The two sides were locked in a battle for control of Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region where Ukraine says Russia has assembled 170,000 troops.
Since the summer, Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has ramped up dramatically, pounding infrastructure across Russia and testing Moscow’s air defenses.
President Trump has called for Russia and Ukraine to “stop where they are” and quit fighting after concluding talks in Washington Friday with Zelenskyy.
Russia is selling military equipment and tech to China that could help Beijing prepare an airborne takeover of Taiwan, according to a U.K. defense forum.
Russia used the previous “Zapad,” or “West” in Russian, training in September 2021 to deploy the forces that eventually invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The Pentagon confirmed Russia’s missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile.