Here is where things stand on Thursday, December 25:

Fighting

An explosion in Moscow killed three people, including two police officers, just days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking Russian general in the same area of the capital.
An official from Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as GUR, told The Associated Press news agency that the attack had been carried out as part of a Ukrainian operation and the two police officers were targeted for taking part in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russian air defence units downed 16 Ukrainian drones en route to Moscow throughout Wednesday, the capital’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Sobyanin said the drones were repelled over a period of about 17 hours, and emergency crews were examining fragments where the drones hit the ground, but no damage was reported.
Two of four major airports servicing Moscow were forced to limit operations for a time due to the drone attacks, Russia’s civil aviation authority said on Telegram.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its aerial defence units destroyed 172 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of them over regions bordering Ukraine.

Ukraine said its drones had struck the Yefremov synthetic rubber plant ‌in Russia’s Tula region, south of Moscow, and a storage facility for marine drones in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Tula regional governor, Dmitry Milyaev, said ‌debris from a downed Ukrainian drone ignited a fire at an industrial ‌site, and Russian air defence units destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over the region.
A sunflower oil spill, caused by Russian aerial bombardments, has contaminated the shoreline around the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing wildlife and triggering warnings from conservationists, the AFP news agency reports.
“The cause was damage to sunflower oil tanks as a result of massive enemy attacks on port infrastructure, causing some of the oil to spill,” Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said in a statement. The Pivdenny port in the region was temporarily closed on Wednesday to help with the cleanup.
A Russian-backed court in occupied Ukraine sentenced a Colombian man to 19 years in prison for fighting for Kyiv’s army.
Russia’s Prosecutor General said the Supreme Court in the Russian-controlled area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region sentenced Oscar Mauricio Blanco Lopez, 42, to 19 years in jail. The Colombian arrived in Ukraine in May 2024 to sign up with the Ukrainian army and had been “taken prisoner by Russian servicemen” in December 2025.

Ceasefire talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed for the first time details of an agreement between the United States and Ukrainian negotiators on ending the war with Russia. The 20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators after marathon talks, is now being reviewed by Moscow.

As part of the plan, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Moscow also pulled back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.

A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader said that any peace plan would need to be put to a referendum in Ukraine.

Asked about the latest development in ceasefire talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would decide its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with US envoys in Florida over the weekend.

Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized in Ukraine. Moscow has also insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70 percent of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.

Politics and diplomacy

A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, Russia’s state pollster VTsIOM said, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts ⁠to end the conflict intensify.

During the pollster’s year-end presentation, VTsIOM Deputy Head Mikhail Mamonov said 70 percent of the 1,600 respondents saw 2026 as a more “successful” year for Russia than 2025, while for 55 percent that hope was linked to a possible end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A Russian court has scheduled the first public hearing in a criminal case against German sculptor Jacques Tilly, who is accused of discrediting the Russian military through his satirical Carnival floats depicting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The court in Moscow said the trial will begin on December 30 and proceedings will be held in absentia, as Tilly – who faces up to 10 years in jail or a fine – is not in Russia.

Zelenskyy said in his Christmas address on Wednesday that despite marking the holiday at a “difficult” time, the nation’s unity remains intact. “Ukrainians are together tonight,” Zelenskyy said, adding the country had “without a doubt” been changed by the war. “It hardly matters what dishes are on the table – what matters is who is at the table,” he said.

Artillerymen of the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region

Artillerymen of the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade fire a M777 Howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on December 24, 2025 [Reuters]

Regional security

France’s President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke ⁠with NATO chief Mark Rutte to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the work undertaken ⁠by the “coalition of the willing”. “Starting in January in Paris, we will ‌continue the work begun within this framework to provide ‌Ukraine with solid security ‌guarantees, a ⁠prerequisite for a robust and lasting peace,” Macron ‌said on social media.

Democratic senators in the US have urged President Donald Trump to reverse a recall of nearly 30 career ambassadors, warning the move leaves a dangerous leadership vacuum that allows adversaries like Russia and China to expand their influence. The Trump administration in recent days has ordered career diplomats serving across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America back to Washington to ensure US missions abroad reflect its “America First” priorities.

Economics

Kazakhstan’s exports of its flagship CPC Blend of oil will be their lowest in 14 months in December, as bad weather delays efforts to repair Russian loading infrastructure after Ukrainian drone strikes last month, two sources told the Reuters news agency.

On November 29, Ukrainian drones hit the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal located near Russia’s Black Sea port ⁠of Novorossiysk, leaving just one out of three jetties operational and prolonging export delays. Poor weather has added to the difficulty of carrying out maintenance work necessary to allow exports to recover.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance said it completed the settlement of a deal to restructure $2.6bn of growth-linked debt.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,400

Fighting

Ceasefire talks

Politics and diplomacy

Regional security

Economics