Here are the key developments on the 1,026th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Here is the situation on Monday, December 16:
Fighting
- Russia’s army said it had captured the village of Yelyzavetivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where its troops are steadily advancing. The village is around 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Kurakhove, a resource-rich town Russian troops are also trying to seize.
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Earlier on Monday, Russia announced it captured the village of Shevchenko also in Donetsk, according to TASS state news agency, quoting Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed head of the region.
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Russia’s Defence Ministry also claimed its forces had taken control of the villages of Veselyi Hai and Pushkino in the same region. The ministry further said Russian forces had hit and destroyed four Patriot air defence systems.
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Russia has launched 49 drones to attack Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian military said, adding that its air force shot down 27 of the drones and lost track of 19 others.
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Ukraine’s military intelligence said its troops killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers who had been deployed by Russia near the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba, and Martynovka in the Kursk region, where Ukraine has seized territory.
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Ukraine’s SBU security service said it had launched an operation to destroy 40 railcars carrying fuel to Russian troops in an area of the Zaporizhzhia region, which is now about 70 percent under Russian control.
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A Ukrainian drone has struck a campus belonging to Russia’s National Guard on Sunday in the Russian region of Chechnya, as Kyiv continues to strike back against Moscow. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov confirmed the hit on a site belonging to the Akhmat Grozny riot police battalion.
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Ukraine has claimed there are no more Russian vessels patrolling the Black Sea, after Moscow’s naval force in the area has been degraded by Kyiv, said Al Jazeera’s Alex Gatopoulous, who is reporting from Kyiv.
Politics and diplomacy
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Moscow’s foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin said he has not been in contact with the CIA over Kyiv’s strikes with Western long-range weapons into Russia and Moscow’s use of its new missile in response, Russia’s RIA agency reported.
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Norway said it will provide 2.7 billion kroner ($242.38 million) to strengthen the Ukrainian navy and help it deter Russian naval forces in the Black Sea. “It is essential to protect the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian infrastructure from attacks by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement. “It is also important to protect exports by sea of grain and other products, which generate crucial revenues for Ukraine.”
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Foreign ministers from the European Union are meeting in Belgium on Monday; Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine is on the agenda.