The remnants of a destroyed Russian Shahed drone at an exhibition in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 12, 2023. (Oleksii Samsonov /Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine shot down all eight Shahed-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported on Jan. 22.
The drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in southern Russia, off the coast of the Sea of Azov, the Air Force said.
The drones were downed above Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad oblasts.
Three drones were shot down above Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and debris from one caused a fire to break out on the premises of a business, Governor Serhii Lysak said. No casualties were reported.
According to Ukraine's Southern Operational Command, two drones were downed above Kherson Oblast, another two above Mykolaiv Oblast, and one above Kirovohrad Oblast.
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was an intern at the Kyiv Post in 2018. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
Ukraine's military reportedly struck oil depots in the various Russian and Russian-occupied regions late on Dec. 30, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
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National security advisers from the Coalition of the Willing countries, led by the U.K. and France, have agreed to meet in Ukraine on Jan. 3, according to Zelensky. The meeting will be followed by another meeting among state leaders, planned for Jan. 6 in France.
Ukraine struck a Russian drone storage facility at Donetsk Airport in occupied Donetsk Oblast, Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi said on Dec. 30.
Ukraine's top commander said a battalion commander will face a legal review after Ukrainian troops abandoned a command post in the Huliaipole sector, leaving behind equipment and potentially sensitive materials.
Zelensky tells Fox News' Bret Baier that Ukraine has demonstrated concrete steps toward peace over the past month and raised the possibility of a referendum on the peace plan. At the same time, a referendum would not legitimize withdrawing from Ukrainian territory, given the current security realities.
Zelensky dismissed Russian claims that Ukrainian drones targeted Putin’s residence as “another lie,” warning Moscow is using the allegation as a pretext for possible strikes on Kyiv and government buildings.
Kyiv failed to implement nine indicators in the last three months of 2025, the highest number missed in any quarter since the Ukraine Facility began in 2024, according to a Dec. 29 assessment by RRR4U.
