These are important developments since day 1,386 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published December 11, 2025
Here’s what happened on Thursday, December 11th.
finding
A tanker involved in a Russian oil deal was struck and disabled by a Ukrainian maritime drone while sailing through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea toward the Russian port of Novorossiysk, according to an official with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The Oyama tanker was traveling at maximum speed with its transponder turned off when a powerful explosion occurred in the stern, causing significant damage to the vessel, SBU officials said. No information was available regarding possible casualties from the attack. The attack is the third maritime drone attack in two weeks on a ship that is part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.” The vessel is an unregulated vessel that Kyiv claims is helping Moscow export large amounts of oil and finance its war in Ukraine, despite Western sanctions. Three people were killed and two injured in Ukrainian military shelling of a hospital in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, the Russian-installed governor claimed on Telegram. All of the casualties were employees of the medical facility. Kiev’s military announced that Ukrainian forces were repelling an unusually large-scale Russian mechanized attack involving “armored vehicles, cars, and motorcycles” in the eastern city of Pokrovsk. A senior Ukrainian government official announced that a Russian drone attacked a gas transport system in the Odesa region of southern Ukraine. There are multiple pipelines in the region that carry U.S. liquefied natural gas from Greece to Ukraine. The city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, announced that Russian air defense forces shot down two drones on their way to Moscow.
peace agreement
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had agreed on the key points of a postwar recovery plan and “economic document” in talks with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. “The principles of the economic document are completely clear and we are in full agreement with the American side,” Zelenskiy said. “The key common principle is that for quality recovery and economic growth to be visible after this war, real security must be at the heart of it. If there is security, then everything else will be there,” he said. President Zelensky also said that work is underway on a “basic document” for a 20-point U.S.-backed plan aimed at ending the war. He said two other relevant documents deal with security and economic issues. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany will speak by phone with President Trump to discuss recent US peace efforts to end the war in Ukraine, which he said are at a “critical juncture” in the process. French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump and European leaders discussed how to move forward on “issues that concern us all.” Another meeting of leaders of the so-called “coalition” supporting Ukraine will take place on Thursday, the French presidential palace said, adding that the meeting would be held by videoconference.
military aid
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a major defense policy bill authorizing a record $901 billion in annual military spending over the next two years, including $400 million in military aid to Ukraine and other measures that strengthen America’s commitment to the defense of Europe.
politics and diplomacy
President Trump reiterated his concerns about the long absence of elections in Ukraine and put further pressure on President Zelensky to hold an election. President Zelenskyy said he had consulted with Ukraine’s parliament on legal and other issues related to the possibility of holding elections during wartime, and called on other countries, including the United States, not to apply pressure on the issue. Wartime elections are prohibited in Ukraine by law, but Zelensky, whose term expired last year, is under renewed pressure from President Trump to cancel the vote.
regional security
Following a report by the head of Kiev’s foreign intelligence service that Russia and China were taking steps to strengthen cooperation, President Zelensky said there was “a growing trend towards the deprivation of sovereignty of parts of Russian territory in favor of China”, mainly through Russia’s sale of “scarce resources” to Beijing. “We… note that China is taking steps to strengthen cooperation with Russia, including in the military-industrial field,” President Zelenskiy wrote to X.
Report by Ole Ivashchenko, Director of Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. There were many details about the foreign policy situation surrounding Ukraine and the economic situation in Russia, especially the dependence of companies and the state system… pic.twitter.com/xV5fvx6RvR
— Volodymyr Zelensky / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 10, 2025
sanctions
The United States has extended the deadline for negotiations to acquire Russian oil company Lukoil’s global assets by just over a month, to January 17th. President Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest energy companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, on October 22 as part of pressure on Russia over the Ukraine war, and Lukoil put its assets up for sale soon after. Russian prosecutors have asked a court in Moscow to seize the assets of US private equity fund NCH Capital in Russia, Kommersant newspaper reported, citing court documents. Prosecutors accused the fund’s owners of funding the Ukrainian military. European Union ambassadors have given the green light to the bloc’s plan to phase out Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, clearing one of the final legal hurdles before a ban is enacted, three EU officials told Reuters.
