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Strikes across the border before Christmas 2024
Summary
A look back at the exchange of long-range attacks and the British training proposal in the days leading up to 24 December 2024.
What did the days before 24 December 2024 show about the direction of the war? Three developments, reported between 19 and 21 December, pointed to a conflict in which both sides were striking deep beyond the front line, while Ukraine's partners discussed deeper support.
Strikes 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, as reported at the time.
The same day, a Ukrainian missile strike in 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 matter at the United Nations Security Council.
On 21 December, at least seven Ukrainian drones struck Kazan, Russia. Six of them reportedly hit residential areas, including a 32-storey apartment building.
Taken together, these reports show attacks reaching civilian areas in both countries within a span of two days, and reaching a Russian city well away from the border region.
A British proposal
On 19 December, British defence secretary John Healey announced a proposal to send military advisers to train Ukrainian forces. It was a further sign of the United Kingdom's military backing for Ukraine, which, as later described, continued across Conservative and Labour governments after the invasion began on 24 February 2022.
What the pattern suggests
The sequence matters mainly for its breadth. Kryvyi Rih, a city that had been repeatedly struck by Russian forces during the war, was hit again alongside Kyiv. Russian officials, for their part, sought to bring the Rylsk strike before the UN Security Council, turning a battlefield event into a diplomatic one.
Meanwhile, the British training proposal concerned preparing Ukrainian troops rather than any single strike. Set beside the reports of attacks, it showed support for Ukraine being discussed in parallel with the continuing exchange of fire.
By 24 December 2024, then, the picture was of a war with no pause for the holiday period: missiles and drones crossing the border in both directions, civilians among the casualties on each side, and Ukraine's partners considering how to strengthen its forces.
