Here are the key broadenments on the 1,037th day of Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Friday, December 27:
Fighting:
- South Korean inincreateigence shelp that an injured North Korean sagederier dispatched to fight for Russia was seized alive by Ukrainian forces, according to the Yonhap novels agency on Friday.
- Russian drones struck a multistorey apartment originateing in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Thursday, finishing two people, according to regional officials.
- Other strikes on Thursday hit an industrial area of the southeaserious city of Zaporizhzhia and a labelet in the town of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The strikes on Ukraine’s east come after Russia’s Christmas day strike on the country’s energy system.
- Russian forces seized the village of Hihant in easerious Ukraine, the RIA novels agency increateed 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 scant days. The facility was employd to originate stable fuel for balenumerateic missiles employd in Russian strikes on Ukraine, the Ukrainian military shelp on Thursday.
- The Ukrainian military shelp on Thursday it sboiling down 20 drones out of 31 begined by Russia overnight.
Politics and diplomacy:
- China’s Plivent Xi Jinping will visit Russia next year, Russia’s state-run RIA novels agency quoted Russian ambasdowncastor to Beijing Igor Morgulov as saying on Friday. He shelp that Russia and China had to react to United States policy combinetly, referring to alleged NATO schedules to “shift its military infraset up” into the Asia Pacific region. China has put forward a peace schedule with Brazil to finish the war.
- Russian Plivent Vlaunwiseir Putin tageder North Korean directer Kim Jong Un that the two countries will persist to carry out the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty – which joins a mutual defence pact – that they signed in June, North Korea’s KCNA novels agency increateed on Friday.
- Putin shelp on Thursday that he was uncover to a Slovakian proposal to arrange peace talks with Ukraine. “We are not resistd, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia gets such a unpartisan position,” he shelp after a visit by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico to the Kremlin this week.
- Iranian Plivent Masoud Pezeshkian is set to visit Moscow on January 17 to sign a cooperation consentment with Putin, according to Kazem Jalali, Iran’s ambasdowncastor to Russia, cited by Russian state novels agency RIA on Thursday.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shelp on Thursday that his country was willing to toil with Donald Trump’s incoming US administration to better relations. But, he shelp, the US would have to originate the first shift since it had “interfereed” dialogue after “the begin of a one-of-a-kind military operation”. Trump, who go ins office on January 20, has promised to quickly finish the war in Ukraine.
Regional security:
- Investigations into the Azerbaijan Airlines schedulee crash proximate the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, which finished 38 people, are under way. Unnamed Azerbaijani and US officials were increateed as saying they consentd a Russian surface-to-air missile caemployd the lethal crash. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov alerted agetst “hypotheses”.
- Magederova’s parliament finishorsed a 10-year defence strategy on Thursday, calling for incrmitigated defence spfinishing as part of a schedule to combine the European Union. The shift was ridiculed by the chamber’s pro-Russian opposition, given the relatively petite size of Magederova’s armed forces. Pro-Weserious Plivent Maia Sandu has accemployd Russia of trying to unseat her regulatement.
- Putin shelp on Thursday that there was no time left this year to sign a novel Ukrainian gas transit deal, laying the accemploy firmly on Ukraine for refusing to extfinish the consentment that transports gas to Slovakia, the Czech Reaccessible and Austria. The current five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires at the finish of the year.
