21.12.2025

The Guardian: The “shadow fleet” used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to avoid western sanctions and ship cargo to customers including China and India is “exploding” in its scale and scope, and there are concerns that efforts to counter it are drawing closer to dangerous military confrontations. Complicating the issue is that Russia has begun putting its own flag on some former shadow fleet tankers, in an open challenge to Europe.

Reuters: Sweden's customs service said on Sunday that authorities had boarded a Russian freighter that anchored in Swedish waters on Friday after developing engine problems, and was conducting an inspection of the cargo. The owners of the vessel, the Adler, are on the European Union's sanctions list.

The Moscow Times: The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States were under discussion, as diplomats gathered in Miami for negotiations aimed at ending the war.

Reuters: Russian forces have crossed the border with Ukraine in the northeastern Sumy region and taken about 50 residents of a Ukrainian border village into Russia, Ukrainian media quoted the military as saying on Sunday. Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne and the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet said Russian forces entered Ukrainian territory on Saturday night in the area of the village of Hrabovske.

The Kyiv Independent: Members of the Ukrainian partisan group Atesh sabotaged a key railway supply hub near the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, disrupting Russian logistics to occupied territories, the group claimed on Dec. 21.

20.12.2025

Reuters: Russia is trying to sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday, following days of ramped-up airstrikes on ports and energy facilities in the Odesa region and a critical route to the Moldova border. Russia has unleashed an almost continuous drone and missile campaign against a region where ports key to Ukraine's foreign trade and fuel supplies operate, after Moscow threatened to cut "Ukraine off from the sea".

The Kyiv Independent: A total of 202 Indian nationals have been 'recruited' into the Russian army since 2022, with at least 26 killed and seven missing, according to India's Foreign Ministry.

RBC-Ukraine: In the Donetsk direction, Ukraine’s Defense Forces have stopped assault operations by Russian troops, according to Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian long-range drones have struck two Russian Su-27 fighter jets at the Belbek military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea, the Security Service of Ukraine said on Dec. 20.

Reuters: Ukraine and Portugal agreed on the joint production of Ukrainian sea drones, the Ukrainian president's aide said on Saturday.

Sweden continues to support Ukraine, and the Swedish Government is therefore moving forward with the single largest support package ever to a country of SEK 2 billion ($216 million) in special budget support.

Reuters: Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian oil rig belonging to Lukoil in the Caspian Sea and a military patrol ship near a rig as Kyiv steps up attacks on Moscow's oil infrastructure.

The Kyiv Independent: Russia attacked the port infrastructure of Odesa Oblast in southern Ukraine late on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring 27 others, the State Emergency Service reported.

19.12.2025

Reuters: U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire.

The Moscow Times: Turkey said a drone that crashed on Friday in a rural area of northwestern Turkey following a series of incidents linked to the Russia-Ukraine war was of Russian origin.

Politico: The EU will one day use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, even though leaders failed to agree to do so at a summit this week, the head of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, told POLITICO in an interview on Friday.

Reuters: A senior NATO military official voiced cautious optimism that the Czech Republic may continue an initiative to source large-calibre ammunition for Kyiv from global suppliers despite a recent change of government in Prague.

Reuters: Russian technology companies working on air defense, sensitive electronics and other defense applications were targeted in recent weeks by a cyber espionage group using AI-generated decoy documents, according to a cybersecurity analyst.

The Moscow Times: Espanola, an ultranationalist paramilitary group fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine, confirmed on Friday the death of its leader, Stanislav Orlov, under unclear circumstances.

Reuters: Ukraine has struck a Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea with aerial drones for the first time, an official said on Friday, reflecting the growing intensity of Kyiv's attacks on Russian oil shipping.

Reuters: Ukraine and Russia have carried out a new exchange of bodies of dead soldiers, Ukrainian and Russian officials said on Friday.

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