Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers his Christmas message to the nation, December 24, 2025

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Ukraine and Europe Push Back Putin’s “Nazi Piglets” Invasion

EA on RTE: Ukraine Strikes Russian Military in Heart of Moscow

Wednesday’s Coverage: Zelensky — “We Sense That America Wants To Reach A Final Agreement”

UPDATE 1751 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken by phone with Donald Trump’s envoys, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, about “several substantive details”.

We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable.

We discussed certain substantive details of the ongoing work. There are good ideas that can work toward a shared outcome and the lasting peace. Real security, real recovery, and real peace are what all of us need – Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and every partner who helps us. I hope that today’s Christmas understandings and the ideas we discussed will prove useful.

UPDATE 1740 GMT:

Ukraine’s military has confirmed strikes on multiple targets inside Russia.

In addition to hits on the Temryuk seaport in the Krasnodar region and a gas processing plant in the Orenburg region (see 1138 GMT), Ukraine set afire a military airfield in Maykop in the Adygea Republic and struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region with UK-made Storm Shadow missiles.

The Orenburg plant, around 500 miles from the Ukraine border, is the world’s largest gas chemical complex, processing 37.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

UPDATE 1734 GMT:

A 47-year-old worker has been killed

and civilians wounded in a Russian strike on a market in Kherson city in southern Ukraine.

In the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, an 80-year-old woman was murdered when a drone struck a five-story residential building. Eight people were injured, at least three critically.

UPDATE 1300 GMT:

India’s leading oil refiner Reliance Industries has resumed Russian crude imports through non-sanctioned exporters, after halting purchases in response to US sanctions announced on October 22.

The American sanctions blacklisted Russia’s leading oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, with secondary sanctions on any entity trading with them. Six of seven India’s top refineries halted or restricted purchases in December, reducing imports to around 800,000 barrels per day from November’s average of 1.9 million bpd.

Reliance was granted an additional month to receive vessels it had contracted before October 22. The final shipment under that exemption arrived on December 17.

The company is routing renewed shipments to its 660,000 barrel-per-day domestic-oriented refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat on India’s western coast. It is sourcing crude from Russian entities not covered by sanctions and using Aframax tankers operated by RusExport, part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”.

The export-focused refinery at the Jamnagar complex, which normally processes around 700,000 barrels daily, has not received Russian crude since 20 November.

UPDATE 1138 GMT:

Ukrainian drones struck the Temryuk Seaport in the Krasnodar region in southwest Russia and a gas processing plant in the Orenburg region overnight.

The attack on the seaport sparked fires in two oil storage tanks. The blazes spread across 2,000 square meters.

Temryuk is a key Russian facility on the Sea of Azov, operating an oil export terminal and a large liquefied petroleum gas facility.

UPDATE 1128 GMT:

At least four civilians have been murdered and 35 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 106 of 131 drones, but at least 22 struck 15 locations.

Power was cut to residents in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Odesa regions. In Odesa, outages were compounded by damage from previous Russian strikes, with one civilian murdered and two injured amid attacks on port and industrial infrastructure.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, a 51-year-old man was killed and 17 people wounded.

In the Chernihiv region in the north, a 63-year-old driver was killed by a drone strike on a car.

Casualties were also reported in the Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kherson, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

UPDATE 0816 GMT:

A pro-Kremlin propagandist, Aleksei Naumov, has rejected the revised Ukraine-Europe proposal which Donald Trump’s envoys will present to Vladimir Putin.

This is an absolute mockery. The idea is clear: Pitch this to the Americans as a “compromise”, and then blame Russia for its failure.

Another pro-Kremlin analyst, Georgi Bovt, said, “The plan offers no compromise regarding the territories or the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Failing to resolve the territorial issue renders this a nonstarter.”

UPDATE 0735 GMT:

One civilian has been murdered and two injured by overnight Russian strikes on port and industrial infrastructure in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine.

Administrative, production, and storage facilities were damaged, as rescuers extinguished fires.

On Wednesday, Russia’s attacks caused a spill of sunflower oil contaminating the shoreline, killing wildlife and triggering health warnings.

Video shows frothy brown pools of oil on the shore and slicks atop the Black Sea. Volunteers scooped up sand and pulling out dead birds out of the water.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has delivered a Christmas message: “That there may be a victory of peace. That there may be us. And that there may be Ukraine.”

Zelensky addressed the nation on Christmas Eve, recalling the traditional belief that “the heavens open” so Ukrainians can make a single wish.

“May [Putin] perish,” each of us may think to ourselves. But when we turn to God, of course, we ask for something greater.

We ask for peace for Ukraine. We fight for it. And we pray for it. And we deserve it.

Ukrainians wish for every family to live in harmony and for every child to rejoice in gifts, smiles, and faith in goodness and miracles, he summarized.

Kyiv’s Initiative to End the Invasion

On Wednesday, the Government released the full text of the 20-point Ukraine-Europe proposal to end Russia’s 47-month full-scale invasion. The document covers territory, security guarantees, and Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Kyiv also released a briefing by Zelensky, given to journalists on Tuesday, with suggestions for the remaining points of difference with the Trump Administration.

Zelensky said he is willing to negotiate over a demilitarized “economic zone” in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv’s forces could pull back, as long as the Russians did so as well.

He emphasized that Kyiv has removed clauses from the 28-point ultimatum, drafted by Vladimir Putin’s top financial advisor Kirill Dmitriev with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, requiring Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donetsk and recognition of occupied areas as Russian.

“A working group will convene to determine the redeployment of forces necessary to end the conflict, as well as to define the parameters of potential future special economic zones,” the President said.

“We are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way,” he explained. “They are looking for a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone, meaning a format that could satisfy both sides.”

Zelensky has said the other major point to be resolved is the status of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, in southern Ukraine.

The 28-point US-Kremlin ultimatum called for control to be split among Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv. Ukraine has maintained that it must have full sovereignty over the complex.

The President anticipated the Kremlin’s rejection of the agreed proposal between Ukraine, Europe, and the US:

They cannot tell President Trump: ‘Look, we are against a peaceful settlement. That is, if they try to obstruct everything, then President Trump would have to arm us heavily, while imposing all possible sanctions against them.