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Strikes across the border line, 20–21 December 2024
Summary
A look back at cross-border attacks reported in the days before 22 December 2024, in Russia and Ukraine.
What did the exchange of strikes look like on 22 December 2024, and what had happened in the two days before it? Reports from 20 and 21 December described attacks on civilian areas on both sides of the border.
On 20 December, Russian missile strikes on civilian infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih and Kyiv killed at least one person and injured eight others. Kryvyi Rih had already been subjected to a series of artillery attacks and air raids during the war.
The same day, a Ukrainian missile strike on Rylsk, in Russia's Kursk Oblast, killed six people and injured 10, according to acting Kursk Oblast governor Alexander Khinshtein. Russia said it would raise the strike at the United Nations Security Council. The strike came during the 2024 Kursk offensive.
On 21 December, at least seven Ukrainian drones struck Kazan, Russia. Six of them reportedly hit residential areas, including a 32-storey apartment building.
What the pattern showed
Taken together, the reports from 20 and 21 December show attacks reaching residential and civilian areas in both countries: Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine, and Rylsk and Kazan in Russia. Kazan was a long way from the front line, and the Rylsk strike was the one Russia said it would take to the Security Council.
As of 22 December 2024, those were the most recent reported incidents, and the diplomatic step announced by Moscow was the one concrete response on record.
