Here are the key developments on the 1,045th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Saturday, January 5:
Fighting
- One person was killed and five injured in a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 60 of 93 Russian drones launched in the early hours of Friday morning.
- Three missiles struck a residential area near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing one, injuring five others and destroying two homes.
- Four people were hurt when the town of Sloviansk was shelled near the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 300 attack drones and 20 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the first three days of 2025.
- Russia’s creeping advance in Donetsk has captured 4,168 square kilometres (1,609sq miles) of territory at the cost of 430,000 soldiers, according to a new analysis.
- Ukraine will reportedly receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighters this month, according to French magazine Avions Legendaires.
- A Russian court has ordered the largest search engine in Russia, Yandex, to hide maps and photos of one of the country’s biggest oil refineries after repeated attacks by Ukrainian drones, state news agency TASS reports.
Military aid
- United States President Joe Biden is expected to announce additional security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, according to White House spokesperson John Kirby.
Regional security
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Financial Times that he believes China intervened to stop Russia from using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
- A Finnish court has refused to release an oil tanker suspected by police of damaging an undersea power line and four telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. The Eagle S Tanker was carrying Russian oil at the time the cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged on December 25 along with four telecoms lines.
Politics
- Russian envoy to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, told state television channel Rossiya-1 TV that there was “nothing of interest” in proposals by US President-elect Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine.
- Blinken will begin his final trip in his role this weekend, which the State Department said will conclude with meetings in Paris to discuss European security and Ukraine with French officials.
Environment
- Oil from two ageing and damaged Russian oil tankers was detected off the coast of Sevastopol, the largest city in Moscow-annexed Crimea on Friday, according to local officials. The vessels were hit by a storm last month, causing one to sink and the other to run aground, pouring some 2,400 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the surrounding waters.
