Key developments on Nov. 21:
- Russia used new 'Oreshnik' intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine, Putin says
- Ukrainian UAVs reportedly strike Russian border regions, industrial facility hit
- Hungary deploys air defenses near Ukraine, cites war escalation after US allows strikes in Russia
- Russian troops suspected of executing Ukrainian POWs in Kursk Oblast, ombudsman says
- Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant faces 2nd blackout of the week after Russian attacks
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that during the Nov. 21 strike on Dnipro, Russia tested a new intermediate-range ballistic missile — Oreshnik (Hazel).
Russian forces launched a missile attack on the city earlier in the day, reportedly using a new type of ballistic missile. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the type of missile used in the strike.
Putin claimed Ukraine targeted facilities in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk oblasts with long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles on Nov. 19 and 20. In response, Russian forces launched a combined attack on a defense industry facility in Dnipro, according to the Russian president.
The Oreshnik missile is designed to carry nuclear weapons. However, Putin said it was not armed with a nuclear warhead in this instance.
Putin warned that Russia would use weapons against any country whose arms are used to strike Russian targets.
Putin claimed that the U.S. was allegedly planning to produce and deploy medium- and shorter-range missiles in Ukraine.
The Russian president also promised that he would warn Ukrainian civilians and citizens of other countries in advance to leave the area of possible weapons impact.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that Putin is using Ukraine as "a testing ground" by launching missiles at Ukrainian cities.
The recent attack against damaged an industrial enterprise, two houses, and nine garages and caused two fires, said Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak. A rehabilitation center for people with disabilities was also damaged, Mayor Borys Filatov said.
Two people were injured in the strike.
Chris York
Ukrainian UAVs reportedly strike Russian border regions, industrial facility hit
Russian authorities reported Ukrainian drone strikes against the border regions of Rostov and Voronezh on Nov. 21, claiming that an industrial facility had been hit.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that its forces intercepted two drones over the two regions, making no mention of possible damage or whether some of the drones slipped through the defenses.
Yuri Slyusar, the acting governor of Rostov Oblast, said on his Telegram channel that a fire broke out at an industrial facility in the central Konstantinovsky district because of a "drone crash."
Slyusar claimed that firefighters quickly extinguished the fire. The type of the facility and the full extent of damage were not specified.
Another drone was reportedly downed in Rostov Oblast's Myasnikovsky district, inflicting no damage. No casualties were reported.
The airport in the city of Volgograd, lying northeast of Rostov Oblast, temporarily suspended operations due to safety concerns, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) reported.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify all of the claims.
Kyiv launches regular drone strikes against Russian territory, targeting military and industrial facilities to undermine Russia's war effort in Ukraine.
Two industrial facilities – including a factory producing cargo drones for the Russian military – and a military arsenal were allegedly hit during drone attacks overnight on Nov. 20.
Hungary deploys air defenses near Ukraine, cites war escalation after US allows strikes in Russia
Hungary is deploying air defense systems near the Ukrainian border, citing increased risks after the West allowed the use of long-range weapons inside Russian territory, Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Nov. 20.
The minister ordered the deployment of air defense systems in the country's northeastern regions, saying that "the war has entered its most dangerous phase."
Szalay-Bobrovniczky attributed this escalation namely to the easing of restrictions on Ukrainian strikes with Western arms and linked it to Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval of an updated nuclear doctrine.
This decision comes after two Russian missiles were shot down on Nov. 17 in Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine's westernmost region bordering Hungary and home to an estimated 75,000 ethnic Hungarians.
On that occasion, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that it was necessary to "strengthen efforts to bring peace" as "each day brings with it the risk of escalating war."
Budapest has consistently criticized and obstructed Western military support for Ukraine, claiming it would lead to an escalation, and has maintained warm ties with Moscow throughout the full-scale war.
Previously, Russian drones and missiles launched during strikes on Ukraine have crossed into the airspace of other countries, namely Poland, Latvia, Romania, Moldova, and Belarus.
The latest development in Hungary follows a series of increasingly strong resolutions by Ukraine's Western allies.
After U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged that the Biden administration would bolster support for Kyiv before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, President Joe Biden on Nov. 17 allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.
Ukraine reportedly used ATACMS missiles to strike a Russian military arsenal in Bryansk Oblast on Nov. 19 and allegedly also used U.K.-supplied Storm Shadow on Nov. 20, marking the first instance of these weapons being used on Russian soil.
Other Western allies have expressed their position on their own supplied weapons.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Nov. 18 that Paris "remained open" to allowing Ukraine to use French long-range missiles to strike military targets inside Russia, reported Le Monde.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that she "understands" the U.S. response to Russia, but Rome makes a "different choice" and focuses on air defenses for Ukraine.
Boldizsar Gyori
Russian troops suspected of executing Ukrainian POWs in Kursk Oblast, ombudsman says
Russian forces are suspected of summarily executing a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported on Nov. 20.
Lubinets said that the prisoners were "surrounded" but gave no other details, in particular on the number of victims.
Reports of murders, torture, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian POWs are received regularly by Ukrainian authorities and have spiked in recent months.
"I have sent letters to the U.N. and the ICRC about this crime," Lubinets said, reporting the suspected crime on his Telegram channel.
"The international community must act immediately. The occupying country has once again violated the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war," he added.
The Armyinform news outlet ties this announcement to a video taken by a drone camera purporting to show the execution.
It shows 10 unarmed people lying on the ground with at least five armed men standing over them. At one point, they start shooting at the people on the ground.
Heavy fighting has been ongoing in the Russian border region of Kursk since Ukraine launched an offensive there in early August.
Earlier the same day, the Prosecutor General's Office announced another shooting of captured Ukrainian military personnel by Russian troops in the Pokrovsk area in Ukraine.
Former Prosecutor General Kostin on Oct. 15 called the killing of captured Ukrainian service members in captivity a "deliberate policy of the Russian Federation."
The execution of prisoners of war constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Convention.
Russian forces had executed at least 124 Ukrainian prisoners of war since 2022 as of Nov. 6, authorities said at the time, while the number continues to grow. On top of that, at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners have died in Russian captivity, according to a representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Kateryna Hodunova
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant faces 2nd blackout of the week after Russian attacks
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is on the verge of a blackout after Russian attacks on power lines left the plant connected to only one line, the Energy Ministry reported on Nov. 21.
This is the second time this week that the plant has been seriously threatened by a blackout, which could compromise conditions for safe operation and cause an accident.
At the moment, the plant is connected to the Ukrainian power grid by only one transmission line.
Similar incidents have been reported throughout the full-scale war, with Kyiv accusing Russia of threatening the security of the plant. Russia has occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear station in Europe, since March 2022.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed that if the last line is cut off, there will be a complete blackout, as reported by the Energy Ministry's Telegram channel.
The Zaporizhzhia plant is not the only one causing concern.
The Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, and Southern Ukrainian plants were forced to decrease output on Nov. 17 after a massive Russian aerial strike targeted several substations critical to their power supply.
Greenpeace warned that Ukraine's power grid was at "heightened risk of catastrophic failure" after the mass missile and drone attack targeted the electrical substations.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, confirmed in a statement on Nov. 17 that Ukraine's nuclear power plants had to reduce their electricity production as a precautionary measure due to large-scale missile attacks.
The attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure led to "increased nuclear safety and security risks," Grossi agreed.
Allowing Ukraine to regain control "is the only way to ensure the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," Halushchenko said.
Andrea Januta
