Overview
- At a Kremlin meeting, Putin directed continued operations next year with instructions to expand a Russia–Ukraine border security zone and to keep pushing toward Zaporizhzhia.
- Russia’s General Staff reported advances along the front, citing 334 settlements taken this year and, in December alone, about 700 square kilometers and 32 settlements, with the defense minister calling December the fastest month of advance in a year.
- Battlegroup Dnepr was told to press on Zaporizhzhia and reported five settlements seized in the region, saying its forward units are roughly 15 km from the city’s southern outskirts and that street fighting is ongoing in Orikhiv.
- Battlegroup North claimed a roughly 60 km push into Sumy Region, control of more than 900 square kilometers across Sumy and Kharkiv, and a position less than 20 km from Sumy city.
- Battlegroup West said main Ukrainian supply routes near Krasny Liman were cut and forecast no Ukrainian presence near Podoly and Kupyansk-Uzlovoi by January–February, while Battlegroup South reported mopping-up operations with up to 45% of Konstantinovka under Russian control.