Russia–Ukraine war: list of major events, day 1,043 | russia-ukraine war news

Here are the key developments from the 1,043rd day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The situation as of Thursday, January 2 is as follows:

fighting

• Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kiev early on New Year’s Day, killing two people, injuring at least six others and damaging buildings in two districts.
• The attack partially destroyed two floors of a residential building in central Kiev, according to the State Emergency Service.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that as the New Year began, Moscow could only think about harming Ukraine: “Even on New Year’s Eve, Russia was only concerned about How to harm Ukraine.”

• The Ukrainian military said it shot down 63 of the 111 drones launched by Russia overnight Wednesday, while 46 were shot down by electronic jamming.
• Several residential buildings in Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhia caught fire overnight after the attacks, and a woman was rescued, according to local authorities.
• Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky visited Ukrainian forces in the Russian border area of ​​Kursk and said that the Russian army had lost more than 34,000 troops in its efforts to drive Ukrainian troops out of Russian territory, either Are dead or injured.
• Over the past five months, about 700 Russian prisoners of war have been captured, Syrsky said, who Ukraine can exchange for its own people held in Russian captivity.

economy

• Russian and Ukrainian officials said the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine has been suspended.
• Russia’s Gazprom said it had no legal or technical means to pump gas through Ukraine after Kiev allowed it to terminate contracts for gas transit.
• President Zelensky said the decision to block the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats”.

• Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko called the halting of transit a “historic event” and described it as a decision taken “in the interest of national security.”
• Poland also applauded the end of Russian gas transit through Ukraine, with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski saying the cutoff is “a new victory following NATO’s enlargement to Finland and Sweden”.

Putin spent billions of dollars building Nordstream to encircle Ukraine and blackmail it by threatening to cut off gas supplies to Eastern Europe. Today Ukraine cut off its ability to export gas directly to the EU.
Another victory after NATO expansion by Finland and Sweden.

– Radek Sikorski (@radeksikorski) 1 January 2025

• Russia’s Gazprom has suspended gas supplies to Slovakia following the expiration of a transit agreement to carry gas through Ukraine.
• Slovak gas importer SPP said it had prepared for such a situation and would supply all its customers via alternative routes, mainly by pipelines from Germany and Hungary, but it would face additional costs in transit fees.
• The Slovak government condemned Ukraine’s decision, with the country’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico threatening to cut off electricity supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine.
• The reduction in gas flows was immediately felt in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria, forcing it to cut heating and hot water supplies to homes. The predominantly Russian-speaking region of about 450,000 people broke away from Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and still has about 1,500 troops stationed there.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government and the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, to build cooperation with China in artificial intelligence. Putin’s directives were published on the Kremlin’s website, three weeks after he announced that Russia would work with BRICS partners and other countries to develop AI.