Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,403

Here is where things stand on Sunday, December 28:

Fighting

• At least two people were killed in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region, after Russian forces launched a massive attack with hundreds of missiles and drones, ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with United States President Donald Trump to work out a plan to end nearly four years of war.
• The attack also wounded at least 46 people, including two children, according to Ukrainian officials.
• Zelenskyy, who was on his way to meet Trump in Florida, said that Russia had launched nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure.
• Ukraine’s state grid operator, Ukrenergo, said that energy facilities across Ukraine were struck, and emergency power cuts had been implemented across the capital. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said the attack had left more than a million households in and around Kyiv without power.
• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said that more than 40 percent of residential buildings in Kyiv were left without heat, as temperatures hovered around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) following the attack.
• Poland’s Air Navigation Services Agency said in a statement on X that the Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the country’s southeastern region were temporarily shut following Russia’s strikes on Ukraine. The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said that Polish and allied jets were deployed during the attack, but no violations of Polish airspace were reported.
• In Russia, air defence forces shot down 11 drones headed for the capital, Moscow, according to the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.
• Russia’s aviation watchdog, Rosaviatsia, said that Moscow’s Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports imposed temporary restrictions on airspace due to security reasons.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence also said that its air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian drones in three hours over six other Russian regions.
• Russian commanders told President Vladimir Putin that Moscow’s forces had captured the Ukrainian towns of Myrnohrad, Rodynske and Artemivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as Huliaipole and Stepnohirsk in the Zaporizhia region, the Kremlin and Russian news agencies said on Telegram.
• But Ukraine’s military said in its daily battlefield update that its forces had beaten back Russian attempts to advance in the vicinity of Myrnohrad and Huliaipole.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy announced in a Telegram message that he would hold talks with European leaders after his meeting with Trump on Sunday, as Kyiv pushes for a stronger position in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations to prevent Russia from prolonging the war in Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy said he wants to discuss with Trump territorial issues, the main stumbling block in talks to end the war, as a 20-point peace framework and a security guarantee deal near completion.
• On the way to the meeting in Florida, Zelenskyy stopped in Canada’s Halifax to meet Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister said in a statement after the meeting.
• Carney denounced the latest Russian attack as “barbarism”, stressing that it is important for allies to “stand with Ukraine in this difficult time”. He also announced $1.83bn in additional economic aid to Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy spoke to European leaders following the meeting with Carney. In a statement posted on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We welcome all efforts leading to our shared objective – a just and lasting peace that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. And that strengthens the country’s security and defence capabilities.”
• Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, which represents the bloc’s 27 member states, echoed von der Leyen’s promise to continue backing Ukraine, saying on X: “The EU’s support for Ukraine will not falter. In war, in peace, in reconstruction.”
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Zelenskyy had “the full support” of European leaders ahead of his talks with Trump. The leaders of NATO and the European Union said they would work “in close coordination” with the US “for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, Merz added in a statement.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said in a call with Zelenskyy that the latest Russian strikes on Kyiv showed that Moscow was not interested in ending the war, the AFP news agency reported, citing officials from Macron’s office. During the call, Macron highlighted what he called the “contrast” between “the willingness of Ukraine to build a lasting peace and Russia’s determination to prolong the war that it started”, the report said.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could see Kyiv was in no hurry to end the war by peaceful means, according to the Interfax news agency. Putin said that if Ukraine did not want to resolve the conflict peacefully, then Russia would accomplish all goals of its “special military operation” by force, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (left) speak to the media as they meet in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, ahead of the former’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on Sunday [Ukrainian Presidential Office/Handout Photo via AFP]