Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,379

What is the current situation for Thursday, December 4:

Fighting

• According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian forces have taken control of the village of Chervone in the southeast of Zaporizhia.
• On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military attacked two Russian oil depots in the Tambov and Oryol regions. The attacks also sparked fires at the locations, according to the statement.
• The Druzhba oil pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, is also being confirmed by a source from Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence to the Reuters news agency.

Peace talks

After what he called “reasonably good” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump has stated that the prospects for peace in Ukraine are uncertain. Without a breakthrough to put an end to the war, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner departed from the Kremlin after spending hours there.
• Trump claimed Witkoff and Kushner had talked to him about the negotiations and that Putin “would like to make a deal” as a result. Trump added, “because it takes two to tango,” that he “can’t tell” what will happen at the meeting. He continued, “We have something pretty well worked out] with Ukraine already.”
• Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, was pressed to clarify whether it was appropriate to say that Putin had rejected Washington’s proposals. For the first time, there was a direct exchange of views, according to Peskov. Some things were deemed acceptable while others were not. Finding a compromise is a regular part of the working process.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has confirmed that the conversation with Trump’s ambassadors will continue. A dignified peace is only possible by considering Ukraine’s interests, he said.
• Witkoff and Kushner would meet with Ukrainian officials in Miami on Thursday, according to an unnamed White House official who spoke to Reuters.

Nations Unified

• Ninety-one countries at the Nations Unified General Assembly, including the US, have backed a resolution demanding Russia “ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported” from Ukraine since Moscow launched its war in 2022.
• Russia and 57 other nations abstained from the resolution, which was created by Ukraine, Canada, and the European Union, while 11 other nations voted against it.
• Russia had urged nations to vote against the resolution prior to the vote. “Little people support lies, war, and confrontation with each vote for the resolution.” Maria Zabolotskaya, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, said, “Every vote against is a vote for peace.”

Ukrainian affairs

Nearly a third of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) is being allocated to defense, according to the parliament’s 2026 budget. The vote was used as a litmus test for parliament’s ability to pass important decisions at a crucial time of the war, which comes as Ukraine struggles with a political crisis as a result of a recent corruption scandal.
• President Zelenskyy praised the country’s resilience and its ability to secure a stable financial foundation for the needs of the coming year. The main concerns are with ensuring our defense, social programs, and the ability to rebuild our lives following Russian attacks.

military assistance and sanctions

• The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, has suggested a never-before-seen method of using frozen Russian assets or foreign borrowing to finance Ukraine in the amount of 90 billion euros ($105bn). Ursula von der Leyen, president of the commission, stated that the organization is “proposing to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs for the next two years.” That’s 90 billion euros. She added that “international partners would be responsible for covering the remainder.”
• However, Belgium has raised a number of legal concerns, including the main one being that its financial institution Euroclear, based in Brussels, is the principal owner of the Russian assets. Brussels does not “share that assessment,” according to Von der Leyen, adding that it “cannot accept being asked to bear the risks of such an operation alone.”
• In an effort to end the bloc’s decades-long dependence on Russian energy, the EU also agreed to stop importing Russian gas until late 2027. The EU will end Russian gas imports permanently under the terms of the agreement, and the Russian oil will stop. By the end of 2026, pipeline gas will be imported, and pipeline gas will be finished by 2027.
• Because both EU members are still heavily dependent on Moscow’s gas and oil supplies, and because they worry that more expensive alternatives will harm their economies, Hungary and Slovakia are both considering legal options to challenge the order.
• According to Mark Rutte, secretary-general of the alliance, more than two-thirds of NATO member states have so far committed to providing Ukraine with weapons purchased from the US through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), an initiative that provides Ukraine with weapons purchased from the US.
• Australia and New Zealand have both agreed to support the PURL initiative outside of NATO, according to Rutte.

European defense

• Germany is the first country in Europe to use the Arrow air defense system, which was designed to intercept ballistic missiles from intermediate range, similar to those from Russia’s Oreshnik.
• The missile defenses of Israel are made possible by the joint efforts of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the US Missile Defense Agency. Who could have imagined that the Jewish state’s advancement of modern technology, which it holds, would aid in the defense of both Germany and Europe as soon as Auschwitz was liberated, said Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany.
• A maritime drone that the Romanian military claimed was putting an end to Black Sea navigation was destroyed after it was identified as a Sea Baby developed by Ukraine. However, Romania’s SBU security service reported that none of its Sea Baby maritime drones were entry into Romanian waters, only to report that all of their operational drones from the Black Sea were accounted for.
• Hakan Fidan, the Turkish prime minister, called recent Black Sea attacks on Russian-linked tankers “very frightening.” Some of these attacks have been claimed by Ukraine. According to Fidan, the attacks show that the war’s scope is expanding and threaten regional safety. He continued, claiming that Turkiye, Romania, and Bulgaria were looking into measures to improve security and that the strikes in Turkiye’s exclusive economic zone violate navigational safety and are having an impact on trade.