England had been begging the US to allow Ukraine to use long-distance Stormshadows but because a key component in the missile is made in the US, the US could block it. Now it looks like permission has been given.
Ukraine saw a target of opportunity hitting a communications command post which was bunkered next to one of Putin's palaces where they killed a Russian Lt. General and injured a N. Korean, not to mention taking out the command post.
Russian trains have been slowed to the point where orders are taking 2 months to get to manufacturers. They are running at an average of 3 km per hour. They don't have enough engineers or manpower to maintain the rails.
Half of their air buses (around 30 out of 60) are no longer usable due to a lack of maintenance.
Now that so many of their commercial industries are struggling like their biggest winemaker, the state is taking over those companies.
Russia as a response to US permission to allow ATACMS to hit the interior of Russia, hit Ukraine with an ICBM. The US was warned when the ICBM would be launched and that it did not have a nuke in it to prevent a nuclear response. I believe Russia has launched 2 ICBMs. One worked. One failed. Previously Russia tested an ICBM to show its nuclear potential to the world but it failed to launch. So 2 of 3 of Russia's most prepared nuclear missiles failed to work in failed demonstrations of saber rattling. Russia has around 500 of these missiles.
We have no way of confidently shooting down an ICBM.
Russia has an inflation rate of 8 to 8.5% with 21% interest rates. This winter both Ukraine and Russia will suffer in the cold. More of Russia's infrastructure is starting to fail due to a lack of maintenance.
Part of the payment to N. Korea is that Russia is giving them satellite technology.