Here are the highlights of the 1,038th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Here's what's happening on Saturday, December 28:
Fighting:
- Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday it foiled an attempt by Ukrainian police to kill a senior Russian soldier and military blogger, the Interfax news agency reported.
- Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured more 1,000 North Korean soldiers Russia has sent to fight them, according to Ukraine and South Korea. “Their loss is great, very great. We see that neither the Russian military nor their North Korean commanders are interested in ensuring the survival of the North Korean people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on Friday night. A spokesman for the United States National Security Council, John Kirby, said that an “army” of North Korean soldiers were being killed in “hopeless” attacks by diplomats that they considered unnecessary.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday that its forces had captured two villages in eastern Ukraine, Ivanivka in Donetsk region and Zahryzove in Kharkiv region, RIA news agency reported.
- RIA also cited the ministry as having dropped four British-made Storm Shadow missiles last week.
- A North Korean soldier, who was fighting in Russia, died in captivity in Ukraine due to serious injuries, according to South Korea's spy agency.
- Ukraine's air force shot down 13 of the 24 Russian jets that took place overnight, the air force said on Friday. The air force said 11 other Russian drones were “lost” without damage.
Activities and diplomacy:
- US President Joe Biden's administration has promised to approve new military aid to Ukraine, including air defense equipment. Kirby said US defense assistance was expected to be announced “in the next few days”.
- “If someone wants to organize peace talks in Slovakia, we will be ready and hospitable,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a Facebook post late Friday. His words come Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said on Thursday that he is ready in Slovakia to hold peace talks with Ukraine.
- Ukraine has received its first batch of natural gas from the US, a deal Kyiv says is important to bolster Ukraine's energy security and Europe as a major gas transit deal with Russia expires. “Dtek, Ukraine's largest energy company, today received its first shipment of natural gas (LNG) from the United States,” the company said on Friday.
Defendant:
- A Russian court sentenced Eduard Sharlot, 26, a musician who burned his passport to protest Russia's war in Ukraine, to five and a half years in prison, according to Russian news agencies. Sharlot was found guilty of “openly insulting” the religious views of believers and “reviving Nazism” by a court in the Volga city of Samara in a case involving videos she published on the Internet, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.