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Ukraine has brought back 1,358 people from Russian captivity in 2024
Over the past year, Ukraine conducted 11 prisoner exchanges and secured the return of 356 more people than in 2023.
Team
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Over the past year, Ukraine conducted 11 prisoner exchanges and secured the return of 356 more people than in 2023.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his New Year video greeting late on Dec. 31 that no one would give peace to his country as a gift, but he believed the United States would stand together with Ukraine as it fights to stop Russia's full-scale invasion.
Since the beginning of 2024, at least 246 children native to Kherson Oblast have been returned from Russian occupation, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Xi emphasized that China and Russia consistently advance together on a "path of non-alliance, non-confrontation, and not targeting any third party," according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.
An oil depot in the Yartsevo district of Russia's Smolensk region caught fire following a drone attack overnight on Dec. 31, according to regional authorities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has a chance to contribute to restoring stability in Syria following years of Russian interference, emphasizing that this effort will also bolster Ukraine’s own pursuit of peace.
NATO allies met on Dec. 30 to address the security of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, following damage to undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland several days earlier.
The U.S. government has officially classified Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher jailed in Russia on drug charges, as wrongfully detained, the State Department announced on Dec. 27.
A number of major Russian news outlets had their Telegram channels blocked across several European Union countries on Dec. 28. Users attempting to access these channels now see a notice saying that the content has been restricted and is no longer available.
"Almost every month, ships are currently damaging important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Funke media group on Dec. 28. "This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us."
Authorities estimate the tankers were carrying 9,200 tons of fuel oil, of which approximately 40% potentially leaked into the sea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the situation as "truly critical."
The country's defense strategy seeks to increase spending to 1% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Italy has delivered 10 military aid packages to Kyiv which have included advanced systems like the French-Italian SAMP/T air defense units.
Europe is unlikely to ramp up weapons and ammunition production for Ukraine in the coming years, according to Andrius Kubilius, the newly appointed EU Commissioner for Defense and Space.
A Ukrainian woman is in serious condition after a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on the evening of Dec. 20. The incident has claimed five lives and left over 200 people injured, many of them critically.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 21 that he met with CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine, marking a rare public acknowledgment of their discussions during Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The Russian embassy in London criticized the U.K.'s plan to transfer more than two billion pounds ($2.5 billion) to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets, calling it a "fraudulent scheme."
When asked what he would have done differently if he could go back to February 2022, the month Russia launched its all-out war against Ukraine, Putin responded, "Knowing what's happening now, back in 2022, I would've thought the decision ought to have been taken earlier."
A Moscow court ruled on Dec. 19 to place the suspect in the killing of General Igor Kirillov in pre-trial detention for two months. Kirillov was killed in Moscow on Dec. 17, with a bomb attached to a scooter.
"Only Ukraine as the aggressed country can legitimately define what peace means — and if and when the conditions are met for credible negotiations," said Antonio Costa, president of the European Council.
The Trump administration's incoming Ukraine peace envoy, Keith Kellogg, plans to visit Kyiv and several European capitals in early January as part of the new administration’s effort to address the Russia-Ukraine war.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on Dec. 16 that the deal allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine will not be extended beyond the end of the year. His statement comes as several European countries intensify efforts to secure alternative energy supplies.
The EU imposed fully fledged sanctions on Dec. 16, including asset freezes and visa bans, on Chinese firms for supplying Russia's military for the war against Ukraine.
"Everybody in NATO and in the EU right now has the feeling in their backbone that you should increase defense expenditure because of what is happening all over the world and with Russia," Estonia's Prime Minister Kristen Michal told Reuters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has emphasized the importance of inflicting "maximum pain" on Russian President Vladimir Putin through additional sanctions and enhanced military support for Ukraine.
Ukraine has criticized FIFA for an "unacceptable error" after a map displayed during the 2026 World Cup draw appeared to exclude Crimea from the country's territory.
The Petroleum Industry of Serbia, primarily owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and its parent company Gazprom, is Serbia’s exclusive gas supplier and controls the main pipelines delivering gas from Russia to Serbian households and industries.
At least two AN-124 heavy military transport planes were spotted at Khmeimim air base, located in Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, with their nose cones lifted, signaling readiness to load cargo, according to satellite images collected by Maxar.
The proposed measures target more than a dozen individuals and three entities, including Russian intelligence officers and media entrepreneurs, according to Bloomberg. The sanctions aim to counter destabilizing operations globally.
Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, announced on Dec. 13 that it had blocked access to the Viber messaging app.
Ukrainian drones reportedly struck an oil depot in the city of Oryol overnight on Dec. 14, causing a large fire. Governor Andrey Klychkov later said that 11 drones were downed over the Oryol region.
Ukraine successfully returned five children from Russia and Russian-occupied territories as part of the "Bring Kids Back UA" initiative, Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak announced early on Dec. 10.