KYIV — Russia’s relentless assault killed at least 2,500 civilians and injured 12,000 in Ukraine last year, according to a new report published this week. Those figures made it the deadliest year for Ukraine’s civilian population since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission said. The U.N. monitors included only deaths and injuries they were able to verify, noting the total dead and injured toll in 2025 was still 31 percent higher than in 2024, and 70 percent higher than in 2023. The vast majority of casualties, around 97 percent, occurred in Ukraine-controlled territory due to attacks launched by Russian armed forces. Russia’s army increased its efforts to capture Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions in 2025, with the campaign resulting in the killing and injuring of civilians, destruction of infrastructure and new waves of displacement. The aggression continues as Russian leader Vladimir Putin brushes off U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war. More than 9,000 people were injured in 2025 in frontline areas, with the elderly most affected. Civilian casualties by short-range drones increased by 120 percent last year, with 577 people killed and more than 3000 injured by FPV drone attacks, compared to 226 killed and 1,528 injured in 2024.  Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vasilii Nebendzia denied that Russia ever targets civilians, blaming Ukrainian air defense for the death toll during the U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday.   Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 20 different missiles and 293 killer drones on Monday night, killing four and injuring six people in Kharkiv alone, said local governor Oleh Synehubov.  The Kremlin has bombarded Ukraine’s energy system during freezing temperatures, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without heating and electricity. “Every such strike against life is a reminder that support for Ukraine cannot be stopped. Missiles for air defense systems are needed every day, and especially during winter,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “The world can respond to this Russian terror with new assistance packages for Ukraine. We expect the acceleration of deliveries already agreed with America and Europe. Russia must come to learn that cold will not help it win the war,” Zelenskyy added.

KYIV — In another deep-strike attack against Russia, Ukraine blew up a Russian submarine docked in a secure naval base, Ukrainian counterintelligence agency Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Monday. The SBU said it critically damaged the Class 636.3 submarine “Varshavyanka” (NATO reporting name: Kilo) in its home base at the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. “Ukraine’s underwater drone Sub Sea Baby attacked a Russian submarine. The explosion critically damaged the submarine and effectively disabled it. The submarine was carrying four Kalibr cruise missile launchers, which Russia uses to strike at the territory of Ukraine,” the SBU’s press service said, providing video of the blast as evidence. POLITICO could not independently verify the video. The Russian ministry of defense so far has not issued any statements about the attack on Novorossiysk, but Russian military bloggers claim the damage was insignificant as the drone hit a nearby pier, nevertheless stating that such a close call attack is a wake-up call. The attack, if it was as destructive as the SBU claims, will be financially costly for the Russian military. “The cost of a Varshavyanka-class submarine is about $400 million. Given the international sanctions imposed, the construction of a similar submarine could currently cost up to $500 million,” the SBU’s press service said. It’s not known if any personnel were harmed. The attack on Novorossiysk has become the latest in Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign inside Russia against military and energy targets, now happening every day. Earlier today, the SBU hit Russia’s oil rigs in the Caspian Sea for the third time, days after Ukraine’s drones hit Russia’s oil refineries and several cargo ships of the Russian shadow fleet. “While diplomatic processes and negotiations are underway that could bring the end of the war closer, we must not forget that Russian strikes continue every day. [Vladimir] Putin is using the brutality of the strikes as leverage in negotiations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement at the German-Ukrainian economic forum on Monday. “Our ability to recover from strikes, our ability to produce weapons and strike back, our ability to shoot down Russian missiles and drones — are our leverage in negotiations,” Zelenskyy added, urging partners to keep supporting Ukraine’s ability to resist Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s soldiers are doing much better in the pitched