Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Aug. 31 that the EU would suspend a visa agreement on easing visa issuance instead of a full visa ban due to a lack of unanimity among EU countries. The suspension will remove preferential treatment for Russians when applying for all EU visas and as a result, require more documentation and waiting times while making them more expensive. Eastern and Nordic countries strongly back a tourism ban, while Germany and France said it would be counter-productive because ordinary Russians should still be allowed access to the West.
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Exclusive: 'Be careful' — European leaders warned Zelensky to assess Trump's real stance at Mar-a-Lago
'They are looking for a pretext' — Zelensky denies drone attack on Putin's residence
'We can't just withdraw from our territories' —Zelensky says following his meeting with Trump
Dr. Strangelove or: How the West taught Putin to stop worrying and love his bombs
Explosions reportedly rock Russia's Khanskaya military airfield
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Wednesday, December 31
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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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Russian forces launched a large-scale drone attack on Odesa overnight Dec. 30-31, striking residential buildings, leaving parts of the city without heat, electricity or water, and injuring four people, including three children, local officials said.
Tuesday, December 30
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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.
"Where is their condemnation of the fact that our children are being bombed and people are being killed all this time? I don't hear India, frankly, nor the United Arab Emirates," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 30.
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.
"Each restoration requires significant time and resources, as the level of damage varies across regions," Deputy Energy Minister Olha Yukhymchuk said.
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.
Monday, December 29
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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.
