These are important developments since day 1,387 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published December 12, 2025
Here’s what happened on Friday, December 12th.
finding
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his gratitude to the Russian military after it was reported that they had captured the town of Siversk in eastern Ukraine. In response, the Ukrainian military said it continued to control the city. The news agency was unable to verify the claims on the battlefield around Siversk, a long-standing goal of Russia as it seeks to capture the entire Donetsk region of Ukraine. Russia’s state news agency reported, citing the Defense Ministry, that Russian troops also captured the village of Lyman in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Russia has announced that Ukraine has launched a massive air attack, with at least 287 drones shot down over many parts of the country, including Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry said at least 40 unmanned aircraft were shot down over the Moscow region, which is home to more than 22 million people. The commander of Kiev’s drone force announced that Ukrainian drones attacked two chemical factories in Russia’s Novgorod and Smolensk regions. Ukrainian drones also struck Russia’s Filanovsky oil platform in the Caspian Sea for the first time, halting production at the Lukoil-owned facility, Ukrainian security officials said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called on Britain to reveal what George Hooley, a British soldier who was recently killed in Ukraine, was doing in the country. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused London of helping Kiev carry out “acts of terrorism” against Russia, but provided no evidence for the claim. The British Ministry of Defense said Hooley died while inspecting Ukrainian forces testing new defense capabilities away from the front line with Russian forces.
peace agreement
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country had presented the United States with a revised 20-point framework to end the war with Russia, adding that the issue of territorial cession to Russia remained a major sticking point in negotiations. President Zelensky said that as a compromise, the United States is proposing the creation of a “free economic zone” in Ukrainian-controlled areas of eastern Donbas, which Russia is demanding from Ukraine. “They see this as a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is probably that Russian troops will not enter this part of the Donetsk region. They do not know who will govern this region,” Zelensky said, adding that Russia called the region a “demilitarized zone.” Zelensky also said Ukrainians should vote for territorial concessions in a referendum and said he had discussed Ukraine’s security in a video call with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. President Zelenskyy told a meeting of the 34-nation Coalition of the Willing, led by Britain and France, which pledged to help Ukraine against Russian aggression, that a ceasefire was needed to hold wartime elections in Ukraine. US President Donald Trump has said the US will send a representative to participate in European talks on Ukraine this weekend if there is a good chance a cease-fire deal can move forward. “If we think there’s a good chance, we’ll be in Europe on Saturday. And if we think it’s negative, we don’t want to waste a lot of time,” Trump said. Earlier, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters that President Trump was tired of multiple meetings that failed to reach an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine.
regional security
NATO chief Mark Rutte urged allies to step up defense efforts to prevent a war launched by Russia in Europe. This war could be “on the scale that our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.” Rutte said in a speech in Berlin that too many military allies do not feel the urgency of Russia’s threat in Europe and that defense spending and production must rapidly increase to prevent war.
sanctions
The International Olympic Committee said youth athletes from Russia and Belarus should compete in international competitions without access restrictions, a first step toward easing sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. European Union governments have begun the process of placing a long-term freeze on Russia’s central bank assets tied up in Europe to avoid semiannual votes to lift the freeze, paving the way for the funds to be used to lend to Ukraine. Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Vincent van Peteghem said Russia’s frozen assets would eventually have to be used for Ukraine, adding that Brussels “will not make reckless compromises” before agreeing to a deal on the issue. Brussels opposes the unprecedented plan to use Russian funds frozen in the EU, mainly from Belgian banking institutions, to fund loans to Ukraine, arguing it would put the country at great risk of future lawsuits from Moscow. Russia’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the EU’s “manipulation” on Russia’s frozen assets is not without answers. Germany’s highest fiscal court has ruled that authorities cannot currently sell or use an oil tanker and its cargo seized off the Baltic coast, siding with the ship’s owners in two separate lawsuits. The Panamanian-flagged Eventin was found adrift off the coast of Germany in January after leaving Russia with around 100,000 tonnes of oil worth around 40 million euros ($47 million). German authorities suspect the ship is part of a “shadow fleet” used by Russia to evade EU sanctions
economy
Russia’s revenue from exports of crude oil and refined products fell again in November to its lowest level since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to the International Energy Agency.
