Russia Ukraine war latest: Moscow launched 300 attack drones in first three days of 2025, Zelensky says – UK Times

Russia’s Pulkovo Airport in St Petersburg temporarily halted flight operations on Saturday morning to ensure the safety of civilian aircraft, the country’s aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.

The suspension began at 7.45am (4.45am GMT), and while no specific reason was given, Russian airports have previously been closed in response to potential Ukrainian drone threats.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, which includes St Petersburg, said Russian forces had shot down two drones near Luga Bay in the Gulf of Finland.

“The airport is temporarily not accepting or dispatching flights,” a Rosaviatsia representative wrote on Telegram. “Aircraft crews, air traffic controllers, and airport services are taking all necessary measures to ensure flight safety – this is the top priority.”

The United States expects to make announcements about additional security assistance for Ukraine in coming days, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.

Mr Kirby said future announcements were expected after Washington last week announced $5.9bn in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine and a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Germany will be held on 9 January.

“You can also expect additional security assistance announcements coming with respect to Ukraine … in coming days,” he said, without providing any specifics.

Russian forces gained 4,168sq km of land, largely fields and small settlements in Ukraine and the Kursk region, in 2024 but suffered over 420,000 casualties in the process, an American think tank monitoring the war has claimed.

The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi’s remarks last week that Russian forces suffered 427,000 casualties in 2024.

“ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that the Russian forces advanced 4,168 square kilometers in 2024, indicating that Russian forces suffered approximately 102 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory seized,” it said in an assessment released on Wednesday.

Russian forces made 56.5 per cent of their 2024 territorial gains between September and November period, it added.

More than 2,600 UK personnel are heading to Nato’s eastern flank as part of the government’s “unshakeable commitment” to the military bloc, the armed forces minister has said.

According to the Ministry of Defence, Exercise Steadfast Dart 25 will showcase the alliance’s readiness, capability and commitment to defend Nato territories.

The UK’s 1st Division – headquartered in York – will be in command of all of the alliance’s land forces while they are in eastern Europe.

The exercise marks the first deployment under the bloc’s new Allied Reaction Force, which replaced the Nato Response Force last year to deal “swiftly and effectively” with “any threat in an evolving security environment” during peacetime, crisis and conflict.

Luke Pollard said: “This Government wants the UK to be Nato’s leading European nation.

“Exercise Steadfast Dart demonstrates our unshakeable commitment to Nato and highlights the UK’s key leadership role in the alliance.

“As we approach the three-year anniversary of Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we must continue to strengthen our collective defences together to deter (Russian president Vladimir) Putin effectively.”

Along with more than 2,600 personnel, the UK government has said it will contribute 730 vehicles to the exercise.

Foxhound patrol and Jackal high mobility weapons platform vehicles will be among the deployments, and they will return to the UK once two exercises are complete at the end of February.

Ukraine’s navy has destroyed more than 37,000 Russian drones in the year 2024, it said.

The downed platforms include Russian strike drones, operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, first-person-view drones, and Shahed-type attack drones, the navy said in a Facebook post. Ukrainian naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft, it added.

Russia’s drone losses included 35,670 destroyed FPV drones and 1,140 strike drones, the navy said. Ukraine’s naval units also eliminated 192 operational and tactical drones and another 164 Shahed-136/131 drones.

Attacks across the Ukraine-Russia border left three people dead on Friday, according to local officials.

In northern Ukraine, three missiles struck a residential area near Chernihiv, killing one person, injuring five, and destroying two homes.

Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus shared images showing the shattered façade of a private home.

In the Kyiv region, five people were injured in a drone attack, while four more were hurt in shelling near Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.

On the Russian side, officials reported two fatalities. Roman Starovoyt, governor of the Kursk region, said on Telegram that a man walking along a road was killed in a drone strike.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian military said it carried out a precision strike on a Russian command post in the Kursk region.

In the Bryansk region, another Russian border area, a mortar attack killed one civilian, the regional governor said.

Russian military and local officials said that approximately 10 Ukrainian drones had been shot down on Friday, including six over the Bryansk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that in the first three days of 2025, Russia had launched 300 attack drones and nearly 20 missiles on Ukrainian targets.

Most, he said, had been downed or intercepted.

On Friday, attacks on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border killed three people on Friday, local officials said. Three missiles hit a residential area near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing one person, injuring five others and destroying two houses, they said.

President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Mr Zelensky, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Mr Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.

The Ukrainian president also said a priority was to stabilise the frontline early in the new year. Mr Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.

“He’s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump’s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,” he said. “Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” he said in a televised interview.

“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”

Russia has enlisted between 140,000 and 180,000 prison inmates to fight in the war against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) said, according to the Kyiv Independent.

There were about 300,000-350,000 prisoners in Russian prisons in 2024, which is half as many as in 2014, according to the Ukrainian intelligence agency.