Here are the highlights of the 1,048th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Here's what's happening on Tuesday, January 7:
Fighting
- The Russian Ministry of Defense said it captured the village of Dachenske, south of Pokrovsk, a major city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which its forces are targeting.
- Ukrainian police said a Russian airstrike targeted a bus near Kherson on Monday, killing one person and injuring eight others.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had suffered heavy losses in the five months since the Ukrainian army entered the Kursk region, and about 15,000 people had been killed. The capture of southern Russian territory has allowed Kyiv's military to establish a safe haven, forcing Moscow to divert its forces away from areas in eastern Ukraine, he added.
- Several Ukrainian soldiers have escaped training in France, a French army chief told AFP. The soldiers are now subject to the punishment “provided by the law of Ukraine”.
Politics and diplomacy
- French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Ukraine to have “realistic” expectations about territory as its war against Russian aggression reaches its fourth year, saying he did not see a “quick and easy way” to end the conflict.
- Moldovan authorities have summoned the Russian ambassador fearing a worsening situation in Transnistria. The divided region is at risk of a total blackout after Russia cut off gas.
- The ambassador to Ukraine appointed by US President Donald Trump, Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, has postponed a fact-finding trip to Kyiv and other European cities until Trump's inauguration on January 20, according to sources.
- The head of the bishops of the Orthodox Church in Russia, celebrating Christmas together with the leader of the Kremlin Vladimir Putin, said that the Western countries despise Russia and its “other way of development”.