Weekly Russia-Ukraine war summary: Pokrovsk assault “on hold” with Russia close to taking Kurakhove, Azerbaijani plane hit over Chechnya
Ukrainian troops have shared videos of strikes against what appear to be North Korean soldiers, who are suffering heavy losses, according to a report by The Times. There are reports of Ukraine capturing its first North Korean prisoner of war — though South Korean intelligence indicates that the soldier later died of his wounds. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces recovered a paper notebook from another deceased North Korean soldier. It contained a manual for countering FPV drones using human “bait,” with one soldier presenting himself as a target while others open fire on the drone.
Mutual strikes and sabotage
Ukraine’s Air Force reported the interception of 279 Iranian-designed Shahed and other similar drones out of 509 launched over the past week. An additional 235 drones were “radar-lost” — meaning either that they were decoys or were brought down using electronic warfare (EW).
The Air Force also reported intercepting 66 of 82 missiles of various types during the same period, 78 of which were launched on the night of Dec. 25 in another massive strike targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to a report by the Mykolaivsky Vanyok Telegram channel, this strike also targeted heating, water, and gas supply systems.
The following strikes on civilian infrastructure by Russian forces were reported:
- Dec. 20: Five people, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured in an attack on Zaporizhzhia (1, 2).
- Night of Dec. 21: Drones struck residential buildings in the Saltivka and Kyiv districts of Kharkiv, injuring eight people.
- Dec. 24: A strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk Region killed one person and injured 17 others.
- Dec. 26: A kamikaze drone strike on a central market in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk Region injured eight people. In the Kharkiv Region, a guided bomb strike on the village of Zolochiv killed one resident and injured another. An FPV drone attack on an apartment building in Chasiv Yar killed two civilians and injured two others.
Additionally, independent news outlet Astra reported an “unintentional release” of three more Russian aerial bombs in the Belgorod Region (1, 2). This brings the total number of aerial bombs dropped by Russia’s Aerospace Forces on Russian territory and occupied areas of Ukraine to 165 since the beginning of the year. However, according to data from the Ukrainian General Staff compiled by OSINT researcher Imi (m), Russia’s use of aerial bombs is generally declining.
The Russian MoD reported (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) the destruction of 143 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory during the past week. Ukrainian forces carried out strikes on the following targets:
Losses
On Dec. 22, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets claimed that Russian soldiers had executed five captured Ukrainian soldiers. A video of the reported incident, filmed from a drone, was published by the 110th Mechanized Brigade's UAV battalion. A pro-Russian OSINT channel, Slivochniy Kapriz, described the footage as the “clean-up” of Ukrainian positions in the northern part of the village of Blahodatne.