Here are the key developments on the 1,050th. Day of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Thursday, January 9th:
Battle
- A Russian-controlled bombing attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 civilians and injured about 30 others, Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a statement on social media.
- A separate Russian attack killed two people in the village of Stepnogirsk, south of Zaporizhia 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 fire that broke out after Ukrainian forces attacked an oil depot in the region, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the border with Ukraine is distant.
- The United States told the United Nations Security Council that North Korea “benefits significantly” from having its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine and gaining experience that will “better enable Pyongyang to wage war against its neighbors.” .
- Nada Al-Nashif, the UN deputy human rights chief, told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that she was “deeply concerned” by the significant increase in “credible allegations of executions” of captured Ukrainian troops by Russian forces.
Military aid
- The US is ready to provide Ukraine with an additional $500 million in weapons that could be quickly withdrawn from its existing stockpiles, two US officials said, adding that this move was initiated by the administration of US President Joe Biden will be undertaken before Donald Trump takes office in the White House.
- U.S. leadership in Ukraine is “critical” and continued assistance to Kiev is critical, U.S. 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 future Russian aggression, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.
- During a visit to Kiev, Valtonen met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 must build in “the necessary deterrence” to prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine again.
- Zelensky will attend a U.S.-hosted defense meeting of Kiev’s allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, he said in a video message on social media.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, with illegal migration and support for Ukraine likely to be among the topics of discussion.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a commemoration ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of a Ukraine Airlines flight carrying passengers from Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Iran that was shot down by Iran in 2020.
Regional tension
- 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 Ukraine’s refusal to sign a five-year transit gas deal with Russia to extend.
- Finnish President Alexander Stubb will host a summit of NATO’s Baltic Sea states next week in Helsinki with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.
- Lithuania said it would increase the security of a key power cable connecting it to neighboring Poland, citing the possibility of sabotage. The EU and NATO member, along with its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, will disconnect from Russia’s power grid next month, the culmination of decades of efforts to reduce dependence on Moscow.
- Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, no matter how powerful it is, and pointed out that expansionary statements by US President-elect Trump regarding Greenland, Panama and Canada have resonated with European leaders encounter “incomprehension”.
- Zelensky downplayed concerns over Trump’s comments in which he said he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine to join NATO. “Don’t immediately draw conclusions about US policy,” Zelensky said.
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he secured gas supplies for Slovakia during a visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, shortly before Ukraine stopped gas transit from Russia in early 2025.
- Zelensky and Moldovan President Maia Sandu discussed using Ukrainian coal to ease the energy crisis that has caused power outages and heat shortages in Moldova’s separatist Transnistria region. Pro-Russian Transnistria relies on supplies of Russian gas. However, supplies through Ukraine to the region stopped on January 1 after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement authorizing gas transit through its territory.
