Russian forces launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday evening, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. Earlier on Monday, a senior Russian general was killed after an explosive device detonated under his car in southern Moscow. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said peace negotiations were "close to a real result" despite contradictions from the Kremlin. Follow our liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This liveblog is no longer being updated.
This liveblog is no longer being updated. Follow our coverage of the war in Ukraine here.
Zelensky says residents of border village taken by Russian troops lived peacefully for years
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that residents of a border village taken into Russia by Moscow’s troops had interacted with their neighbours for years without incident.
Zelensky, addressing reporters at an event honouring Ukraine’s diplomats, confirmed media reports that residents of Hrabovske village, which straddles the border in the Sumy region and is home to 52 people, were taken away by Russian troops.
“These 52 people who lived there and did not leave naturally carried on a dialogue of some sort with those on Russian territory,” Zelensky said.
“They lived like this for many years. And I think they simply didn’t expect Russian troops to simply walk in and take them away as prisoners. But that’s what happened.”
Trump says Ukraine war talks are going “okay”
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks to end the war in Ukraine are going “okay”.
The US has sponsored a flurry of talks in recent weeks aimed at ending the war, though reports of progress have generally been inconsistent, with Russia and Ukraine still far apart on some key issues.
Russia–US talks on Ukraine not a breakthrough, Kremlin says
Talks between Russia and the United States in Miami on ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine should not be seen as a breakthrough, the Izvestia news outlet cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in remarks published on Tuesday.
“This is a working process,” Peskov said when asked whether the negotiations that took place in Miami on December 20–21 could be seen as a turning point.
New Russian drone attack on Odesa port, regional governor says
Russian forces launched a new evening drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday, the second in less than 24 hours, damaging port facilities and a civilian ship, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
Zelensky says negotiations on war settlement 'close to a real result'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that negotiations conducted with the United States and European nations aimed at ending the nearly four-year war with Russia were "very close to a real result".
Ukrainian negotiators led by senior official Rustem Umerov, along with representatives from Europe, have held a series of meetings with US envoys, including in recent days in Florida.
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy, has also been holding separate talks with US officials in Florida.
Officials in both Ukraine and Russia said their teams were returning home on Monday to report on the outcome of the discussions.
"It all looks quite worthy ... And here it is important that this is the work of both us (Ukraine) and the United States of America. This suggests that we are very close to a real result," Zelensky told a gathering devoted to Ukrainian diplomats.
Zelensky threatens to respond if Russia does not commit to negotiations
After a meeting with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Volodymyr Zelensky has threatened to respond “in a fully logical way” if Russia does not "commit with 100% seriousness to the negotiation process”.
"We reviewed the situation at the front, across all sectors, in detail," he said in a post on X. "I am grateful to our warriors for their resilience and for Ukraine's active defense – our units are destroying the occupier exactly as the occupier deserves."
Assassinations in Russia transcend military targets, FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert says
The assassination of Russian Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov is the third such killing of a senior military officer in a year.
FRANCE 24's Douglas Herbert highlights that it is not just military figures who have been targeted.
"We have seen [assassinations] of anyone who is a prominent supporter of Russia's invasion, Ukrainian defectors and even, in one case, a Ukrainian deputy," Herbert said.
Ukraine strikes oil terminal, planes and ships on Russian soil
Ukrainian forces hit an oil terminal, a pipeline, two parked jet fighters and two ships in a series of strikes on Russian soil, officials said Monday.
Ukrainian forces struck the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, an ammunition depot and a launch site for attack drones inside Russian territory and Russian-held Ukrainian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement.
The strikes took place in the southern Krasnodar region, and a large blaze broke out, the statement said, without specifying what kind of weapons were used in the attack.
The attacks are part of an ongoing campaign to disrupt the Russian war effort and sow fear behind the front line, where outnumbered Ukrainian troops are straining to hold back Russia’s bigger army after almost four years of war.
Car bomb kills Russian general in Moscow
A Russian general was killed by a car bomb in southern Moscow on Monday, Russian investigators said, adding that they suspected Ukrainian special services could have been behind the attack.
