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Published On 31 Dec 2025<\/span>31 Dec 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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share2<\/title><path fill=\"#000\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M11.688 9.048c-.659 0-1.252.282-1.673.733l-4.92-2.45c.016-.115.028-.232.028-.352 0-.117-.011-.23-.027-.343l4.913-2.423a2.285 2.285 0 0 0 1.68.739C12.964 4.952 14 3.899 14 2.6 14 1.302 12.965.25 11.688.25S9.377 1.302 9.377 2.601c0 .117.01.23.027.343L4.49 5.367a2.285 2.285 0 0 0-1.68-.739C1.536 4.628.5 5.681.5 6.979c0 1.299 1.035 2.35 2.312 2.35.659 0 1.252-.281 1.673-.731l4.92 2.45a2.357 2.357 0 0 0-.029.351c0 1.299 1.035 2.351 2.312 2.351S14 12.698 14 11.399s-1.035-2.35-2.312-2.35Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Here is where things stand on Wednesday, December 31:<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"fighting\">Fighting<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"spaced-bullet-spacing\">\n<li>Russian forces shelled the town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region, killing one person, an official said. The deadly attack came a day after an attack in Druzhkivka killed another person and wounded four, according to the Ukrinform news agency.<\/li>\n<li>Russian forces also launched waves of attacks on the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk in Ukraine\u2019s Odesa region, hitting two Panama-flagged civilian vessels \u2013 Emmakris III and Captain Karam \u2013 as they approached to load wheat, the Ukrainian navy said.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said that oil storage tanks were also hit in the port attacks.<\/li>\n<li>Authorities in Ukraine\u2019s northern Chernihiv region introduced a mandatory evacuation order for the residents of 14 border villages in four districts. The order will affect some 300 people who still live in the Novhorod-Siverskyi, Semenivka, Snovsk, and Horodnya communities, which have been experiencing daily shelling, an official said.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Energy Olha Yukhymchuk said that 75,000 households in Chernihiv remain without electricity following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the region. There were also settlements in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions that were fully or partially without electricity, she said.<\/li>\n<li>Yukhymchuk also said that repair work had been completed on transmission lines near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to ensure \u201cstable and reliable power supply to the station in the event of damage or shutdown of the Dniprovska overhead line due to\u201d Russian shelling.<\/li>\n<li>Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence said it had taken control of two more settlements in eastern Ukraine. It identified them as the village \u2060of Lukianivske in the Zaporizhia region and \u200bthe \u200csettlement of Bohuslavka in the \u200cKharkiv \u200cregion.<\/li>\n<li>Russian authorities said that a Ukrainian \u200ddrone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse \u200ddamaged port infrastructure and a gas pipeline in a residential area there. The regional administration said no \u2060injuries were reported.<\/li>\n<li>Other Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia\u2019s Belgorod region killed a woman and wounded four other people, local authorities said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"alleged-attack-on-putin-s-residence\">Alleged attack on Putin\u2019s residence<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"spaced-bullet-spacing\">\n<li>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will \u201ctoughen\u201d its negotiating position in talks on a deal to end the war in Ukraine as a \u201cdiplomatic consequence\u201d of an alleged attempted drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s residence in northwestern Russia\u2019s Novgorod on Sunday.<\/li>\n<li>Peskov said the attack, which Ukraine denies, was aimed at collapsing the peace talks and accused Western media of playing along with Kyiv\u2019s denial.<\/li>\n<li>Ukraine has dismissed the Russian claim as lies aimed at justifying additional attacks against Kyiv and prolonging the war.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Russia had not provided any plausible evidence of its accusations. \u201cAnd they won\u2019t. Because there\u2019s none. No such attack happened,\u201d Sybiha said on X.<\/li>\n<li>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed countries, including India and the United Arab Emirates, that have condemned the alleged attack, which he said \u201cdidn\u2019t even happen\u201d. He called the moves \u201cconfusing and unpleasant\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>China said \u201cdialogue and negotiation\u201d remain the only \u201cviable way out of the Ukraine crisis\u201d, when asked for a comment on the alleged attack on Putin\u2019s residence.<\/li>\n<li>Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also called on \u201crelevant parties to follow the principles of no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no provocation by any party\u201d, to work towards the de-escalation of the situation, and to \u201caccumulate conditions for the political settlement of the crisis\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, said that its analysts found that the \u201ccircumstances\u201d of the alleged attack did not fit the \u201cpattern of observed evidence\u201d usually seen \u201cwhen Ukrainian forces conduct strikes into Russia\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>The US \u200cambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, cast doubt on Russia\u2019s accusation, saying he wants to see US intelligence on the incident. \u201cIt is unclear whether it actually happened,\u201d Whitaker told Fox Business\u2019s Varney & Co.<\/li>\n<li>The \u200dGerman \u200dgovernment also said it shares Ukraine\u2019s concern that Russian \u2060allegations of the attack could be used as a pretext for \u200dfurther \u2060escalation of Moscow\u2019s war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"diplomacy\">Diplomacy<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"spaced-bullet-spacing\">\n<li>Zelenskyy said \u200dthat Ukraine and the Coalition of the Willing group of nations \u2060backing Kyiv plan to \u200bhold their next meetings at \u200dthe start of January. Zelenskyy said that the countries\u2019 national \u200dsecurity advisers would \u2060meet in Ukraine on January 3, and with the leaders in France on January 6.<\/li>\n<li>He also told reporters that Kyiv was discussing with US President Donald Trump the possible \u2060presence of \u200bUS troops in Ukraine \u200das part of security guarantees.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cOf course, we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the [Western] coalition [supporting Kyiv]. We want this. We would like this. This would be a \u200dstrong position of the security \u2060guarantees,\u201d the Ukrainian president said.<\/li>\n<li>Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told officials that there is reason to hope for peace in Ukraine quite soon. \u201cPeace \u2060is on the horizon; there is no doubt that things \u200bhave happened \u200cthat give grounds for hope that this war \u200ccan end, \u200cand quite quickly, \u2060but it is still a hope, far \u200cfrom 100 percent certain,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>Tusk said security guarantees offered to Kyiv \u200cby the US were a reason to hope the conflict could end soon, but that Kyiv would need to compromise on territorial issues.<\/li>\n<li>The US removed sanctions on Alexandra Buriko, the former chief \u2060financial officer \u200bof Russia\u2019s state-owned \u200dSberbank, according to the US Treasury Department.<\/li>\n<li>Buriko was among \u200ba \u200cgroup of senior executives and board members who \u200cresigned from Western-sanctioned \u200cSberbank shortly after \u2060Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She sued the Treasury Department in a Washington federal court in December 2024, arguing she had severed \u200cties with Sberbank days after it was sanctioned and that her continued inclusion on \u200cthe sanctioned list was unlawful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"weapons\">Weapons<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"spaced-bullet-spacing\">\n<li>Romania\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the country would spend 50 million euros ($58m) to support a European initiative to buy weapons made by US companies for Ukraine, known as the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).<\/li>\n<li>Belarus \u200creleased a video of what it said was \u200dthe deployment on \u200dits territory of the Russian nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system, a development meant to bolster Moscow\u2019s ability to strike targets across Europe in the event of a war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the key developments from day 1,406 of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine. Published On 31 Dec 202531 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Wednesday, December 31: Fighting Russian forces shelled the town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region, killing one person, an official […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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