These are important developments since day 1,392 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Published December 17, 2025
Here’s what happened on Wednesday, December 17th.
finding
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital and warned people to remain in shelters late Tuesday night as air defenses were activated to repel a Russian attack. The Russian military has launched a “massive” drone strike in Ukraine’s Sumy region, targeting energy infrastructure and causing power outages, Governor Ole Frikhorov said on Telegram late Tuesday night. According to Ukraine’s Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnik, power outages were also reported in the Donetsk region. Russian attacks on electrical substations and other energy infrastructure have left 280,000 households in Ukraine’s Odessa region without power, Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. Power has since been restored to 220,000 homes, but extensive work was still needed to repair the damaged network, Kuiper said.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine currently receives power through only one of two external power lines, with the other line severed due to military activity, the facility’s Russian administrator said.
According to the state-run TASS news agency, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Russian military shot down 180 Ukrainian-made drones in one day. Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Rodion Miloshnik told TASS that over the past week, Ukrainian attacks have killed 14 Russian civilians and injured nearly 70 in Russian-occupied areas such as Kherson and Zaporizhzhya.
ceasefire negotiations
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz shared details about the possibility of a European-led multinational force being considered as part of discussions on Ukraine’s security. “We will secure a demilitarized zone between the belligerent parties and, very specifically, we will also act against Russian aggression and aggression in response,” Merz told ZDF public television, adding that talks “have not yet reached that point.”
regional security
Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden said in a joint statement on Tuesday that “Russia is the most important, direct and long-term threat to the security of our countries and to the peace and stability of the Euro-Atlantic region.” After the Eastern Flank summit in Helsinki, Finland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the group of European countries had discussed an “anti-drone wall” that would require “billions of dollars of spending here.” Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense announced that it has ended the deployment of Patriot Systems and Air and Missile Defense Task Force soldiers to Poland as the mission has been completed on schedule. British Secretary of State for Defense John Healy told a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Liaison Group that Britain is spending 600 million pounds (more than $800 million) to buy “thousands of air defense systems, missiles and automatic turrets for shooting down drones” for Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Independent news agency. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the same conference that Germany will “transfer a significant number of AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles to Ukraine” next year.
compensation
The leaders of 34 European countries signed an agreement in The Hague to create an International Claims Commission for Ukraine seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in damages from the Russian attack. Before signing the agreement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “All Russian war crimes must have consequences for those who commit them.” “The goal is to ultimately verify the claim that Russia will have to pay. In fact, Russia will have to pay,” said Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel.
