Here's what's happening on Tuesday, December 24:
Fighting
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that “according to preliminary data, the number of North Korean soldiers killed and wounded in the Kursk region has already exceeded 3,000”. Zelenskyy's comments came shortly after South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. South Korean simulations the number was about 1,100.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said in a Telegram post that its air defenses destroyed nine Ukrainian drones in the Rostov region and two over the Sea of Azov.
- The Ukrainian military agency, known as GUR, said in a message on Telegram that the Russian warehouse in Alabuga, a special economic center, was “destroyed” along with parts of the “Shahed” drone “worth $16 million” in a “very serious fire”.
Diplomacy and Politics
- Sweden has rejected China's claims that it agreed to an open investigation into the cutting of two submarine cables in the Baltic Sea in Swedish waters in November. European officials have said they suspect the damage is linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin has called “ridiculous”.
- Lawmakers in Romania, which borders Ukraine, voted narrowly in favor of a new government aligned with the European Union, after the country's Constitutional Court canceled the presidential race over allegations of Russian interference.
- Zelenskyy accused Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico of wanting to “help” Putin after Fico went to Moscow to continue importing Russian gas, and the agreement to transit gas through Ukraine is due to expire on December 31.
- The Italian minister on Monday issued a decree allowing the continuation of military aid to Ukraine until the end of 2025, a government report said.
- Volunteers cleaning up an oil spill in Russia's Black Sea have said they are concerned and have appealed to Putin for help, a week after two aging Russian oil tankers sank. it was destroyed during the storm he is going to deliver fuel to the Russian Navy.