Here is the situation on Saturday, December 7:
Fighting:
- A Russian attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 10 people and wounded 24 on Friday. The city’s governor, Ivan Fedorov, said the attack had set a car garage and service station on fire in the blast.
- Another attack on nearby Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, killed at least two people, according to the local governor.
- Moscow said its forces had captured a village near the embattled supply hub of Pokrovsk and another near the industrial town of Kurakhove, gaining ground in two key areas of the east Ukraine front line.
Military and diplomacy:
- Zelenskyy slammed Putin after the attacks, saying in a post on Telegram that “thousands of such strikes carried out by Russia during this war make it absolutely clear that Putin does not need real peace,” adding that “only through force can real peace be established”.
- The EU’s first-ever defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, has called for a “big-bang approach” in spending and policy changes to strengthen the bloc’s defences, warning that Russia could be prepared for military aggression against the EU or NATO by 2030.
- Ukraine unveiled a new domestically produced “rocket drone” called Peklo (Hell in Ukrainian) saying it can fly 700km (430 miles) – more than twice the longest range attributed to missiles supplied by Western allies.
- Zelenskyy said a second batch of F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine from Denmark, praising the move on X as “an example of leadership in defending lives that sets Denmark apart.”
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a broadcast interview that his country’s recent use of a hypersonic missile in the Ukraine war sought to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use “any means” to stave off defeat.
- Zelenskyy is set to travel to Paris this weekend for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral, where he hopes to meet with the US president-elect Donald Trump.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published on Saturday that he believed he and Trump would be able to develop a “joint strategy” for Ukraine.
