Zelensky changes the leadership of Defence and Military Intelligence. Evacuation in Zaporizhzhia

The head of the pro-Russian administration of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo announced that the death toll of the attack by the Ukrainian armed forces in Khorly has risen to 28. 'Three people died today in hospital. The number of people affected, including the dead, exceeds 60. More than a hundred people were present in the bar at the time of the attack,' said Saldo, quoted by the Tass news agency. The governor added that it will take about a week to identify Khorly's victims through DNA testing.

The death toll in the Russian attack in which a building in Kharkiv was hit has risen to 25, the governor of the Ukrainian region, Oleg Synegubov, announced on Telegram. Of the people involved, he added, 16 are in hospital. 'One woman, seriously injured, is currently in the operating room,' Synegubov also reported.

Russian forces made the most significant advance in Ukraine in 2025, compared to 2023 and 2024. This was revealed by an analysis by the American Institute for the Study of War (Isw) conducted together with the Critical Threats Project (Ctp), according to which Russia has conquered more than 5,600 km2 of territory in the past year, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined. A territory equal to 0.94% of Ukraine's total area. In 2022, Russian forces had conquered almost 64,000 km2. Despite intensified diplomatic efforts since November around a US plan to end the conflict, fighting on the ground continues. A 20-point plan negotiated at the end of December between Kiev and Washington envisages in particular the freezing of the front in the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south, as well as Donetsk and Lugansk in the east, the oblasts that form the Donbass. In December, Moscow captured 244 km2, its weakest monthly advance since March, but accelerated its offensive in the Donbass, the eastern region it seeks to annex. However, the strong progress since spring, particularly in November (701 km2), allows Russia to exceed the cumulative progress of 2024 (4,000 km2) and 2023 (580 km2).

At least 19 people were injured in a Russian bombing raid on the city centre of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, according to the governor of the region, Oleg Sinegubov, who said on Telegram that the injured were aged between 20 and 79. The governor reported that the worst moment of the attack was the explosion of a bullet against a residential building in the Kivski district, which is currently being evacuated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today appointed Oleh Ivashchenko, former head of Ukraine's foreign intelligence service, as the new head of the country's military intelligence.

"As of today, Oleg Ivashchenko will continue to serve our country and perform tasks related to limiting Russian military potential as the head of Ukraine's military intelligence," the Ukrainian president wrote on his Telegram profile

Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian troops of hitting a residential building in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine. The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Syniehubov, says that, 'at the moment, it is known that 13 people were injured', of whom 'six were transported to hospital'. This was reported by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. According to the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, also quoted by Ukrinform, there are reports of 12 injured.

Russian forces attacked Kharkiv today, hitting a residential area. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who wrote on his social media, 'two missiles directly hit residential areas. One of the buildings was severely damaged. A rescue operation is currently underway and all necessary services are involved'. "The exact number of casualties is not yet known," the Ukrainian leader pointed out.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov as the new Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, replacing Andriy Yermak who was forced to resign over involvement in a corruption case. "At this time, Ukraine needs more attention to security issues, the development of the Ukrainian Defence and Security Forces, as well as the diplomatic path of negotiations, and the Office of the President will primarily serve the fulfilment of these tasks of our state," Zelensky announced on X.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported that it had handed over to the US data obtained from the navigation instruments of one of the drones that Moscow said was directed against President Vladimir Putin's residence. "The decoding of the memory of the drone's navigation controllers, performed by special services specialists, unequivocally confirms that the target of the attack was the presidential residence complex," said Igor Kostyukov, head of the General Directorate of the General Staff, quoted by Ria Novosti. "We believe that this step resolves all doubts and facilitates the establishment of the truth.

The Russian authorities announced that they had intercepted and shot down seven drones launched by the Ukrainian army in the direction of Moscow in the last few hours. "Emergency teams," said the capital's mayor Sergei Sobianin, "are working at the site of the impact (of the drone wreckage). Prior to the Moscow mayor, the Russian Defence Ministry had reported that air defence systems shot down 65 Ukrainian drones overnight, including seven in the Moscow region. There were no reports of possible casualties or damage.

