Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,407

On Thursday, January 1, 2018, this is the situation:

Fighting

• According to the Reuters news agency, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported on Telegram that Russian forces had shot five Ukrainian drones into the city on Thursday night.
• Six people were hurt overnight in an attack on Russian drones that targeted apartment buildings and crucial infrastructure in Odesa, according to Ukrainian authorities.
• In a formal decree this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the military to deploy reserve soldiers to protect critical infrastructure. Additionally, the order directs the government to create a list of “critically important facilities” that need to be protected.
• The order, according to The Moscow Times, comes in response to recent changes to Russian law that allow for the arrest of reservemen during wartime.

Statements from the new year

• In a televised address on New Year’s Eve, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that despite his desire for the war to end, he would never sign a “weak” peace agreement that would “only fuel the war.”
• A crucial 10% of the vote is still undecided, according to the Ukrainian leader, who said a peace agreement was “90 percent ready.” The fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, and how people will live will be determined by the 10%, he said.
• In his televised New Year’s Eve address, Putin declared he believes Moscow will prevail in the war after nearly four years of Russian forces occupying Ukraine. During the speech, he urged Russians to “support our heroes.”

allegedly an attack on Putin’s residence

• In a Telegram post, Russian Major-General Alexander Romanenkov referred to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on one of Putin’s homes as a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime.”
• Romanenkov claimed that the low-flying drones had flown to the residence in the Novgorod region of Russia through Bryansk, Smolensk, and Tver.
• Russian forces used various “anti-aircraft missile systems, mobile fire teams, and electronic warfare systems” to fire 91 drones as they flew between Sunday and Monday, according to Romanenkov.
• An alleged Ukrainian drone was shot down during the attack, according to the Ministry of Defense’s photo on Telegram.
• According to an unnamed US official, the CIA does not believe the attempted attack on Putin’s residence occurred, according to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The official claimed that Ukrainian drones were stationed in the area, but they were striking military targets far away from homes.

Diplomacy

• On Wednesday, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told X he had fruitful discussions with Zelenskyy and government representatives from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, were also present for the discussions.
• “We focused on how to advance the discussions in a practical way on behalf of Trump’s peace process, including developing effective deconflict mechanisms to help end the war and prevent it from resuming,” Witkoff said.
• Zelenskyy thanked Romania and Croatia on X for contributing to the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PRURL) initiative, which assists Ukraine in purchasing US-made weapons, and thanked them for it.
• Croatia announced this week that it would commit $ 17.6 million to PURL, while Romania announced this week that it would commit $ 58 million.
• Since PURL’s launch in August, Zelenskyy reported that 24 nations have contributed nearly $1.5 billion, including nearly $1.5 billion in December.