Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,394

On Friday, December 19, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• In overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and the town of Bataysk in the country’s southern Rostov region, three people died, according to local governor Yury Slyusar, two of whom were on a cargo ship’s crew.
• A woman was killed in her car in a Russian attack close to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, hurting infrastructure. Three children were hurt in the incident, according to Odesa’s governor Oleh Kiper, who claimed a Russian drone was used to kill a woman who was crossing a bridge in her car.
• In a show of support for the extended power outages, Kiper also appealed to those whose homes have been affected by them to be patient and to end the roadblocking.
• The Odesa region’s energy infrastructure has suffered significant damage as a result of enemy attacks, according to Kiper.
• According to Ukraine’s acting energy minister, Artem Nekrasov, about 180, 000 consumers have been left without electricity in five of their regions as a result of Russian attacks.
• Nekrasov claimed that the southern Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk’s central regions, as well as the northeastern Sumy region, have experienced affectedness.
• According to Valery Gerasimov, the Russian head of the general staff, the country has established a military brigade with the newly developed hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile.
• Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, blatantly shot the Oreshnik at Ukraine for the first time in November 2024, and he has hailed its destructive power as comparable to that of a nuclear weapon.

Sanctions

• According to Antonio Costa, president of the EU Council, EU leaders have agreed to give Ukraine an interest-free loan to meet its military and economic needs over the next two years.
• Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said the EU leaders chose to use frozen Russian assets over borrowing cash to provide a loan to Ukraine, which they said prevented “chaos and division.” After EU leaders for hours deliberated on how to give Ukraine the money it needs to keep its fight, De Wever continued, “We remained united.”
• Prior to a summit in Brussels, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk had stated that the EU leaders had come to an agreement in principle to work with the EU to finance Ukraine in 2026 and 2027 using frozen Russian assets rather than EU borrowing. However, negotiations to resolve the dispute over the plan, including assurances that Belgium and other concerned nations would share the legal and financial risks, failed to bring about a resolution.
• In the event that Moscow successfully sues them for using Russian assets to finance Ukraine, Belgium and other nations were given unrestricted damages by the new draft. Additionally, the agreement gave EU nations and institutions the option of retaliating against Russian assets held by the EU against any damages that might result from such retaliation.
• Russia’s central bank announced earlier that it would pursue legal action against European banks in a Russian court over claims that the EU intended to use frozen Russian assets as loans for Kyiv.
• In what it described as a move against Russia’s largest remaining unsanctioned oil companies, Tatneft, Russneft, NNK-Oil, and Rusneftegaz, Britain has imposed more sanctions against Russian oil companies, including 24 individuals and entities.

Peace talks

• According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, peace negotiators are headed to the United States and have plans to meet with Washington’s team on Friday and Saturday.
• As Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner prepare to meet a Russian delegation in Miami this weekend, US President Donald Trump said he thinks talks to end the Ukrainian conflict are “getting close to something.”

Aid

The US organization overseeing the fund announced that the Ukraine-US reconstruction fund, which was established as part of a Trump-led mineral agreement in April, has approved its asset policies and is scheduled to begin reviewing its first investment opportunities in 2026.
• The second meeting of the fund’s second meeting “reached final consensus necessary to bring the fund to full operational status,” according to the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). According to the DFC, potential deals could concentrate on important areas like maritime infrastructure and mineral extraction.
• According to President Zelenskyy, Ukraine will need to cut down on drone production by 2026, which will cost it 45-50 billion euros ($53-$59bn).
• A bonds-and-cash swap offer, a crucial step for the nation to recover from its sovereign default in 2022, was accepted by creditors as a long-awaited agreement to restructure $2.6 billion of growth-linked debt.

diplomacy and politics

• According to President Zelenskyy, there is no need to alter Ukraine’s constitution, which specifies its ability to join NATO. Russians’ top demands for an end to their conflict have always been to prevent Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
• Zelenskyy said, “To be honest, I don’t believe we need to change our country’s constitution.” Not primarily because of calls from Russia or anywhere else, he said.
• Zelenskyy claimed earlier this week that if Ukraine were provided with bilateral security guarantees and safeguards akin to NATO’s Article 5, which states that an attack on one member would be an attack against everyone, it could compromise on NATO membership.
• In Beijing, the two countries “discussed ways to strengthen trade and economic cooperation, as well as issues of cooperation within international organizations,” according to the Foreign Ministry.

Russian affairs

• Sergei Yeremeyev, a Belarusian man who was accused by Russia of blowing up two trains in Siberia for Ukraine, has been imprisoned for 22 years. In 2023, Yeremeyev was found guilty of arranging explosives on two freight trains and carrying out a terrorist attack.
• After being found guilty of being a paid mercenary, British citizen Hayden Davies, who fought for Ukraine against Russia, was given a maximum-security prison sentence. A court in Donetsk, which is controlled by Russia, tried the 30-year-old.