What you need to know about Russia’s hypersonic missiles
Russia launched six hypersonic missiles in the barrage of missiles and drones it unleashed across Ukraine early Thursday, the Ukrainian military said and Russia’s defense ministry confirmed.
Moscow first fired the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles on Ukraine last March and have used them several times since. Ukrainian officials say their air defenses are unable to stop them. In January, Ukrainian officials blamed one of the missiles for the deadly strike on a residential building in Dnipro that killed at least 46 people.
Arms specialists and the U.S. and U.K. governments have downplayed Russia’s hypersonic abilities — and the degree to which their use on the battlefield matters.
What are these missiles? Read more here.
Russia launched six hypersonic missiles in the barrage of missiles and drones it unleashed across Ukraine early Thursday, the Ukrainian military said and Russia’s defense ministry confirmed.
Moscow first fired the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles on Ukraine last March and have used them several times since. Ukrainian officials say their air defenses are unable to stop them. In January, Ukrainian officials blamed one of the missiles for the deadly strike on a residential building in Dnipro that killed at least 46 people.
Arms specialists and the U.S. and U.K. governments have downplayed Russia’s hypersonic abilities — and the degree to which their use on the battlefield matters.
What are these missiles? Read more here.
Traumatic stress, an invisible wound, hobbles Ukrainian soldiers
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — After more than a year of war, Ukrainian soldiers are experiencing intense symptoms of psychological stress, including nightmares, poor sleep, guilt, anxiety and panic attacks, according to interviews with troops across Ukraine and psychologists treating them. Some soldiers have turned their weapons on themselves, dying by suicide. Others are suffering quietly in hospitals and on military bases, during visits home and on the front lines, where they face a constant threat of Russian attacks even as their symptoms are triggered or worsened by concussions from artillery shelling.
The problem is debilitating, widespread and excruciatingly difficult to treat in a country that is under constant threat of attack. Although often invisible, widespread fatigue and mental trauma among soldiers is yet another difficult challenge Ukraine’s military must confront.
Read the full story here.
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — After more than a year of war, Ukrainian soldiers are experiencing intense symptoms of psychological stress, including nightmares, poor sleep, guilt, anxiety and panic attacks, according to interviews with troops across Ukraine and psychologists treating them. Some soldiers have turned their weapons on themselves, dying by suicide. Others are suffering quietly in hospitals and on military bases, during visits home and on the front lines, where they face a constant threat of Russian attacks even as their symptoms are triggered or worsened by concussions from artillery shelling.
The problem is debilitating, widespread and excruciatingly difficult to treat in a country that is under constant threat of attack. Although often invisible, widespread fatigue and mental trauma among soldiers is yet another difficult challenge Ukraine’s military must confront.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukraine’s military warned Friday that the threat of a Russian missile attack remains high, a day after the Kremlin launched a barrage of missiles and confirmed its use of hypersonic weapons.
- Ukraine’s battle for Bakhmut is “exceeding its key tasks,” including draining Russian resources ahead of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive, said an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The United States believes Russia is seeking to weaken Moldova’s government with the “eventual goal” of producing a pro-Moscow administration, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, told reporters in a briefing Friday.
- Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin made a surprise visit Friday to Kyiv, where she met with Zelensky and visited a military hospital. “Ukraine needs both humanitarian and financial support, and above all, weapons and heavier armament,” she said at a news conference.
More live updates here.
- Ukraine’s military warned Friday that the threat of a Russian missile attack remains high, a day after the Kremlin launched a barrage of missiles and confirmed its use of hypersonic weapons.
- Ukraine’s battle for Bakhmut is “exceeding its key tasks,” including draining Russian resources ahead of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive, said an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The United States believes Russia is seeking to weaken Moldova’s government with the “eventual goal” of producing a pro-Moscow administration, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, told reporters in a briefing Friday.
- Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin made a surprise visit Friday to Kyiv, where she met with Zelensky and visited a military hospital. “Ukraine needs both humanitarian and financial support, and above all, weapons and heavier armament,” she said at a news conference.