battles in the east of the country than Russia is letting on, Kyiv’s top commander said, denouncing what he called Kremlin “disinformation” aimed at influencing a foreign audience. This week’s briefing by Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi is aimed at changing the narrative as Ukraine comes under fierce pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to throw in the towel and agree to a peace deal his people initially sketched out with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It might seem like Ukraine “is only withdrawing” against Russia’s incessant attacks, but in reality, Kyiv is holding the line and has even been able to retake some ground in key contested towns in recent days, Syrskyi said. He said Ukraine wants to show it is “not just retreating,” but as soon as Kyiv spells out areas where it has retaken control, “the enemy immediately transfers additional troops there, or missiles fly there. For us, this causes additional losses while we are trying to minimize them.” He talked to reporters in Kyiv as Russia continues to grind out incremental gains bought at horrendous cost against fierce Ukrainian resistance. Earlier this month, the Russian defense ministry claimed its troops succeeded in occupying the crucial frontline city of Pokrovsk, as well as surrounding Ukrainian troops in nearby Myrnohrad and also taking over Vovchyansk and Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian army insists that its forces are back in parts of Pokrovsk. It says small groups of Russian soldiers are infiltrating to pose for pictures with flags for propaganda purposes, but don’t fully control the shattered ruins of the city. AN AUDIENCE OF ONE While Russia’s frontline gains are small, the Kremlin hopes to persuade Ukraine’s backers that continued support for Kyiv is futile. That is the message that’s being received in Washington. In an interview with POLITICO this week, Trump underlined that he wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to a peace deal, fast. “Well, he’s gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things, you know, when you’re losing — because you’re losing,” Trump said. The first iteration of the plan called for Ukraine to hand over key defensive areas in the Donetsk region, including Pokrovsk, but has since been modified following strong protests from Kyiv and European countries. Zelenskyy is insisting that he will not hand over any Ukrainian territory to Russia. This week’s briefing by Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi is aimed at changing the narrative as Ukraine comes under fierce pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to throw in the towel and agree to a peace deal. | Oksana Parafeniuk/Getty Images Syrskyi underlined that Russia’s gains are much smaller than the Kremlin lets on. “The scale of Russian lies exceeds the real pace of troop advance by many times,” Syrskyi said. “The enemy uses disinformation and fake maps in a hybrid war against Ukraine, influencing both a foreign audience and our society and our army.” The Institute of the Study of War said in an update released Tuesday that Russian forces have gained only 0.77 percent of Ukrainian territory so far this year while suffering disproportionately high personnel costs. The Russian campaign to militarily seize the rest of Donetsk, including a belt of heavily fortified cities, would likely take at least two to three years, pose a significant challenge, and result in difficult and costly battles that Russia may not be able to sustain, ISW said. “Russia’s cognitive warfare effort aims to push Ukraine and the West to cede this heavily defended territory to Russia without a fight, allowing Russia to avoid spending significant amounts of time and resources to try to seize it on the battlefield,” the think tank added. Syrskyi said that in some areas, Russian forces are only moving forward less than 5 kilometers per month. “At such pace, the advance of the Russians with daily losses of more than 1,000 people is a negligible result,” the general added. However, Syrskyi admitted that the situation is harsh for Ukrainian troops defending Pokrovsk, where Russia has poured 156,000 men into the fight. “It is currently the main theater of military operations,” Syrskyi said. He admitted that this fall, Ukrainian troops did fully withdraw from Pokrovsk, but on Nov. 15, they conducted a counteroffensive and retook almost half the city. “We continue to hold the northern part of the city, approximately along the railway line. In addition, west of Pokrovsk, we have cleared and controlled about 54 square kilometers,” Syrskyi said. “The situation is difficult, especially during fog and rain. The enemy takes advantage of the weather conditions to enter the city, avoiding damage from our UAVs. However, in the future, we are only increasing the number of our group within Pokrovsk,” the commander added.

