Here are the highlights of the 1,033rd day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Here's what's happening on Monday, December 23:
Fighting:
- More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in South Korea have said.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft defenses destroyed 42 Ukrainian drones in five Russian regions overnight on Sunday.
- Russian forces have captured two villages in Ukraine, one in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the other east of Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
- A Ukrainian military official said Sontsivka, a village in the east, was among the 26 Russian targets in the past 24 hours. The officers reported a major battle near Pokrovsk, with 34 Russian attempts to break through the defenses.
- The head of the Ukrainian Parliament for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that Russian forces killed five unarmed prisoners in Ukraine on Sunday.
- Ukraine's security agency SBU has named Colonel General Alexei Kim, Russia's deputy chief of the General Staff, as one of the people suspected of ordering the bombing of a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August. The SBU said they acted “with deliberate intent.” to kill employees of the Reuters news agency.
Diplomacy and Defense
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said he promised to retaliate after Ukrainian jets hit residential buildings in the city of Kazan in Russia's Tatarstan region.
- Putin met Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin on Sunday, a rare visit by the European Union leader to Moscow as a deal to allow Russian gas through Ukraine nears its end.
- South Korea says North Korea is planning to send more troops and weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine, Yonhap news agency reported.
- US President-elect Donald Trump he said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his desire to meet with him “as soon as possible” to discuss the conflict in Ukraine.