These are the key developments from day 1,407 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 1 Jan 20261 Jan 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareHere is where things stand on Thursday, January 1:Fighting
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that Russian forces downed five Ukrainian drones en route to the city on Thursday evening, according to the Reuters news agency.
Ukrainian officials say Russian drones attacked apartment buildings and critical infrastructure in the city of Odesa in an overnight attack on Wednesday, injuring six people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised the military to call up reserve soldiers to protect critical infrastructure in an official decree this week. The order also calls for the government to determine a list of “critically important facilities” to be protected.
The Moscow Times reported the order follows recent changes to Russian law in November that allow reservists to be called up in peacetime.
New Year’s statements
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while he wanted the war to end, he would never sign a “weak” peace agreement that would “only fuel the war”, in a televised address on New Year’s Eve.
The Ukrainian leader said that a peace agreement was “90 percent ready” but that a critical 10 percent remains undecided. “That 10 percent contains everything; it is the 10 percent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live,” he said.
Putin said he believes Moscow will win the war, nearly four years since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, in his televised New Year’s Eve address. He called on Russians to “support our heroes” during the speech.
The remains of a drone, which Russia’s Defence Ministry said was downed while repelling what it described as a Ukrainian attack on the Russian presidential residence in the Novgorod region, Russia, in this still image from a video released on December 31, 2025 [Handout/Russian Defence Ministry]Alleged attack on Putin’s residence Advertisement
Russian Major-General Alexander Romanenkov described an alleged Ukrainian drone assault over the weekend on one of Putin’s residences as a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” in a Telegram post.
Romanenkov said the low-flying drones had passed through Bryansk, Smolensk and Tver en route to the residence in Russia’s Novgorod region.
Russian forces shot down 91 drones while en route between Sunday and Monday using various “anti-aircraft missile systems, mobile fire teams, and electronic warfare systems”, Romanenkov said.
The Ministry of Defence also shared a photo of an alleged Ukrainian drone shot down during the attack on Telegram.
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