Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov claimed, without evidence, on Friday, Nov. 22, that Moscow’s forces have “ground down” Kyiv’s best military units and “derailed” Ukraine’s military objectives for 2025.
The claim came hours after Russian President Putin announced that he’d launched Russia’s “experimental hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile” named Oreshnik at Ukraine in an address late on Thursday, Nov. 21.
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In the same address, Putin acknowledged that his war on Ukraine had taken on a global nature. Russia has often framed its invasion of Ukraine not just as a war against Ukraine but as a war against the collective West.
During a meeting at the command post of Russia’s North group of troops, Belousov listened to a report on the latest gains of Russia’s invading troops.
Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, commander of the group, briefed the minister on tactical operations involving aviation, artillery, drones, and NATO-supplied weaponry captured from Ukrainian forces.
"We have, in fact, derailed the entire 2025 campaign," Belousov said of the Ukrainian army in a video published by the Russian defence ministry.
Russia launched an ICBM missile at Ukraine in the early hours Thursday – on the anniversary of Ukraine’s Euromaidan democratic protests – apparently targeting an aerospace manufacturing plant in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro and sparked immediate condemnation from Kyiv’s allies.
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China, a Russian ally, called for “restraint” from “all parties.”
“Create conditions for an early ceasefire,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s strike, calling for a united global response and saying that Russia’s increased missile and drone attacks, plus launch of an ICBM at Ukraine prove it “does not want peace.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz labeled the deployment of the missile a “terrible escalation,” while NATO has scheduled emergency talks with Ukraine next week in Brussels to address the incident.
Rising Tensions
Tensions between Moscow and Ukraine’s Western allies have escalated since the arrival of North Korean troops in support of Russia and increased Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
In response, Washington has greenlit Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike military targets on Russian territory.
A Ukrainian attack with an ATACMS missiles on a Russian ammunitions depot, carried out on Tuesday, came after US President Joe Biden gave permission for Ukraine to launch such strikes at military targets in Russia for the first time.
Washington is also set to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel landmines to bolster its defenses against Russian forces.
On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for deploying nuclear weapons, a decision swiftly condemned by Western nations as “irresponsible.”
With just two months left in his term, Biden is intensifying support for Ukraine’s military efforts before the transition to Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the war quickly – potentially by withdrawing support from Ukraine, takes place in January.
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