At Least 6 Dead After New Ukrainian HIMARS Attack On Russian Town
Cross-border tit-for-tat missile exchanges between Russian and Ukraine are really accelerating fast, and growing in size with each wave. On Friday, Ukraine's military pummeled southern Russia with US-made weapons for the second consecutive day.
"Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk Region on Friday, killing six people, including a child, and injuring ten others," the acting governor of the region Aleksandr Khinshtein announced. He said further according to state media sources that Ukrainian forces had used US-made HIMARS missiles.
The US has been supplying these shorter range missiles to Ukraine since the opening six months of the war, in 2022. But it was only on Thursday that Ukraine used the longer-range ATACMS on southern Rostov region. These attacks really do nothing strategically in terms of advancing battlefield gains or objectives, but are ultra risky.
The new Friday HIMARS attack also destroyed civilian infrastructure, including schools, the regional governor's statement further indicated. Rylsk is merely some 30km from the Ukrainian border, with a population around 15,000.
Khinshtein in a social media video accused Kiev’s forces of "deliberately choosing civilian facilities [and] social facilities as their targets."
Further details were reviewed by one independent regional media source as follows:
Media reports indicate that dozens of buildings were damaged in the strike. Khinshtein detailed that the attack caused damage to the buildings of two local colleges, a cultural center, a gym complex, a school, and other facilities. Windows were shattered in three apartment buildings, while several private homes and 15 vehicles were also damaged. The blast wave reportedly damaged the Church of the Ascension, according to a church employee who spoke to state media.
At the time of publication, neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ General Staff have commented on the incident. However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that Russia plans to address the missile strikes on Rylsk at a UN Security Council meeting on December 21. The Russian Investigative Committee reported that it had opened a criminal terrorism case over the strike.
Six dead after Ukrainian strikes using US-made HIMARS
— sonja van den ende (@SonjaEnde) December 20, 2024
on the town of Rylsk by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 26 injured. A teacher training college, a bus station, a school, and a cultural center were damaged in the strike, according to local reports. pic.twitter.com/H6C8Yukjo4
Russia's retaliation has also been ongoing and has been deadly... On Friday major Russian missile barrages have targeted the capital of Kiev. At least one person was killed in the attack, which also damaged a number of foreign embassies. A dozen other people were injured in these strikes.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said that the Albanian, Argentinian, North Macedonian, Palestinian, Portuguese and Montenegrin embassies were damaged in the attack. It appears they were all housed in one large building.
Russia could step of these attacks on the Ukrainian capital, which until recently have remained somewhat rare. It seems like assaults on Russia with US/UK-made long-range weapons are definitely growing in pace with just weeks to go before Trump enters the White House.