Russia-Ukraine updates: Unclear if Moscow will reply ‘soon’ to peace plan

For more on the new 20-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, read our story here.

You can also check out this explainer on why Russia is escalating its attacks on Ukraine’s port city of Odesa.

And for all our coverage of Russia and Ukraine, see this page.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a look at the day’s main developments:

• Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has released details of a new 20-point proposal negotiated with the United States to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
• The plan includes strong security guarantees for Ukraine and an affirmation of Ukrainian sovereignty, but there is no formal agreement on territorial concessions.
• Russia has yet to formally comment on the plan, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying only that Moscow would formulate its position and continue contacts with Washington.
• Meanwhile, Russian attacks continued across Ukraine, with a strike on the suburbs of Kharkiv killing at least one person and leading to power outages.
• Russia said dozens of Ukrainian drones also were intercepted throughout the day, including at least 16 that were shot down over the capital, Moscow.

Yulia Svyrydenko has shared a Christmas message stressing that millions of Ukrainians are hoping “for Ukraine’s victory and the end of this war”.

“We pray not for ease but for endurance. Not for mercy from the aggressor, but for justice and strength,” she wrote on X.

Ukraine’s State Border Service says its drone units have repelled a Russian assault in the Kursk direction using Vampire UAVs and first-person-view (FPV) drones.

According to a statement cited by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, border guard units from the Steel Border brigade killed four Russian soldiers and destroyed four shelters during the operation.

Separately, Ukrinform reported drone operators destroyed a Russian infantry fighting vehicle and its crew near the settlement of Serebrianka.

After years of saying it would support Ukraine for “as long as it takes”, the US under President Trump is now pushing to end Europe’s war – quickly and imperfectly.

While the details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of the country’s territory.

To understand the implications for Europe, the US and their relations, Al Jazeera’s The Bottom Line spoke earlier this week with Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs.

Check it out below:

Creating a demilitarised economic zone in the Donbas would require difficult discussions on how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed, Ukraine’s president says.

The US-Ukraine working draft also proposes that Russian forces withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

Zelenskyy envisions international forces being located along certain points of the contact line within the zone to monitor the implementation of the agreement. He acknowledged the US has not yet accepted Ukraine’s counterproposals.

“But we have significantly brought most of the positions closer together,” Zelenskyy said. “In principle, all other consensus in this agreement has been found between us and them.”

Mikhail Mamonov, deputy head of Russian state pollster VTsIOM, says 70 percent of respondents in the firm’s yearend survey see 2026 as a more “successful” year for Russia than this year.

And for 55 percent of people, that hope was tied to a possible end to the Russia-Ukraine war, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, he said.

“The main reason for optimism is the possible completion of the special military operation and the achievement of the stated objectives, in line with the national interests outlined by the president,” Mamonov said during a presentation of the findings.

Serhiy Kryvosheyenko, head of the Ukrainian military administration in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, says a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl have been wounded in a Russian drone attack on the city.

Both were taken to hospital and are in stable condition, Kryvosheyenko wrote in a post on Telegram.

Earlier, an infrastructure facility was hit in a Russian attack on the city, but no injuries or damage to nearby residential buildings was reported.

UNICEF has transferred 14 generators and high-power generator systems to water supply companies in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said installation of the equipment would begin soon and is expected to be completed by the end of January.

He said the generators and eight planned backup power systems would help ensure uninterrupted water supplies for communities, hospitals and families during ongoing disruptions.

The aid package is worth about $500,000, Filashkin added.

Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, has reported 16 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Russian capital since midnight.

Sobyanin said emergency responders are working at the site of the latest downed drone.

Separately, the Russian Defence Ministry said 132 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over various parts of the country today.

According to an Interfax report, the ministry said that included 46 drones destroyed over the Belgorod region, while 42 were downed over Bryansk.

Have you been on a plane during severe turbulence, fearing the shaking aircraft is about to fall apart and tumble down? Brief moments of weightlessness stop your breath. Perhaps you whisper prayers and remember everyone you love.