Peace talks between the U.S. and Ukraine have stumbled over one main issue: how to force Ukraine to give up what the Kremlin has failed to seize during the war — the entirety of the Donbas region.  “On the territory issue, Americans are simple: Russia demands Ukraine to give up territories, and Americans keep thinking how to make it happen,” a senior European official familiar with the negotiation process told POLITICO on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.  “The Americans insist that Ukraine must leave the Donbas … one way or another,” the official added. Ukraine has insisted that any peace deal must involve the war being frozen on current lines. At present, some 30 percent of Donbas is still in Ukrainian hands. “In general, the most realistic option is to stand where we stand. But the Russians are pressuring Kyiv to give up territories,” the European official said.  And the U.S. keeps pushing Ukraine to agree to the deal quickly, with President Donald Trump once again getting visibly frustrated with Kyiv. “Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it [the U.S. plan], but I’m not sure Zelenskyy is fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it,” Trump said on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center awards in Washington on Sunday. Zelenskyy has not commented on Trump’s latest remarks, but he told Bloomberg that the U.S. and Ukraine have not reached agreement when it comes to Ukraine’s east. Kyiv has been trying to explain to the U.S. that giving Vladimir Putin what he has not managed to win in more than three years of war will only encourage him to take more. It also feels pressured by the speed at which the Americans want to move. “Maybe Trump also wants it to happen fast, so his team is forced to explain to him they are not the ones to blame for why this is not happening as fast as he wanted it to happen,” the European official said. Last week, Putin said Russia will take Donbas anyway. However, Ukraine believes that giving up the remaining 30 percent of the Donetsk region, which includes the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, with a total population of more than 100,000, would allow Putin to invade the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions, Zelenskyy said earlier this year. In August, Zelenskyy said it would take Russia about four years to fully occupy Donbas. “Therefore, it is important how America will behave, as a mediator or will it lean toward the Russians?” the European official said, adding that Ukraine is also waiting for clarity on what security guarantees the U.S. is ready to provide.

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to expand his military offensive against major oil facilities deep in the Russian interior. “We hit a certain number of their refineries; they’ve got a problem. When they started to restore and saw the queues of cars, they redistributed the volumes to other refineries,” Zelenskyy said during a meeting with a small group of journalists, including POLITICO, in Kyiv. “Therefore, our task is absolutely clear — to continue our work at other plants that have started to increase the volume, especially diesel. And we just have to work on it every day,” Zelenskyy added. Ukraine has reportedly struck 21 out of Russia’s 38 large oil refineries across the country since January, according to the BBC. Ukraine aims to cripple the Russian oil industry and cut the key source of revenue to Moscow’s war machine. And Zelenskyy believes that long-range oil strikes, plus U.S. sanctions and a mega loan to Kyiv from the EU financed by frozen Russian assets, could push Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Zelenskyy said that, even though Kyiv wants allies to continue providing long-range missiles, expanding domestic long-range capabilities is a key priority. He added that Ukraine conducts 90 percent of its deep strikes into Russia with its own long-range drones and cruise missiles, but sometimes Kyiv uses the U.K.’s Storm Shadow and French SCALP missiles to hit targets. “Long-range capability is a component of independence and will be the greatest component for ensuring peace,” Zelenskyy added in an evening address to the nation Monday. “All deep-strike goals must be fully locked in by year’s end, including expansion of our long-range footprint.” Earlier, he met with Ukrainian producers of long-range weapons and ordered the government to lock in 57 long-term contracts with makers of key long-range drones and missiles by the end of the year. Ukraine is also building a stockpile of its latest home-made cruise missiles, the Flamingo, “to launch a […] massive strike on Russia by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy warned. “We must work every day to weaken the Russians. Their money for the war comes from oil refining,” the Ukrainian president added. Zelenskyy said strikes on Russian energy facilities are just part of a pressure campaign he hopes can force Putin to end his full-scale invasion. A key part of that package of measures, Zelenskyy said, is the EU unfreezing €140 billion in Russian assets held in the bloc to use as a massive reparation loan to help Ukraine — and he’s keen for the EU to green-light that in December at a leaders’ summit. “For Putin, the scariest part in the whole Russian-assets-for-Ukraine story is that Europe would give a signal that there is no point for him to continue his war of attrition against Ukraine, as there will be no financial attrition,” Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy said he was very grateful for American sanctions on Russia’s Lukoil and Rosneft oil companies and now hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump, during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, will be able to persuade Beijing to buy less oil from Moscow. “This is all the right direction to put pressure on Russia to be ready to end the war — sanctions, weapons, use of assets,” Zelenskyy said.

