Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,396

Here is wherever things basal connected Sunday, December 21:

Fighting

• The decease toll from a Russian rocket attack connected Ukraine’s larboard metropolis of Odesa roseate from 7 to eight, with astatine slightest 30 others wounded, according to Ukrainian authorities.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the concern successful Odesa arsenic “harsh” and accused Russia of trying to artifact Kyiv’s entree to the Black Sea.
• The Ukrainian person besides said that helium is looking to regenerate the caput of the Southern Air Command, Dmytro Karpenko, implicit the Russian strikes connected Odesa.
• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian forces besides attacked the adjacent larboard of Pivdennyi connected Saturday, hitting respective reservoirs.
• Ukraine’s subject said its peculiar forces carried retired a drone onslaught connected a Lukoil lipid rig successful the Caspian Sea connected Friday, on with the Russian subject patrol vessel Okhotnik. The subject besides said that the Filanovsky lipid rig, which had been targeted doubly this month, was damaged successful the strike.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces took power of the villages of Svitle and Vysoke, located successful Ukraine’s eastbound Donetsk portion and the northeastern Luhansk region, respectively.

Diplomacy and ceasefire talks

• Zelenskyy said the United States projected a caller format for talks with Russia, comprised of three-way talks astatine the level of nationalist information advisers from Ukraine, Russia, and the US.
• The Ukrainian person expressed scepticism that the talks would effect successful “anything new”, but added that helium believes that US-led talks person the champion accidental of success.
• He added that helium would enactment trilateral discussions if they led to advancement successful areas specified arsenic captive swaps oregon a gathering of nationalist leaders. “If specified a ‍meeting could beryllium ⁠held present to let for swaps of prisoners of war, oregon if a gathering of nationalist information advisers achieves statement connected a leaders’ meeting… I cannot beryllium opposed. We would enactment specified a US proposal. Let’s spot however things go,” helium said.
• Zelenskyy besides pushed backmost against calls for Ukraine to hold elections arsenic the warfare drags on, stating that voting cannot instrumentality spot successful Russian-occupied areas and that information conditions indispensable archetypal improve. “It is not [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who decides erstwhile and successful what format the elections successful Ukraine volition instrumentality place,” Zelenskyy said.
• Zelenskyy urged European leaders to o.k. a measurement to prehend frozen Russian assets and usage them to money Ukraine’s warfare effort, saying that doing truthful volition fortify Ukraine’s leverage astatine the negotiating table. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that Ukraine volition request astir 137 cardinal euros ($161bn) successful 2026 and 2027, arsenic the demands of the warfare proceed to strain the country’s economy.
• Russian peculiar envoy Kirill Dmitriev held talks with his US counterpart, Steve Witkoff, and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, successful the metropolis of Miami.
• “The ‌discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and ‌will proceed ⁠today, and volition besides proceed tomorrow,” ‌Dmitriev said
• Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov attended a acme successful Cairo, held to beforehand person practice betwixt Russia and African nations, and attended by much than 50 countries. Lavrov pitched Russia arsenic a “reliable partner” to African countries successful areas specified arsenic information and nationalist sovereignty.

Weapons

• Ukrainian statesmanlike adjutant Oleksandr Kamyshin announced a woody with Portugal connected the associated accumulation of maritime drones, saying it would assistance “defend Europe from the sea”.