energy facilities. Early in the week, Ukraine struck an air base in Russia’s Kursk region with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles. The strike appears to have hit some parts of the S-400 air defense system stationed at the airfield. Later in the week, Ukraine reportedly attacked the Belbek air base in Crimea.
Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the invasion, Reuters said. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian military’s rate of advance has notably increased since fall 2024, but media reports comparing recent Russian gains to those at the start of the invasion mischaracterize the gradual and tactical nature of Russia’s advances.
Russia launched 188 drones at Ukraine overnight on Tuesday, marking the highest number ever deployed in a single attack. On Thursday, Russia unleashed 188 missiles and drones in a major attack on Ukraine’s energy grid. Emergency power cuts were implemented across the country, and more customers had their existing schedule of rolling power cuts intensified in the aftermath of the strikes. On Thursday, Putin threatened to use the Oreshnik missile to hit “decision-making centers in Kyiv”.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution asking NATO governments to advance Ukraine’s path to the membership in the alliance. The Economist put the number of Ukrainian troops killed since the invasion at 60,000-100,000.
Ukraine shoots down 88 of 132 Russian drones launched overnight. Ukraine’s Air Force said in a statement that, of 132 drones launched against the country overnight, it had downed 88 drones, while 41 disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. One more drone returned to Russia.
Russia began the attack at around 6:30 p.m. local time on Thursday. The drones were launched from Oryol, Millerovo, Kursk, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia. The intercepts took place over the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Zhytomyr, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
The drone attack on Odesa damaged 13 residential buildings and injured seven people. In Kyiv, falling drone debris struck buildings in two Kyiv districts and injured one person. Russian drone strikes have become a nightly occurrence in the north and east of the country, including in the capital, Kyiv.
