Here are the main developments on the 1,050th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Thursday January 9:
Struggle
- A Russian-guided bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 civilians and injured around 30 others, Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a statement published on social networks.
- Another Russian strike killed two people in the village of Stepnogirsk, south of Zaporizhzhia and close to the front line, Fedorov also said.
- Roman Busagrin, governor of the Russian city of Saratov, said two firefighters were killed while battling a blaze that broke out after Ukrainian forces struck an oil depot in the area, about 500 km away. from the border with Ukraine.
- The United States told the United Nations Security Council that North Korea “benefits significantly” from its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, gaining experience that makes Pyongyang “more capable of conducting a war against its neighbors.
- Nada Al-Nashif, the UN’s deputy human rights chief, told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that she was “deeply concerned” about a significant increase in “credible allegations of executions” of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian armed forces.
Military aid
- The United States is ready to provide Ukraine with an additional $500 million in weapons quickly removed from its existing stockpiles, two American officials said, adding that the decision was made by the administration of US President Joe Biden before the Donald Trump takes office at the White House.
- US leadership in Ukraine is “crucial” and continued aid to kyiv is essential, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, a day before the expected announcement of the new military aid package.
Politics and diplomacy
- NATO membership is the only “credible” security guarantee Ukraine can receive against any future Russian aggression, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has said.
- Valtonen, visiting kyiv, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visited the country’s largest children’s hospital in the capital, which was badly damaged by a Russian attack in July 2024.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any future deal to end the war in Ukraine should incorporate “the necessary deterrence” to prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine again.
- Zelensky will attend a defense meeting of kyiv’s allies hosted by the United States at Ramstein air base in Germany, he said in a video message on social media.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet French President Emmanuel Macron, where illegal immigration and support for Ukraine are likely to be among the topics of discussion.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a memorial event marking the fifth anniversary of a Ukrainian Airlines flight shot down by Iran in 2020 carrying passengers from Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom United, from Afghanistan and Iran.
Regional tensions
- Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the country was ready to replace Hungary in the European Union and NATO if Budapest preferred to join the Russian-led blocs, after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto criticized the Ukraine’s refusal to renew a five-year gas transit agreement with Russia.
- Finnish President Alexander Stubb will host a summit of NATO countries bordering the Baltic Sea in Helsinki next week with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.
- Lithuania said it would bring increased security to a key electricity cable linking it to neighboring Poland, citing the potential for sabotage. EU and NATO member countries, along with their Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, are set to disconnect from Russia’s power grid next month, the culmination of decades-long efforts to reduce their dependence towards Moscow.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the principle of inviolability of borders applies to all countries, no matter how powerful, and suggested that US President-elect Trump’s expansionist comments regarding Greenland, Panama and Canada arouse “incomprehension” from European leaders.
- Zelensky downplayed concerns over Trump’s comments in which he said he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine to join NATO. “Don’t draw immediate conclusions about American policy,” Zelensky said.
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he had secured gas supplies for Slovakia during a visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, just before Ukraine halted the gas transit from Russia in early 2025.
- Zelensky and Moldovan President Maia Sandu discussed using Ukrainian coal to ease the energy crisis that has subjected Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region to power outages and heating shortages. Pro-Russian Transnistria depends on Russian gas supplies. But flows to the region via Ukraine were cut off on January 1 after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement allowing the transit of gas through its territory.
