The fronts of the Russia-Ukraine confrontation witnessed the most violent military escalation, represented by the exchange of intensive missile and air attacks across the border, coinciding with the introduction of a new type of tactical electronic warfare to counter hypersonic missiles.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Kyiv's recent field moves were in response to large-scale Russian strikes in which Moscow used Urshnik medium-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Ukrainian response and targeting of oil and fuel arteries
On the ground, Ukrainian forces have stepped up their attacks with missiles and drones on the border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, where shelling of Belgorod killed two people , according to Russian sources.
In a remarkable development, Ukraine's security service announced the execution of a drone attack that targeted a major oil distribution and pumping station in Russia's Vladimir region, noting that a massive fire broke out on an area of 800 square meters.
The strategic importance of this facility lies in the fact that it is the focal point for the pumping of oil products and the supply of key depots in the vicinity of the capital, Moscow, as well as securing jet fuel for the vital airports of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo.
The governor of the Yaroslavl region, northeast of Moscow, also said his region had been hit by Ukrainian drone attacks, while the governor of Vladimir confirmed that the Kamyshkovo fire had been extinguished, noting that only an infrastructure site had been damaged.
"Urshnik" missiles rain down on Kyiv, Russian ground advance
The Ukrainian response came after a harsh night in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and its surroundings, as a result of Russian shelling with hundreds of drones and missiles, including the launch of the "Urshnik" hypersonic missile.
According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian attack killed four people, wounded about 100 others, and damaged dozens of residential buildings and schools.
The missile is Russia's latest innovation, with a speed of 10 times the speed of sound, making it impossible to intercept conventional systems, according to Moscow.
Russia declares control of a new town
On the ground level, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced new field progress by liberating the town of "Dobrobasov" in the Dnipropetrovsk region, inflicting heavy losses on Ukrainian forces exceeding 445 military personnel in a single day in the "North" and "East" axes.
The Russian statement also confirmed that concentrated strikes were carried out on the structure of Ukrainian military airports and unmanned attack boat assembly sites.
Lima's Cyber System for the War of Disinformation
In the face of Russia's missile arsenal, media reports have revealed that Ukraine is increasingly resorting to the local Lima system in its electronic warfare to disrupt and change the trajectory of drones and long-range missiles.
According to Politico, the system developed by startup Cascade Systems works by interfering with weapon guidance systems and jamming and falsifying satellite navigation signals (GPS), as opposed to traditional defenses that rely on direct collision to destroy threats.
Blocking satellite signals forces Russian missiles to rely on autonomous navigation systems, deflecting their accuracy by about two kilometers for every 100 kilometers traveled, developers said. The Lima technology relies on preemptively falsifying coordinates several kilometers away, forcing smart missiles and drones to deflect completely and fall into open fields and land rather than hitting the country's military targets or critical infrastructure.
The economic cost equation for protecting cities
The Lima system is highly economical compared to the price of interceptor missiles, with a production cost of about 3 million hryvnias (about 58,000 euros) per unit. The developer asserts that the entire protection of a major city requires the deployment of between 30 and 100 tactical units, at a total cost of about 5 million euros, which is roughly equivalent to the value of just one American Patriot missile.
It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian military began integrating this intelligence system into its defense structure since July 2024 by receiving the first batch of 400 units, before the Ukrainian leadership decided to expand the scope of field deployments by October 2025 to include the security and protection of infrastructure and civilian facilities deep inside the country.