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.

Russian state media reported that a British volunteer for the Ukrainian Army was captured amid fighting in the Kursk region.

The war between Russia and Ukraine is intensifying with new attacks and new concerns over the weapons being used by both sides. Vladimir Putin says Russia’s use of a nuclear-capable weapon is a response to Ukraine firing American weapons deeper into Russia for the first time.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces were preparing a response to Ukraine’s recent attacks using U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles on air defense units in the Kursk border region. “In the last three days,