North Korea has begun construction of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats in Pyongyang to glorify its army’s overseas operations, mainly in Russia’s Kursk region, where it helped the Russian army push out Ukrainian forces in 2024. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the launch ceremony of the museum dedicated to “the combatants of the armed forces of the Republic, who performed the brilliant military exploits and services in the military operations to liberate the Kursk Region of the fraternal Russian Federation at the cost of their blood and lives,” local state Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday. Pyongyang covertly deployed some 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean army troops to Russia last year to help the struggling Kremlin forces push the Ukrainian army out of some 1,000 square kilometers of territory they had captured in Kursk after a surprise incursion on Aug. 6, 2024. Ukrainian forces controlled the territory for more than six months, until the North Korean army helped the Russians to push them out in March 2025. Russia and North Korea signed a comprehensive partnership treaty in the summer of 2024. While both initially denied reports of the latter’s troops entering battle, they later admitted it was true after the successful operation in Kursk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously estimated that about 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded, while U.S. officials offered a lower estimate of around 1,200 casualties. After reports of the removal of North Korean troops from the front line, they were spotted at war again, the Ukrainian Army General Staff said on Oct. 16, this time to support Russian military operations in Ukraine’s Sumy region, bordering Kursk. “From the territory of the Kursk region, these units conduct reconnaissance activities using drones, identify the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and provide assistance in adjusting fire on the positions of Ukrainian units in Sumy,” the general staff said.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Ein heikles Gipfeltreffen in Washington: Wolodymyr Selenskyj trifft Donald Trump und will die Freigabe für Tomahawk-Marschflugkörper für die Ukraine erreichen. Waffen, die tief ins russische Territorium reichen könnten. Doch kurz vor dem Treffen hat Trump noch mit Wladimir Putin telefoniert und kündigt ein Treffen in Budapest an. Freilich noch ohne konkretes Datum. Im Gespräch mit Nico Lange, Sicherheitsberater der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz, ordnet Rixa Fürsen die Lage ein: Was steckt hinter Trumps Friedensplan? Welche Rolle spielt Deutschland – und wird Kanzler Friedrich Merz nun gezwungen, auch den Taurus zu liefern? Ein Update über Diplomatie, Druck und Abschreckung. Lange erklärt außerdem, wie sich der Krieg technisch verändert hat. Von Infanteriegefechten zu Drohnenkriegen und warum Europa beim Thema Abstandswaffen endlich aufholen muss, wenn es sich selbst verteidigen will. Zum Schluss geht es um den Blick nach vorn: auf Trumps mögliche NATO-Strategie, Amerikas künftige Rolle in Europa und die Frage, ob die EU endlich strategisch handeln kann, bevor es wieder zu spät ist? Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski.

