Saturday, January 4

Russia’s war against Ukraine

The aftermath of a Russian missile attack on residential areas on the outskirts of Chernihiv on Jan. 3, 2025. Russia launched three ballistic missiles at the city, killing a 72-year-old man and injuring four others. Two houses were severely damaged. (Chernihiv Regional Military Administration / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images)

Ukraine investigating French-trained brigade after reports of desertions, mismanagement. The statement comes following a media investigation that claimed that soldiers of the unit, deployed near Pokrovsk, have suffered heavy losses and went AWOL in large numbers due to poor command and organization on Ukraine’s side.

Ukraine’s largest steelmaker launches production of Patriot system armor. “In a month and a half, we created a project from scratch and made a shield from Metinvest’s Ukrainian armor steel for the Patriot air defense system crew, which guarantees protection against debris damage to both the defenders and the air defense control center,” said Oleksandr Myronenko, a COO of Metinvest Group.

Number of Ukrainians open to territorial concessions rises to 38%, poll shows. Around 38% of Ukrainians are open to conceding some of the territories while preserving independence in order to end the war with Russia as fast as possible, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) survey published on Jan. 3.

‘Nothing of interest’ — Russian envoy dismisses Trump’s reported peace deal proposals on Ukraine. “President (Vladimir) Putin last outlined our conditions for ending the conflict on Dec. 19. So far, nothing from the incoming U.S. administration suggests anything of interest to us,” Russia’s envoy to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, said.

Ukraine aims to raise over $1 billion for ‘Danish model’ of defense industry funding in 2025. The Danish model is a partnership that enables Kyiv to secure funding from allies specifically for its defense production.

Ukrainian Navy ensures safe passage for over 9,000 vessels through sea corridor in 2024, Navy Commander says. Navy Commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said that 4,651 vessels arrived in Ukraine, while 4,410 departed for other ports, enabling the export of over 74.4 million tons of cargo, including agricultural products.

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Russia has recruited up to 180,000 convicts for war against Ukraine, Foreign Intelligence Service says. There were about 300,000-350,000 prisoners in Russian colonies and prisons in 2024, which is half as many as in 2014, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said.

Russian court reportedly orders Yandex to block access to oil refinery’s maps, photos over Ukrainian drone attacks. This is the first court decision that obliged the Russian tech giant to remove from public access photos and maps of a strategically important facility for the defense industry, according to Russian state-controlled TASS news agency.

Ukrainians in Poland receive fake military summonses. Poland’s Office for Foreigners, which the letter falsely attributes as the author, stressed that it did not issue the document and that its content is fake. Ukraine’s Embassy in Warsaw also denied the document’s authenticity.

Next Ramstein summit to be held on Jan. 9. The meeting will be the first since October 2024, when a leader-level summit in Germany was postponed after U.S. President Joe Biden canceled his foreign trips to handle Hurricane Milton.

Russia plans to redeploy some arms, equipment from Syria to Libya, Ukraine’s intel claims. According to the agency, Russian large landing ships Ivan Gren and Aleksandr Otrakovsky, as well as the dry cargo ship Sparta, are scheduled to arrive in the Syrian port on Jan. 5. Two more Russian vessels — the universal cargo vessel Sparta II and the tanker Ivan Skoblev — are expected to arrive on Jan. 8.

Over 50,000 Russians seek MIA through Ukraine’s project, representative says. Earlier, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Tsivilyova disclosed on Nov. 26 that her ministry received 48,000 DNA test applications from relatives seeking information about missing soldiers.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: Russian envoy dismisses reported Trump peace deal

More than 50,000 inquiries have been submitted by Russians seeking missing soldiers through Ukraine’s “I Want to Find” project, Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Coordination Center Secretariat, said in an interview with ArmyInform on Jan. 3.

Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images

Vladimir Putin’s 25-year-long reign over Russia in photos

Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned on Dec. 31, 1999, anointing Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, as his successor. Partially due to his hardline stance against terrorism, Putin won the March 2000 presidential election. He has held on to power ever since.

Photo: Sergei Bobylyov/Sputnik/ AFP via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russian missile attack on Chernihiv kills 1, injures 4. The attack targeted a residential area on the outskirts of Chernihiv, causing significant damage to multiple apartment buildings, Chernihiv Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said.

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 2, injure at least 13 over previous day. Russian attacks against Ukraine killed two people and injured at least 13 others over the past day, regional authorities said on Jan. 3.

General Staff: Russia has lost 793,250 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,080 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

International response

China may have stopped Putin from using nuclear weapons, Blinken says. “We have reason to believe that China engaged Russia and said: ‘Don’t go there,’” outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Financial Times on Jan. 3.

Poland didn’t invite Orban, Hungarian envoy to EU presidency opening event. The reason is Budapest granting political asylum to former Polish Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski, who is being investigated for suspected misuse of funds.

Polish farmers protest in Warsaw against Ukrainian imports, EU policies. The protest follows a series of demonstrations by Polish farmers against Ukrainian agricultural imports after the EU lifted tariffs on goods from Ukraine in 2022.

Germany should not rule out peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, CDU lawmaker says. Germany should not rule out deploying Bundeswehr troops to Ukraine after the war ends, Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker from the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said on Jan. 3, Schwäbische Zeitung reported.

‘We are not Russia’ — Thousands protest Fico’s pro-Kremlin agenda in Bratislava. Approximately 4,000 people assembled in Bratislava on Jan. 3 to protest Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s pro-Russian policies, according to local media.

In other news

Rolling blackouts begin in Russian-occupied Transnistria amid gas shortages, local authorities say. Moldova has offered to help Transnistria purchase gas through European platforms. Vadim Cheban, head of Moldovagaz, said on Jan. 2 that Chisinau is ready to assist Transnistrian authorities in securing energy resources on market terms to mitigate the crisis.

Transnistria rejects offer to buy gas from Europe, expects Russia to resume supplies. Moldova had previously offered to assist the Russian-occupied region in securing gas via European platforms to mitigate the energy crisis. Transnistrian officials rejected the offer, saying they believe Gazprom will resume Russian gas supplies.

Moldova faces ‘security crisis’ after Russian gas shut-off, PM Recean says. “Russia is revealing the inevitable outcome for all its allies — betrayal and isolation,” Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said on Jan. 3.

EU chief von der Leyen ill with ‘severe’ pneumonia, cancels engagements. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has canceled engagements for the first half of January due to a case of “severe pneumonia,” a commission spokesperson said.

Finnish court upholds seizure of Russian tanker suspected of cable sabotage. The Helsinki District Court has ruled to keep the oil tanker — suspected of belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” — under seizure, despite an appeal from the ship’s owner.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Kateryna Denisova, Oleksiy Sorokin, Tim Zadorozhnyy, Abbey Fenbert, and Volodymyr Ivanyshyn.

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