News And Information From Ukraine

Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1,020.

Zaporizhzhia region. A Russian glide bomb targeted a residential area in the eponymous regional capital on the evening of Dec. 6 killing at least 10 people, including two children, and injuring 27 others, marking the deadliest attack on the southeastern region in the past month.

Dnipropetrovsk region. Also in the evening of Dec. 6, Russian forces struck two apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih, a large industrial city and hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, killing three people and injuring 17, including a six-year-old child.

On Dec. 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine has lost 43 thousand troops, with 370 thousand total casualties since the start of Russia’s invasion. He also noted that Moscow’s casualties have surpassed 750 thousand, with 198 thousand killed. In February, Zelenskyy reported that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, indicating over 12,000 military personnel have died in the past 10 months alone. While the figures provided by Zelenskyy line up with independent estimates for Russia, western analysts put Ukraine’s losses upward of 60 thousand troops.

Although the Kremlin refrains from commenting, reports indicate Russian casualties could exceed 200,000, surpassing Russia’s total losses in all post-World War II conflicts. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently revealed that Russia has spent more than $200 billion on its invasion of Ukraine, with military casualties surpassing 700,000 soldiers, a striking price for Russia’s aggression.

Russia captured 270 square miles of Ukrainian territory in November, nearly five times the area it managed to capture in all of 2023. The accelerated advance is attributed to Ukraine’s resource constraints, delays in weapons supplies, and disruptions on the frontlines. By the end of November, the Kremlin’s territorial gains for 2024 reached nearly 1,080 square miles, 18 times more than in 2023. Significant Russian advances are concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region, two-thirds of which is now occupied, where Moscow’s offensive has gained unprecedented momentum in the past four months.

Ukraine has begun mass production of its new “Peklo” (Hell) drone missile, which has a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles) and speed of 435 mph, with several dozen units already delivered to its military, President Zelenskyy announced. Developed in less than a year, these missiles have undergone initial battlefield testing, though the results of their deployment remain undisclosed. The accelerated weapons development aligns with Ukraine’s ambitious plan to produce 30,000 long-range drones and 3,000 cruise missiles in 2025. However, experts caution these extraordinary production targets, which would surpass even Russian and U.S. annual missile outputs, may be difficult to achieve.

On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump had a meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss the war in Ukraine and ways to end it. That same day, Trump, Zelenskyy, and French billionaire Bernard Arnault gathered in Paris for the reopening ceremony for the Notre Dame cathedral.

The Council of the European Union approved a $4.25 billion disbursement to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility program on Dec. 9, bringing total assistance under the conditional financing initiative to 16 billion euros ($17 billion). This tranche comes after Ukraine met its goals on nine key reform indicators in September, including anti-corruption and energy sector reforms, as part of its ongoing compliance with EU requirements. In total, the Ukraine Facility program is equipped to provide up to 50 billion euros ($53 billion) in aid through 2027.

The U.S. Department of Defense has unveiled a new security aid package valued at nearly $1 billion for Ukraine, the 22nd round of support under the Biden Administration’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Announced on Dec. 7, the package includes munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), drones, and critical components for repairing artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles. In parallel, Sweden and Denmark signed a $2.5 billion deal to jointly purchase 205 armored vehicles, 40 of which will be allocated to Ukraine.

Ukraine received a second batch of American-made F-16 fighter jets from Denmark, following the initial delivery this summer of six aircraft that have already been used to intercept Russian attacks. In October 2024, the Netherlands delivered its first batch of F-16s, contributing to a European commitment of 80 jets in total, including 19 jets from Denmark and 30 from Belgium. Ukraine lost its first F-16 in late August in a crash during a Russian missile barrage.

Ukraine’s military faces a growing crisis, with prosecutors pursuing 96 thousand cases against soldiers who have allegedly gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) since the start of Russia’s invasion, a sixfold rise in two years, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 6. With indefinite deployments and scarce reinforcements, many soldiers leave their units despite the risk of criminal prosecution. A new amnesty program by President Zelenskyy has encouraged nearly 3,000 troops to return since late November. In Russia, courts have handled more than 10 thousand cases against soldiers deserting their posts, with half of these occurring in 2024, according to a report by independent Russian news outlet Mediazona in August, though experts say the official numbers are vastly underreported.

By Danylo Nosov, Karina L. Tahiliani