KYIV — Ukraine’s leaders “want to go offensive,” U.S. President Donald Trump said late Wednesday ahead of Friday’s planned meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy where Tomahawk long-range missiles are expected to be discussed. “We’ll be talking about the war with him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Zelenskyy. “They want to go offensive,” Trump added. “I’ll make a determination on that, but they would like to go offensive,” he said. Both Zelenskyy and Trump have said they will discuss Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems during Friday’s meeting at the White House. The Ukrainian delegation in the U.S. has already met this week with Raytheon, the producer of Tomahawk missiles as well as Patriot missile-defense systems. “Tools like Patriots and Tomahawks can help lay a long-term foundation for peace,” Zelenskyy said in his evening statement on Wednesday. Kyiv is looking at Friday’s meeting to secure the advanced weaponry needed to undertake another counteroffensive against Russia’s forces. “We indeed can go on the offensive — it all depends on the weapons we get and the approved plan,” a Ukrainian top official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. In addition to the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles, Trump said “other options would also be considered.” Even though Kyiv has been largely in a defensive posture for the past year holding the 1,250-kilometer front line against Russia, the Ukrainian army has been able to conduct minor counteroffensive operations in recent weeks and to regain some ground in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. But Russia is slowly advancing in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, according to the Ukrainian research group DeepState. At the same time, Moscow and Kyiv are targeting each other’s energy systems with increasing numbers of attacks by drones and missiles ahead of winter. Ukraine sees the U.S. long-range cruise missiles as a deterrent to make Moscow think twice about attacking, not least because it would signal to the Kremlin that Washington is firmly in Kyiv’s camp. And now the U.S. seems to be coming onboard with Ukraine’s thinking. The New York Times reported earlier this week that Washington already has a plan on supplying Tomahawks to Kyiv. “If there is no path to peace in the short term, then the United States, along with our allies, will take the steps necessary to impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. Trump’s remark on Kyiv wanting “to go offensive” comes days after Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief, suggested publicly that limited incursions and counteroffensive operations can be undertaken, but they often fail to deliver long-term success. In an opinion article, Zaluzhny took issue with Ukraine’s 2024 cross-border operation in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. “I don’t know the cost of such actions, but it is clear that it was too high,” he said. Zaluzhny, now Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain, suggested that large-scale counteroffensives are hampered by a “lack of resource provision,” including insufficient manpower, and that gathering sufficient forces in place to aim for a breakthrough is difficult as they will quickly be spotted by the enemy. Moscow, meanwhile, has warned of consequences if any Tomahawk deal comes to fruition. “The delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone. And most of all, for Trump himself,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said in a Telegram post this week. “All we can do is hope that this is yet another empty threat, like when Trump sent atomic submarines closer to Russia,” Medvedev said.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Gordon Repinski im Gespräch mit Sicherheitsexperte Carlo Masala. Masala rechnet mit der Diplomatie der letzten Wochen ab: Den Friedensprozess, den US-Präsident Trump sehen wollte, hat es nie gegeben – weil Putin nie mitgespielt hat. Der Professor an der Universität der Bundeswehr in München analysiert die militärische Lage an der Front, warum Investitionen in die ukrainische Rüstungsindustrie jetzt wichtiger sind als westliche Waffen und wie viele tausend Soldaten Europa in der Ukraine für einen echten Frieden bräuchte. Carlo Masala erklärt zudem, warum kein deutscher Politiker bereit ist, über den Einsatz von Bodentruppen zur Friedenssicherung zu sprechen und welche fatale Signalwirkung das für die NATO hat. Mehr Analysen von Carlo Masala hört ihr in seinem Podcast „Sicherheitshalber“ und lest ihr in seinem Buch „Wenn Russland gewinnt“. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski.

KYIV — Ukraine’s top diplomat Andrii Sybiha announced a major shakeup in the foreign ministry on Tuesday, including the creation of a small department focusing on “unfriendly countries.” “It will include not only Russia, but also its allies, such as North Korea or Belarus,” Sybiha said. “This is not about bilateral relations, but about countering threats. Ukraine is defending itself from full-scale aggression, and our policy should prioritize the neutralization of threats,” he added. Sybiha’s deputy Sergii Kyslytsya, one of Ukraine’s negotiators with Russia in Turkey, will initially oversee the sub-department, though no official boss has been appointed yet. The new unit is part of a wider reform of the foreign ministry, which includes the disbanding of the disarmament department, as Russia’s years-long full-scale invasion continues to wreak havoc across Ukraine. “The times when the ministry had a department with the word ‘disarmament’ in its name will forever remain in the past. It was a long time ago, but once such a unit existed. Ukraine will never disarm again. Therefore, in the modern structure, we will have the Department of International Security and Defense of Ukraine,” Sybiha said. The foreign ministry will also reorganize special departments dedicated to diplomatic relations with Europe, Latin America, the U.S., Asia and the Pacific Ocean, Central Asia and others. A special NATO sub-department will also be established, as Kyiv still sees membership in the transatlantic military alliance as its priority. Previously, Ukraine had a single department dedicated to its EU and NATO course.