russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 has now lasted longer than the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany, which followed Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, thereby breaking Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union’s non-aggression pact. Ethnic Ukrainians constituted a significant proportion of the Soviet Union’s Red Army in the Second World War, according to the UK Defense Intelligence.
Ukraine’s incursion into russia’s Kursk border region in August 2024 is the first time since the Second World War that foreign troops have conducted operations on russian territory.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence: russia’s Prison Army Comes Home with Deadly Consequences
Ukrainian forces highly likely continue to conduct limited kinetic operations in Kursk.
Illustrative image / Photo credit: The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Russian leadership false rhetoric and frequent allegations of Ukrainian Nazism prior to, and since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, seeks to influence russian military personnel and the domestic population into participation in, and support for, russia’s war in Ukraine.
It seeks to take advantage of the deep historical and psychological impact of russia’s war with Nazi Germany to foster perceptions of Ukraine and Ukrainians as a threat, thereby justifying the invasion. Such narratives have been supported and proliferated by russian state-controlled media.
As Defense Express previously reported, on the evening of January 8, 2026, russia targeted Lviv, Ukraine, with the second operational use of an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), codenamed Oreshnik, launched from the Kapustin Yar test range in Astrakhan region, russia.
The missile travelled approximately 1622 km to its target.
Debris of the Oreshnik missile system / Photo credit: The Security Service of Ukraine
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence Analyzes Second Combat Use of Oreshnik IRBM Against Ukraine