These are the key developments from day 1,393 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.Published On 18 Dec 202518 Dec 2025Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareHere is where things stand on Thursday, December 18:Fighting
Ukrainian drones have hit a tanker vessel in the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don, killing and injuring a number of people and igniting a fire, the city’s mayor, Alexander Skryabin, said.
“Emergency teams are extinguishing the fire on the tanker that was struck while docked in a drone attack,” Skryabin said, according to Russian news agencies.
Ukraine’s military said it struck infrastructure at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight.
Russian glide bomb attacks on apartment blocks in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia wounded 26 people, including a child, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said. Fedorov said three strikes hit the regional capital and its outskirts, and two apartment blocks had been badly damaged.
Ukraine’s military has said it now controls nearly 90 percent of Kupiansk, refuting Russian claims that a Ukrainian counterattack on the strategic northeastern town had been unsuccessful. Kyiv denied Moscow’s claim last month that Russian troops had taken full control of the town, before announcing last week it had itself retaken parts of Kupiansk in an operation that encircled Russian troops.
Russian forces have captured the village of Herasymivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region of eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s Ministry of Defence claimed.
Peace deal
At an annual Defence Ministry meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would take more land in Ukraine by force if Kyiv and its European allies, whom he cast as “young pigs”, did not engage with US proposals for a peace settlement to end the war.
“If the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means,” Putin told the meeting.
United States and Russian officials are expected to hold talks in Miami, Florida, this weekend about a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine, US news outlet Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to be part of Washington’s delegation at the Miami meeting, according to Politico, which also reported that Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, will be part of Moscow’s negotiating team.
Military aid Advertisement
The US Senate has passed a compromise version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization …
