These are the key developments from day 1,407 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 1 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Thursday, January 1:
Fighting
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that Russian forces downed five Ukrainian drones en route to the city on Thursday evening, according to the Reuters news agency.
Ukrainian officials say Russian drones attacked apartment buildings and critical infrastructure in the city of Odesa in an overnight attack on Wednesday, injuring six people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised the military to call up reserve soldiers to protect critical infrastructure in an official decree this week. The order also calls for the government to determine a list of “critically important facilities” to be protected.
The Moscow Times reported the order follows recent changes to Russian law in November that allow reservists to be called up in peacetime.
New Year’s statements
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while he wanted the war to end, he would never sign a “weak” peace agreement that would “only fuel the war”, in a televised address on New Year’s Eve.
The Ukrainian leader said that a peace agreement was “90 percent ready” but that a critical 10 percent remains undecided. “That 10 percent contains everything; it is the 10 percent that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live,” he said.
Putin said he believes Moscow will win the war, nearly four years since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, in his televised New Year’s Eve address. He called on Russians to “support our heroes” during the speech.
Alleged attack on Putin’s residence
Russian Major-General Alexander Romanenkov described an alleged Ukrainian drone assault over the weekend on one of Putin’s residences as a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” in a Telegram post.
Romanenkov said the low-flying drones had passed through Bryansk, Smolensk and Tver en route to the residence in Russia’s Novgorod region.
Russian forces shot down 91 drones while en route between Sunday and Monday using various “anti-aircraft missile systems, mobile fire teams, and electronic warfare systems”, Romanenkov said.
The Ministry of Defence also shared a photo of an alleged Ukrainian drone shot down during the attack on Telegram.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the CIA does not believe the attempted attack on Putin’s residence occurred, citing an unnamed United States official. Ukrainian drones were in the region, the official said, but they were striking military targets far from the home.
Diplomacy
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on X that he had productive talks with Zelenskyy and officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany on Wednesday. The talks also included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“We focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of [Trump’s] peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,” Witkoff said.
Zelenskyy thanked Romania and Croatia on X for joining the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative – which helps Ukraine buy US-made weapons – and announced their first contributions.
Romania this week said it was committing $58m to PURL, while Croatia said it would commit $17.6m.
Zelenskyy said 24 countries have joined PURL since it was launched in August, and together contributed $4.3bn – including nearly $1.5bn in December.
