Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,050

Here is the situation on Thursday, January 9:

Fighting

Two people were killed in a separate Russian attack near the front line in the Stepnogirsk village, south of Zaporizhzhia, according to Fedorov.
Roman Busagrin, governor of the Russian city of Saratov, said two firefighters were killed while battling a blaze which erupted after Ukrainian forces hit an oil depot in the region, which is located some 500km (310 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
The United States claimed to the UN Security Council that North Korea’s troops “significantly benefit” from their engagement with Russia and Ukraine, and that Pyongyang is “more able to wage war against its neighbors.”
Nada Al-Nashif, the deputy UN rights chief, has told a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that she is “deeply concerned” by a significant increase in “credible allegations of executions” of captured Ukrainian troops by the Russian armed forces.

Military aid

Two US officials claimed that the US is prepared to give Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons as soon as Donald Trump becomes president.
A day before the anticipated announcement of the new military aid package, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that continued support for Kyiv is crucial and that US leadership on Ukraine is “critical.”

Politics and diplomacy

Membership in NATO is the only “credible” security guarantee Ukraine can receive against any future Russian aggression, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.
Valtonen, on a visit to Kyiv, met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visited the country’s largest children’s hospital in the capital, which was badly damaged by a Russian attack in July 2024.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, any future agreement to end the Ukrainian conflict must include “the necessary deterrence” to stop Russia from once more attacking Ukraine.

Burning cars at the site of a Russian air strike in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, on January 8, 2025]Handout/Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration via EPA]

Zelenskyy announced in a video message posted on social media that he would attend a US-hosted defense meeting of Kyiv’s allies.
When illegal immigration and support for Ukraine are likely to be the topics of conversation between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron,
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, attended a memorial service held in honor of the fifth anniversary of a Ukrainian Airlines flight that had passengers from Iran, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, the UK, Afghanistan, and Iran when it was shot down by Iran in 2020.

Regional tension

Next week, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will hold a summit of the NATO countries that border the Baltic Sea in Helsinki.
In response to the possibility of sabotage, Lithuania announced that it would increase the security of a crucial electricity cable connecting Poland to its neighbors. The EU and NATO member will decouple from Russia’s power grid next month, the culmination of decades-long efforts to reduce reliance on Moscow, along with its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia.

Men carry a resident injured during Russian air and missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Wednesday]Handout/Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration via Reuters]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, however powerful, and suggested that expansionist comments by US President-elect Trump regarding Greenland, Panama and Canada are being met with “incomprehension” among European leaders.
Trump’s comments that he claimed he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine to join NATO sparked Zelenskyy’s disapproval. “Don’t draw conclusions about the policy of the US right away”, Zelenskyy said.
Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, stated that he had secured a gas supply for the country while on a trip to Moscow last month to meet with Vladimir Putin, the country’s president, just before Ukraine halted its gas exports from Russia at the beginning of 2025.
Zelenskyy and Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, discussed using Ukrainian coal to combat the energy crisis that has caused blackouts and a heating shortage in the separatist Transdniestria region of Moldova. Russian gas supplies are a key component of Transdniestria, a pro-Russian organization. However, after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement that would allow the passage of gas through its territory, flows to the region stopped on January 1.