These are the key developments from day 1,397 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.Published On 22 Dec 202522 Dec 2025Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareHere is where things stand on Monday, December 22:Fighting
A Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed a 49-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov. The killings took place in the village of Izyum.
Russian attacks also killed one person in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and one person in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, local officials reported.
Russian forces have shelled the Zaporizhia region nearly 5,000 times over the past week, wounding 60 people and damaging hundreds of buildings, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.
Overall, Russian forces have launched about 1,300 drones, nearly 1,200 guided aerial bombs, and nine missiles towards Ukraine over the past week, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, accused Russian forces of “illegally” detaining about 50 residents of the village of Hrabovske in the Sumy region and “forcibly deporting” them to Russian territory.
The Kyiv Independent, citing Ukrainian authorities, reported that wreckage from a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia damaged a pipeline in the Krasnodar Krai region.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces shot down 29 Ukrainian drones in the past 24-hour period.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Russian forces shot down 252 drones over the Russian-occupied Donbas region, using the “Donbas Dome electronic warfare system” over the past week, the TASS news agency reported.
Politics and diplomacy
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with a Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov and European officials, as the US continued to host talks in Miami, Florida, on a prospective peace deal for Russia’s war on Ukraine for a third day on Sunday.
Witkoff said in a post on X late on Sunday that the talks with the Ukrainians and Europeans had been “productive and constructive” and focused on a “shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and …