That’s the feeling you get during Russian air raids in Kyiv, and there have been more than 1,800 since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

These days, they are bigger, scarier and longer than ever because each one involves hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.

They begin after dark and sometimes last in waves until dawn. Whooshing missiles tear through the night sky. Drones buzz like horror movie chainsaws or giant mosquitoes out of childhood flu nightmares.

Read more here.

The Kremlin says a phone call between Putin and Trump could be arranged quickly if needed over the Christmas period.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Vedomosti newspaper that while activity slows during the holidays, there would be no difficulty organising a conversation if necessary.

Peskov added that there are currently no scheduled calls between the Russian and US leaders.

A sunflower oil spill has contaminated the shoreline around the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing wildlife and triggering health warnings.

An AFP journalist in the city filmed frothy brown pools of oil on the shore and slicks atop the water. Volunteers are scooping up sand and pulling dead birds out of the water.

“The cause was damage to sunflower oil tanks as a result of massive enemy attacks on port infrastructure causing some of the oil to spill,” Governor Oleg Kiper said in a statement.

The Pivdenny port in the region was temporarily closed to help with the cleanup. Calling it an “ecological disaster”, marine ecology expert Vladyslav Balinsky said dozens of dead birds lay on the shore.

Veterinarian Leonid Stoyanov, who was volunteering to try to save the birds, called it a “terrible situation”.

“The animal does not die from the oil itself. It dies because its feathers are covered with a layer of fat, which is washed away by the sunflower oil, causing the animal to die of hypothermia.”

The Ukrainian president says the country shares in Pope Leo XIV’s “disappointment” that Russia hasn’t agreed to a ceasefire on Christmas.

“Sadly, this is already the fourth wartime Christmas for the Ukrainian people” since Russia’s invasion began, Zelenskyy said on X.

“Moscow has not only rejected the request to end the killing at least for this Holy Day, instead Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine’s energy grid, causing power outages, and continues frontline assaults,” he said.

On Tuesday, Leo expressed “much sadness” that Russia hadn’t agreed to a ceasefire. He nevertheless appealed “to people of goodwill to respect at least Christmas ‌Day as a day of ‌peace”.

Five people have been wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy region, according to the head of the regional military administration.

In a post on Telegram, Oleh Hryhorov said Russian forces continue to shell the region on Christmas Eve, targeting civilian areas. He said three people were hospitalised.

The administration said civilian cars were attacked in the Shostka, Sumy, and Konotop districts while a missile strike was carried out in the Okhtyrka district. Emergency services are working to deal with the aftermath, he added.

Hryhorov said one of the wounded was a young girl who was in a car in the Pischansky district when a Russian drone struck the vehicle.

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation says a criminal network has been uncovered in Kenya that allegedly recruited people to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine by offering what were described as “high-paying jobs”.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the body said the network lured recruits under false pretences, promising work in Russia before sending them to the front line.

Media reports cited by the centre said some of those recruited were killed in the fighting, with relatives saying their loved ones were treated as “cannon fodder”.

French prosecutors say a pro-Russian hacking group claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that halted package deliveries by France’s national postal service just days before Christmas.

After the claim by the cybercrime group Noname057, the French intelligence agency DGSI took over the investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The group has been accused of other cyberattacks in Europe, including around a NATO summit in the Netherlands and French government sites. It was the target of a significant European police operation earlier this year.

Central computer systems at the French national postal service La Poste were knocked offline on Monday in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberattack that still wasn’t fully resolved by this morning, the company said.

Earlier, we reported on an explosion in Moscow that killed two police officers and a bystander. An unnamed official from Ukraine’s military intelligence has told the AP news agency the attack was carried out as part of an agency operation.

Russia’s Interior Ministry named the officers as Lieutenant Ilya Klimanov, 24, who joined the Moscow police in October 2023, and Lieutenant Maxim Gorbunov, 25. Gorbunov had a wife and a nine-month-old daughter.

The blast took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lieutenant-General Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday.

Investigators say they’re looking into whether Ukraine was behind that attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in a year. Ukraine has not commented on it.