As we enter the 673rd day of the war, these are the most important developments.

Here is the situation as of Thursday, December 28, 2023.

Battle

• Two people were killed and four others injured in the southern Odessa region after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in a nighttime airstrike.
• The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 32 of the 46 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia, while the others mostly fell near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region. Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a shopping center and affected the power grid, leaving about 70 percent of households in the city of Kherson without power.
• The Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s claimed capture of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine this week would not provide a springboard to major battlefield gains. However, it noted that “local Russian offensive operations are still putting pressure on Ukrainian forces in many locations along the front in eastern Ukraine.”
• Ukraine opened a war crimes investigation into the alleged execution of three Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces near the village of Robotyne in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region earlier this month, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Politics and diplomacy

• India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said relations between the countries were making progress even in turbulent times. Jaishankar, who is in Moscow on a five-day visit, also met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who said they discussed “the prospects of military-technical cooperation, including joint production of modern types of weapons.”

• Russia sentenced Sanctions imposed by the United States against the Arctic LNG 2 project have been described as an “unacceptable” move that would undermine global energy security. The sanctions are part of an attempt to limit Moscow’s financial ability to continue its war in Ukraine.
• Russia has charged six Danes for joining the Russo-Ukrainian war as “foreign mercenaries” on Ukraine’s side, the Russian embassy in Denmark said in a statement. The six could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. The embassy said 20 Danes were identified as mercenaries and some were killed.

weapons

• The US announced a $250 million military aid package for Ukraine, which officials said could be the last unless a current $61 billion funding bill is in place held up by Republicans in Congress is passed. The latest assistance includes air defense ammunition, additional ammunition for highly mobile artillery rocket systems, artillery ammunition, anti-tank ammunition and more than 15 million rounds of ammunition.
• Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, said at a briefing that the defense sector will significantly increase production of weapons and military equipment next year and that production in 2023 will be three times higher than last year. Kamyshin said Ukraine currently produces six Bohdana self-propelled artillery units per month. Bohdanas are the only Ukrainian-made self-propelled guns that use NATO-standard 155mm cartridges instead of the 152mm cartridges used in artillery based on Soviet technology.
• Russia warned Japan that its plan to provide Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine would have “serious consequences” for Russia-Japan relations.
• Sergei Chemezov, head of state defense company Rostec, said Russia would soon use its latest howitzers against Ukrainian forces. Chemezov told the RIA news agency that testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery units has been completed and mass production is underway.