Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,397

On Monday, December 22, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• According to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, a 49-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were killed in a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. In the Izyum village, killings took place.
• According to local officials, one person was killed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine and one more was killed in the southeast of Zaporizhia region.
• According to Governor Ivan Fedorov, Russian forces have shelled the Zaporizhia region nearly 5, 000 times in the past week, causing injuries to 60 people and destroying hundreds of buildings.
• According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian forces have launched nine missiles and nearly 1,300 drones into Ukraine overall over the past week.
• Dmytro Lubinets, the country’s ambassador to Ukraine, claimed that the Russian forces “forcibly” deported about 50 people from the Sumy region’s village of Hrabovske and “illegally” detained them.
• A pipeline in the Krasnodar Krai region was reportedly damaged by debris from a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia, according to The Kyiv Independent, citing Ukrainian authorities.
• 29 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russia’s Ministry of Defense, according to the Ministry of Defense’s statement.
• According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian forces used the “Donbass Dome electronic warfare system” to shoot down 252 drones over the Russian-occupied Donbas region over the past week, according to the TASS news agency.

diplomacy and politics

• As the US continued to hold talks in Miami, Florida on a potential peace deal for Russia’s war on Ukraine for a third day on Sunday, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with senior official Rustem Umerov and European officials.
• In a post on X late on Sunday, Witkoff claimed that the discussions with Ukrainians and Europeans had been “productive and constructive” and that Ukraine, the United States, and Europe had a “shared strategic approach.”
• In a second post, Witkoff claimed that over the past two days, the US had also had “productive and constructive meetings” with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
• According to Witkoff, “Russia continues to be fully committed to bringing peace to Ukraine” and “highly values the efforts and support of the United States to end the Ukrainian conflict and restore world peace.”
• Yury Ushakov, the head of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy team, claimed earlier that the changes made by the US’s proposals to end the Russian war had had no impact on peace prospects.
• According to Russian news sources, Ushakov was quoted as saying, “I am certain that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make do not undoubtedly improve the document and do not improve the chances of long-term peace.”
• After Emmanuel Macron said that Europe should reach out to Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said the Russian president was open to speaking with him.
• The Russian statement, Macron’s office said, “It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly accepted this approach. In the upcoming days, we’ll make a decision regarding the best course of action.
• 202 Indian nationals are alleged to have been recruited into the Russian armed forces during Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. According to the statement, Russian authorities had reported 26 murders and seven missing deaths.
• After engine problems, Swedish authorities boarded a Russian freighter in Swedish waters on Friday to inspect the cargo, according to the Swedish customs service. According to Martin Hoglund, a customs authority spokesman, the owners of the ship, the Adler, are on the list of countries” potential sanctions.
• We boarded the ship with the assistance of the Swedish Coast Guard and the police service to conduct a customs inspection shortly after 16:00 last night, Hoglund said. The inspection is still ongoing, it seems.