The Russo-Ukrainian War: List of major events, day 1031 | News of the Russian-Ukrainian war

Here are the main developments on the 1,031st day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This is the situation on Saturday, December 21:

Fighting

• Ukraine targeted the town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk border region on Friday, deploying US-supplied missiles in an attack that killed six people. US President Joe Biden recently allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles to strike deeper into Russia.
• Hours earlier, Russia launched a raid on Kyiv At least one person was killed It damaged a building housing the embassies of Albania, Argentina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Palestine and Portugal. Moscow said the strike was in response to a Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Rostov with Western missiles.
• Kiev said on Friday it had received the bodies of 503 dead Ukrainian service members from the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions and morgues inside Russia. Most of the bodies were from Donetsk, which suffered the worst of the fighting.

economy

• Russia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a record 21 percent, holding off further increases despite rising consumer price inflation fueled by massive war spending and a massive labor shortage.
• Business figures have criticized the Kremlin for the effects that high borrowing costs have had on the economy.
• The International Monetary Fund approved $1.1 billion in budget support for Ukraine on Friday, bringing the total amount disbursed under the institution’s ongoing assistance program to $9.8 billion since March 2023.

Politics and diplomacy

• European Union President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the Russian strike on Kiev, which damaged a building hosting several diplomatic missions. “Another heinous Russian attack against Kiev,” she wrote on X. “Putin’s disregard for international law reaches new heights.”
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said European leaders must change their strategy regarding Ukraine as Russia advances on the front lines. Speaking on Hungarian state radio on Friday, he called for a Christmas truce in Ukraine and the exchange of up to 1,000 prisoners of war.
• Orban has done this routinely Blocked, delayed or diluted EU efforts to provide weapons and financing and punish Moscow for its invasion.
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday that he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin again after resuming contact last month, a move that sparked criticism from Ukraine. Schulz said the goal of further calls would be to “make clear” that Putin needs to “end his aggression and withdraw troops.”