Russia is ready to legally confirm that it has no intention of attacking NATO, deputy minister says
Russia is ready to confirm in a legal agreement that it has no intention of attacking either the European Union or the US-led NATO military alliance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, the state RIA news agency reported.
Russia says it has captured Vilcha in eastern Ukraine, RIA reports
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had captured Vilcha in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday.
Russia presses on with 'systematic attacks' on south Ukraine port
Russian forces again attacked the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, Ukraine's authorities said, accusing Moscow of seeking to completely destroy maritime logistics.
Russian strikes on the Black Sea regions have intensified, hitting bridges, ports and cutting electricity and heating to thousands as temperatures dip.
"The enemy does not stop striking the Odesa region. Russia is trying to destroy maritime logistics, launching systematic attacks on port and energy infrastructure," Reconstruction Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Sweden releases boarded Russian freighter after customs inspection
Swedish customs has released a Russian ship it boarded over the weekend in order to perform an inspection, with marine tracking data showing the vessel was on the move again.
The customs service said on Sunday that authorities had boarded the Adler, a Russian freighter, that anchored in Swedish waters near Hoganas in south-west Sweden on Friday after developing engine problems.
"The prosecutor has decided not to open an investigation into suspected violation of sanctions," a spokesperson for the customs service said. "The ship has therefore been allowed to go on its way."
Kremlin says special envoy Dmitiriev to report to Putin US proposals for Ukrainian settlement
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will report to President Vladimir Putin on US proposals for possible Ukrainian settlement as soon as he arrives in Moscow from Miami.
Kremlin special envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrived in Miami on Saturday and held two days of talks with US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Russian general killed in car bomb in Moscow
A Russian general was killed Monday morning after an explosive device detonated underneath his car in southern Moscow, investigators said.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, died from his injuries, Svetlana Petrenko, official spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of enquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” Petrenko said.
Ukraine is leveraging its powerful – and cheap – new drone killers for air defence
The icy ground crackling under their feet, members of an elite Ukrainian drone-hunting team set up for a long night.
Antennas and sensors are clipped to a light stand. Monitors and controls are pulled from hard cases, and a game-changing new weapon is readied for deployment.
The Sting, shaped like a flying thermos, is one of Ukraine’s new homegrown interceptors.
The unit’s commander says the interceptors can effectively counter Russia’s fast-evolving suicide drones, which are now flying faster and at higher altitudes.
Western intelligence suspects Russia is developing new weapon to target Musk's Starlink satellites
Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk's Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel, with the aim of reining in Western space superiority that has helped Ukraine on the battlefield.
Intelligence findings seen by The Associated Press say the so-called “zone-effect” weapon would seek to flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets, potentially disabling multiple satellites at once but also risking catastrophic collateral damage to other orbiting systems.
Analysts who haven't seen the findings say they doubt such a weapon could work without causing uncontrollable chaos in space for companies and countries, including Russia and its ally China, that rely on thousands of orbiting satellites for communications, defense and other vital needs.
US envoy Witkoff calls Ukraine, Russia talks 'productive'
Talks held between US, European and Ukrainian officials over the last three days in Florida aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine focused on aligning positions, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday, calling those meetings and separate talks with Russian negotiators productive.
US President Donald Trump has been pressuring Ukraine and Russia to come to an agreement on ending the nearly four-year-old conflict as soon as possible, but Russia wants to keep the Ukrainian areas it has seized and Kyiv has refused to cede ground.
After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Saturday, Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner met on Sunday with officials from Ukraine and Europe, and then separately with the Ukrainian delegation, led by senior official Rustem Umerov.
Witkoff, in a social media post, called Sunday's talks "productive and constructive" and focused on a "shared strategic approach between Ukraine, the United States and Europe."
US and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday that hailed "productive and constructive" talks in Miami but did not announce any apparent breakthrough in efforts to end the war with Russia.
The Kremlin denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States were on the cards, as diplomats gathered in Miami for talks on ending the conflict.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed efforts to achieve a "just and lasting end" to the war in Ukraine on Sunday with President Donald Trump, Starmer's Downing Street office said in a statement, after talks between officials in Florida.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called for broader consultations with European partners after talks between US and Ukrainian teams in Florida last week.
