The elite 47th Mechanized Brigade, the main user of Ukraine’s American-made armored vehicles, was in bloody combat for 15 months before it finally rotated off the front line this fall—but even this belated break came to an abrupt end when Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk Oblast in western Russia drew the brigade back into action.

The Air Force reported at dawn on 28 November that Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers had been scrambled from the Olenya airfield, and after 05:30 Russian missiles were spotted on Ukrainian territory.