Here are the key developments on the 1,037th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Friday, December 27:
Fighting:
- South Korean intelligence said that an injured North Korean soldier dispatched to fight for Russia was captured alive by Ukrainian forces, according to the Yonhap news agency on Friday.
- Russian drones struck a multistorey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Thursday, killing two people, according to regional officials.
- Other attacks on Thursday hit an industrial area of the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and a market in the town of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The attacks on Ukraine’s east come after Russia’s Christmas day attack on the country’s energy system.
- Russian forces captured the village of Hihant in eastern Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing the defence ministry.
- The Ukrainian military claimed its air force had carried out a strike on a military-industrial facility in the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region over the previous few days. The facility was used to produce solid fuel for ballistic missiles used in Russian attacks on Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
- The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it shot down 20 drones out of 31 launched by Russia overnight.
Politics and diplomacy:
- China’s President Xi Jinping will visit Russia next year, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency quoted Russian ambassador to Beijing Igor Morgulov as saying on Friday. He said that Russia and China had to respond to United States policy jointly, referring to alleged NATO plans to “move its military infrastructure” into the Asia Pacific region. China has put forward a peace plan with Brazil to end the war.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that the two countries will continue to implement the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty – which includes a mutual defence pact – that they signed in June, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported on Friday.
- Putin said on Thursday that he was open to a Slovakian proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine. “We are not opposed, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia takes such a neutral position,” he said after a visit by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico to the Kremlin this week.
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is set to visit Moscow on January 17 to sign a cooperation agreement with Putin, according to Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambassador to Russia, cited by Russian state news agency RIA on Thursday.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that his country was willing to work with Donald Trump’s incoming US administration to improve relations. But, he said, the US would have to make the first move since it had “interrupted” dialogue after “the start of a special military operation”. Trump, who enters office on January 20, has promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine.
Regional security:
- Investigations into the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, which killed 38 people, are under way. Unnamed Azerbaijani and US officials were reported as saying they believed a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the deadly crash. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned against “hypotheses”.
- Moldova’s parliament approved a 10-year defence strategy on Thursday, calling for increased defence spending as part of a plan to join the European Union. The move was ridiculed by the chamber’s pro-Russian opposition, given the relatively small size of Moldova’s armed forces. Pro-Western President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of trying to unseat her government.
- Putin said on Thursday that there was no time left this year to sign a new Ukrainian gas transit deal, laying the blame firmly on Ukraine for refusing to extend the agreement that brings gas to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. The current five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of the year.