By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month,

Russia and Ukraine have traded air strikes, after a week of intensifying rhetoric in which Russia tested a new missile on Ukraine. Russia has made close to 1,500 strikes on Ukraine since Sunday evening on about half of the country's regions causing dozens of injuries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Russia has continuously pummelled Ukraine's power grid and infrastructure since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow says it does not target civilians but th