Russian forces prepare to defend dwindling territory in Ukraine’s south

Ukraine’s recaptured hundreds of square kilometres of land from retreating Russian forces in the 38th week of the war, prompting questions about where its next advance will be.

Two weeks of anti-nuclear messaging from the West and China seemed to go up in smoke when a Russian-made missile hit a Polish village near the border with Ukraine on November 16, briefly raising the spectre of NATO involvement and a broader conflagration.

"The story of the Ukrainian 'missile attack' on a Polish farm proves only one thing: the West, by it…