More live updates here.
Russia’s hypersonic missile attack on Ukraine highlights Western vulnerability
Russia fired a half-dozen of its rare Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, part of a broader barrage that killed six people and which the Russian Defense Ministry described as revenge for an incursion into western Russia last week by a far-right Russian nationalist group fighting for Ukraine.
The use of the Kinzhals raised questions about the potential waste of some of Russia’s most expensive weaponry in an attack that appeared to make no difference in the trajectory of the war.
“The electricity was lost for several hours in a number of Ukrainian cities and trains were late,” Grey Zone, a Telegram channel associated with Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, noted sardonically.
Russia’s use of the hypersonic missiles renewed alarm over the Kremlin’s arsenal, and it highlighted that Putin has difficult-to-intercept, nuclear-capable weapons that the United States and its allies do not possess.
Read the full story here.
Russia fired a half-dozen of its rare Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at Ukraine on Thursday, part of a broader barrage that killed six people and which the Russian Defense Ministry described as revenge for an incursion into western Russia last week by a far-right Russian nationalist group fighting for Ukraine.
The use of the Kinzhals raised questions about the potential waste of some of Russia’s most expensive weaponry in an attack that appeared to make no difference in the trajectory of the war.
“The electricity was lost for several hours in a number of Ukrainian cities and trains were late,” Grey Zone, a Telegram channel associated with Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, noted sardonically.
Russia’s use of the hypersonic missiles renewed alarm over the Kremlin’s arsenal, and it highlighted that Putin has difficult-to-intercept, nuclear-capable weapons that the United States and its allies do not possess.
Read the full story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
In Kharkiv, power has been returned to critical infrastructure and 65 percent of consumers have electricity, the regional governor said Friday. But in the northwestern city of Zhytomyr, things are “still not easy,” Zelensky noted in his nightly address.
Zelensky and thousands of Ukrainians on Friday mourned Jr. Lt. Dmytro “Da Vinci” Kotsiubailo, who was killed by Russians near Bakhmut this week. The 27-year-old was the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian army and had fought Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
Kyiv ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery where its headquarters is located. Ukraine’s culture minister said on Telegram that the church — which only recently declared independence from the pro-war Moscow Patriarch — “violated the terms of the agreement regarding the use of state property.”
Read more updates
In Kharkiv, power has been returned to critical infrastructure and 65 percent of consumers have electricity, the regional governor said Friday. But in the northwestern city of Zhytomyr, things are “still not easy,” Zelensky noted in his nightly address.
Zelensky and thousands of Ukrainians on Friday mourned Jr. Lt. Dmytro “Da Vinci” Kotsiubailo, who was killed by Russians near Bakhmut this week. The 27-year-old was the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian army and had fought Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
Kyiv ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery where its headquarters is located. Ukraine’s culture minister said on Telegram that the church — which only recently declared independence from the pro-war Moscow Patriarch — “violated the terms of the agreement regarding the use of state property.”
Read more updates
In race to arm Ukraine, U.S. faces cracks in its manufacturing might
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, one of a network of facilities involved in producing the U.S. Army’s 155-mm artillery round, is ground zero for the Biden administration’s scramble to accelerate the supply of weapons that Ukraine needs if its military is to prevail in the war with Russia.
The Pentagon’s plan for scaling up production of the shells over the next two years marks a breakthrough in the effort to quench Ukraine’s thirst for weapons. But the conflict has laid bare deep-seated problems that the United States must surmount to effectively manufacture the arms required not just to aid its allies but also for America’s self-defense should conflict erupt with Russia, China or another major power.
Read the full story here.
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, one of a network of facilities involved in producing the U.S. Army’s 155-mm artillery round, is ground zero for the Biden administration’s scramble to accelerate the supply of weapons that Ukraine needs if its military is to prevail in the war with Russia.