Ukrainian intelligence warns that Russia is allegedly preparing a serious armed provocation with civilian casualties between 6 and 7 January in an attempt to derail the US-mediated peace talks. This was made known by the External Intelligence Service of Ukraine (Szru) in a statement released on Telegram, as Ukrinform reports. According to the note, the operation would be part of a broader Kremlin strategy to sabotage the negotiation process. After the alleged attack on Putin's residence, Russian authorities allegedly intensified the dissemination of falsified information to prepare Russian and international public opinion for a new escalation, Ukrainian 007s note. "With a high probability we foresee the transition from information manipulation to an armed provocation organised by the Russian special services, with significant loss of life," Ukrainian intelligence states. The time identified would coincide with Christmas Eve or Christmas celebrations according to the Julian calendar, between 6 and 7 January. According to the Szru, the location of the possible provocation could be a religious building or another site of high symbolic value, either in Russia or in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. Kiev intelligence also claims that Moscow intends to fabricate evidence of alleged Ukrainian involvement, using Western-made attack drone fragments, which would be transferred from the front line to the site of the operation. "The exploitation of fear and the carrying out of terrorist acts with civilian victims under a false flag fully correspond to the operational style of the Russian special services," the note reads. A tactic that, according to Kiev, Vladimir Putin's regime has already used several times within the Russian Federation and that would now be extended abroad. The Ukrainian intelligence finally recalls that already on 29 December, Moscow allegedly launched an information operation to undermine the agreements reached between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, using in particular the narrative of an alleged 'attack on Valdai' to justify the tightening of its negotiating position, future combined offensives against Ukraine during the holidays and the delegitimisation of the Ukrainian leadership.

The Ministry of Defence announced that Russian troops had captured nine settlements in one week. "Over the past week, units of the Tsentr grouping of forces have liberated the settlements of Dimitrov, Rodinske, Artemovka and Volnoye of the Donetsk People's Republic," reads a Defence Ministry post on Telegram. "The units of the Zapad group of forces completed the liberation of Dibrova settlements in the Donetsk and Boguslavka settlements in the Kharkiv region through active operations," the ministry further announced. "The units of the Vostok group of forces continued to advance into the depths of enemy defences and, following decisive actions, liberated the village of Gulyai-Pole in the Zaporizhzhjia region," the post read. "The units of the Dnepr grouping liberated the Stepnogorsk and Lukyanovskoye settlements in the Zaporizhzhjia region."

The head of the pro-Russian administration of the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, Evgenij Balitsky reported that three people were injured as a result of six attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Zaporizhzhia region in the last 24 hours. "In the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska, several residents were injured in the shelling of a private home, one man and two women," Balitsky wrote on Telegram

On the night of 2 January, Russian troops launched a massive attack on Zaporizhzhia with attack drones. Dozens of buildings were damaged and a shopping centre caught fire. This was stated by Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, reported by Rbc. "During the New Year holidays Russia did not stop attacking Zaporizhzhia and its suburbs. Last night one of the most massive drone attacks took place,' said Fedorov, according to whom a significant part of Russian targets were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence forces as they approached the city. This prevented casualties among residents. At the same time, the Russians struck Zaporizhzhia with drones as many as nine times, hitting residential buildings, commercial facilities and infrastructure. Dozens of damages to houses and business premises were reported this morning. "Russia tried again to hit energy infrastructure last night, but as of this morning all residents of the region have electricity," adds the head of the regional military administration.

Kiev forces are only targeting Russian 'military targets'. This was repeated to Afp news agency by a spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces after Moscow blamed the Ukrainians for the deaths of 27 people in an attack reported by the Russian authorities on a hotel and a club in the Khorly area of the Russian-controlled Kherson region of Ukraine. "The Defence Forces of Ukraine comply with the norms of international humanitarian law and only strike at military targets of the enemy," Dmytro Lykhoviy, spokesman for the General Staff, told Afp.

The Ukrainian Air Defence Forces destroyed 86 of the 116 drones launched by Russia during the night of 1 to 2 January. Ukrainska Pravda reports. As of 6pm on 1 January, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 116 Shahed, Gerbera and other types of drones launched from the Russian cities of Millerovo, Kursk, Shatalovo, Oryol, Bryansk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, as well as from Chauda and Hvardiiske in the temporarily occupied Crimea. About 70 of the drones were Shahed. Impacts by 27 UAVs were recorded at 23 locations and downed drones (debris) at 8 locations.

The spokeswoman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Petrenko, updated the death toll of the attack in the village of Khorly, in the Moscow-controlled part of the Kherson region, to 27. The victims also include two children. Thirty-one people, including five children, were hospitalised.

Russian forces are continuing to advance towards Pokrovsk using individual movements, apparently confident that they will go unnoticed. This was stated by Ihor Yaremenko, chief of staff of a reconnaissance artillery battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard, in a TV interview reported by RBC. As of the evening of 1 January, 97 clashes were recorded along the front line, 23 of them in the direction of Pokrovsk, which has long been the hottest sector.

Pokrovsk

Drones have struck an oil refinery in the Russian region of Samara. This was claimed by the Ukrainian Unian news agency.

In Novokuybyshevsk, residents reported hearing more than ten explosions. A fire broke out in one of the neighbourhoods. Already in recent weeks, a Ukrainian attack had hit the Syzran oil refinery, a key Rosneft facility considered to be a key fuel supply facility for the Russian army.

Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine, came under attack by Russian drones. This was claimed by the Ukrainian authorities, according to the Unian news agency, reporting explosions and the activation of air defence systems in the region.

According to initial reports, the unmanned aircraft targeted the urban area and surrounding infrastructure.