Here is the situation as it stands on Sunday, December 18.
Conflict
- Ukraine has restored power to almost six million people in the last 24 hours after a barrage of Russian missiles on Friday damaged critical energy infrastructure across the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Poland’s police chief said the explosion that left him hospitalised last week was caused by a grenade launcher he had received as a gift from Ukraine.
Russian military
- Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected troops involved in Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, the defence ministry said.
- President Vladimir Putin sought proposals from the commanders of his armed forces on how they think Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine should proceed, during a visit to the operation’s headquarters, the Kremlin said.
- Russia’s defence ministry said its “high-precision” weapons hit parts of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy and military administrative facilities on Friday.
- A shield is being set up over a storage site for spent nuclear waste at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine to protect it from shelling and drones, a Russian-installed official said.
Diplomacy
- The speed with which Germany managed to build and link up its first floating gas terminal to replace lost supplies of Russian gas should serve as a model for a new, pacier German economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the terminal’s opening.
- Moldova has reached a short-term energy deal that would help wean one of Europe’s poorest countries off its dependence on Russian natural gas, a senior official said.
- The latest round of European Union sanctions against Russia over Ukraine will just exacerbate problems within the bloc, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