The Pentagon’s plan for scaling up production of the shells over the next two years marks a breakthrough in the effort to quench Ukraine’s thirst for weapons. But the conflict has laid bare deep-seated problems that the United States must surmount to effectively manufacture the arms required not just to aid its allies but also for America’s self-defense should conflict erupt with Russia, China or another major power.
Read the full story here.
To see Russia’s secret antiwar art: Meet at a bus stop. At dark. Phones off.
ST. PETERSBURG — The meeting place to visit the exhibition is an anonymous bus stop opposite a snowy park in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg at nightfall. There are no tickets and no website promoting the show — a secret, underground display of antiwar protest art.
A few people gather. A thin artist nods subtly and tells us to turn off our cellphones to avoid tracking by security agents.
Amid President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, Russian antiwar artists are going underground, reprising the covert exhibitions of Soviet times, meeting in secret and passing on details by word of mouth.
For some, going underground is liberating. For others it is a painful choice, as the regime stifles public dissent and portrays the war as an existential battle for Russia’s survival that only traitors oppose.
Read the full story here.
ST. PETERSBURG — The meeting place to visit the exhibition is an anonymous bus stop opposite a snowy park in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg at nightfall. There are no tickets and no website promoting the show — a secret, underground display of antiwar protest art.
A few people gather. A thin artist nods subtly and tells us to turn off our cellphones to avoid tracking by security agents.
Amid President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, Russian antiwar artists are going underground, reprising the covert exhibitions of Soviet times, meeting in secret and passing on details by word of mouth.
For some, going underground is liberating. For others it is a painful choice, as the regime stifles public dissent and portrays the war as an existential battle for Russia’s survival that only traitors oppose.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukrainian forces are “doing everything possible” to fend off a new Russian push to break through defense lines, according to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview published by an Italian newspaper that Ukrainian troops were “exceeding” their goals to reduce Russia’s “capable personnel as much as possible” and to bog them down in “wearisome battles.”
- Energy workers were restoring power after Thursday’s missile barrage hit critical infrastructure. Electricity utility Energoatom said on Telegram that electricity had been restored in Kyiv on Saturday.
- Kyiv has ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery where its headquarters is located. Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Telegram that the church — which recently declared independence from the pro-war Moscow Patriarch — “violated the terms of the agreement regarding the use of state property.”
More live updates here.
- Ukrainian forces are “doing everything possible” to fend off a new Russian push to break through defense lines, according to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview published by an Italian newspaper that Ukrainian troops were “exceeding” their goals to reduce Russia’s “capable personnel as much as possible” and to bog them down in “wearisome battles.”
- Energy workers were restoring power after Thursday’s missile barrage hit critical infrastructure. Electricity utility Energoatom said on Telegram that electricity had been restored in Kyiv on Saturday.
- Kyiv has ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery where its headquarters is located. Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Telegram that the church — which recently declared independence from the pro-war Moscow Patriarch — “violated the terms of the agreement regarding the use of state property.”
More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
—The head of Ukraine’s armed forces renewed Kyiv’s call for better air defenses during a telephone call with the Pentagon’s top general, Mark A. Milley, after Russia fired a deadly barrage of hypersonic missiles.
—On the front lines in Bakhmut, Russian fighters have taken control of most of the eastern part of the besieged city in recent days, British defense officials said, while Ukrainian forces are holding their ground on the west.
—Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is apparently embarking on a new recruitment drive aimed at transforming it into a “hard line ideological elite parallel military organization,” according to analysts at the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.
More live updates.
—The head of Ukraine’s armed forces renewed Kyiv’s call for better air defenses during a telephone call with the Pentagon’s top general, Mark A. Milley, after Russia fired a deadly barrage of hypersonic missiles.
—On the front lines in Bakhmut, Russian fighters have taken control of most of the eastern part of the besieged city in recent days, British defense officials said, while Ukrainian forces are holding their ground on the west.
—Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is apparently embarking on a new recruitment drive aimed at transforming it into a “hard line ideological elite parallel military organization,” according to analysts at the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War.
More live updates.