The last month has seen the fiercest exchange of missile attacks between Russia and Ukraine in more than four years of war. Russia now fires ballistic missiles at Kyiv and other major centres virtually unopposed. Meanwhile, Ukraine has hugely accelerated long-range attacks on oil refineries, strategic stores including the warehouses of online retailer Wildberries, as well as on Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
On Sunday night, in an attack lasting several hours, Ukrainian drones hit industrial sites in Tatartestan, over 600 miles (965km) inside Russia’s borders, where a huge fire erupted in the major refinery at Nizhnekamsk, killing 13 people, according to reports.
Even so, the war is in dynamic impasse, with a huge amount of killing and damage on either side with little to show for it. Russia now looks to be trying to shake that up, and we should all be worried.
Shorts
In the past week, Vladimir Putin has announced a change in the command of the Russian armed forces, urging the new field commanders to get the job done to seize the whole of Donetsk by the end of the year. He has told the new men, generals Andrei Ivanayev and Pyotr Bolgarev, their task is “critical and high stakes”.
