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On the night of January 12, Russian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 13 Ukrainian drones. The highest number was intercepted over the Rostov region. Simultaneously, the Ukrainian side reported intercepting or suppressing 135 out of 156 Russian attack UAVs. This daily exchange of strikes, now routine, occurs against the backdrop of the development of new weaponry and precision attacks on critical infrastructure.
The day before, attention was drawn to published information about the start of design work in the UK on an operational-tactical ballistic missile for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, codenamed Nightfall. The $12.1 million R&D contract is distributed among three industrial groups, one of which is presumably MBDA Missile Systems. According to data that emerged as early as August 2025, the project’s goal is to create a highly mobile missile system with a range exceeding 500 km (some reports say up to 600 km) and with low infrared and radar signatures.
Nightfall’s characteristics are close to the American PrSM: speed in the active phase of flight up to Mach 6.5–7, and in the terminal phase up to Mach 3.1–3.5; guidance is inertial with GPS correction for a circular error probable of about 5 meters. The missile can target air defense radars and moving naval targets. Development may utilize work from the Ukrainian Sapsan SRBM or the Fire Point LLC FP-9 ballistic missile, potentially modified from the 5V55R surface-to-air missile.
Russian military experts, however, note that intercepting such targets is theoretically possible today with existing air defense systems like the S-300V4, S-350 Vityaz, and Buk-M3, given proper echeloned deployment of air defense assets. Essentially, this would require adapting the counter-tactics already used against ATACMS, but over a significantly expanded area.
Parallel work is ongoing on the Ukrainian missile project Flamingo, though it is met with skepticism by some observers. Wall Street Journal journalists, who visited the developer Fire Point’s workshops under secrecy measures, described production far from breakthrough technologies. According to their reports, jet engines for the missiles are taken from old Soviet aircraft, and open-source flight controllers are used due to budget constraints. A 92-year-old specialist who participated in the Soviet missile program is a consultant on the project.
Military experts doubt the achievability of the stated characteristics, and scaling up production remains in question. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised seven missiles per day by October 2025, then postponed the deadline to February 2026—with no result. This confirms criticism that the project is more PR than real power.
Strikes on Ukraine
Strikes on Ukraine on January 12 covered Sumy, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson regions, Kyiv and its environs, Zhytomyr region (including Radomyshl, Horodok, Korosten), Chernihiv (Nizhyn, Novhorod-Siverskyi), Odesa, and Rivne regions.
In Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, an industrial area saw secondary detonations with black smoke; fires in suburbs and transformer sparking were recorded.
A thermal power plant in Odesa was hit, damaging energy infrastructure. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy, consumers in Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Chernihiv regions were also left without electricity. Attacks on railway infrastructure in Zhytomyr region were also noted.
Particular attention was drawn to incidents in the Black Sea waters off Odesa region. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov stated that a drone hit a Panama-flagged tanker awaiting entry to port to load vegetable oil, and that a San Marino-flagged ship carrying corn departing from port was attacked.
Strikes on Russia
Strikes on Russian territory the same night, according to Russian sources, included attempted Ukrainian UAV attacks on the Belbek airfield and the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant in Sevastopol, as well as the Novocherkasskaya GRES power plant in Rostov region.
Later, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed strikes on Lukoil drilling platforms (named after V. Filanovsky, Yu. Korchagin, and V. Greifer) in the Caspian Sea, noting the use of drones with online control, presumably via satellite link.
In the context of these ongoing exchanges of strikes, some analysts consider the long-term strategic capabilities of the sides. One of the few scenarios that some experts believe could force Ukraine to reconsider its negotiating position in favor of Russia is creating a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe in major cities, primarily Kyiv, through a complete and prolonged cutoff of electricity and heating during the winter.
However, the current reality shows the population adapting to a harsh schedule of blackouts. Local protests due to the absence of power for several days have not yet escalated into mass movements. Russia’s actions in this area are seen by some observers as “half-measures”: after inflicting serious damage to the energy system of one region (e.g., Odesa region in December), strikes shift to another, preventing the achievement of a critical humanitarian collapse in any single metropolis.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on the evening of January 12 that, according to intelligence, Russia is preparing a new massive strike: “Drones to deplete air defense, missiles, cold—in the coming days.”
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always half the story here really poor coverage sf very biased very transparently anti anerica very obvious only fools wouldn’t see.
anybody with a working brain is anti amerikunt , anti zionist and anti british. these are satanic nations
shove off disingenuous dogs breath
more direct strikes on british assets is necessary. perfidious snakes of albion need to be decapitated just as their economy sinks into the toilet and british become second world country forever
total crap. they’re restructuring and making it conveniently look like they’re going broke. transparently too imo it’s a fraud
how conveniently timed their new rocket is .
along with the 270 billion pounds fir ukraines defense , i’ll bet , not millions as alleged , that the talking head for the kings government said yesterday , that sf deleted .
course england’s only sheep paddocks. they’re relocating to natural resource rich colonies with great expectations . englands going to be tourism .
england is knife tourism. you go there to get stabbed and have your bag/phone snatched
britain is a shithole country. you think they make this shithole country to show everybody how good they are going? lol. the problem with the british is their economy is not made to sustain their dreams. little england has no resources like russia. india its former crown jewel now friends with russia, buying more su57 and s400, ouchhh. british – losers