As the war enters its 684th day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Monday, January 8, 2024.
Struggle
- The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 21 of 28 Russian drones targeting the south and east of the country. Russia also launched three cruise missiles, the Air Force added, without providing further details.
- Dnipropetrovsk regional authorities said 12 people were injured in a Russian drone attack in the city of Dnipro.
- Local officials said two people were killed in the city of Kherson after Russian forces occupying the opposite bank of the Dnieper River attacked the city with numerous bombing raids. Roman Mrochko, head of the Kherson city administration, said several people were also injured.
- In the northeast, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said one man was killed and two other civilians, including a child, were wounded in the Russian bombing of Kupiansk.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said soldiers fighting on the front lines in Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Christmas with military priests leading prayer services.
Politics and diplomacy
- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, on an unannounced trip to kyiv, pledged $37 million to NATO to help Ukraine prevent Russian drone attacks. She also said Japan would donate five mobile gas turbine generators and seven transformers to maintain power supply. Kamikawa was forced to hold her press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba underground after an airstrike alert. “Japan is determined to continue supporting Ukraine so that peace can be restored,” she said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a security conference in Sweden that the situation on the battlefield remained relatively stable and Russia could be defeated.
- At the same event, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that the main task of Sweden’s foreign policy in the coming years would be to support Ukraine.
Weapons
- Zelenskyy said the war in Ukraine had demonstrated the need for Europe to develop joint arms production to ensure it can “preserve” itself and defend its freedoms.
