Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,050

Here is the situation on Thursday, January 9:

A Russian-guided bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 civilians and injured about 30 others, Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a statement on social media.
A separate Russian strike killed two people in the village of Stepnogirsk, south of Zaporizhzhia and close to the front line, Fedorov also said.
Roman Busagrin, governor of the Russian city of Saratov, said two firefighters were killed while battling a blaze which erupted after Ukrainian forces hit an oil depot in the region, which is located some 500km (310 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
The United States told the United Nations Security Council that North Korea is “significantly benefitting” from its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, gaining experience that makes Pyongyang “more capable of waging war against its neighbours”.
Nada Al-Nashif, the deputy UN rights chief, has told a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that she is “deeply concerned” by a significant increase in “credible allegations of executions” of captured Ukrainian troops by the Russian armed forces.

The US is ready to provide Ukraine with an additional $500m in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles, two US officials said, adding the move is being made by US President Joe Biden’s administration ahead of Donald Trump taking office in the White House.
US leadership on Ukraine is “critical” and continued assistance for Kyiv is key, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, a day ahead of the expected announcement of the new military aid package.

Membership in NATO is the only “credible” security guarantee Ukraine can receive against any future Russian aggression, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.
Valtonen, on a visit to Kyiv, met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visited the country’s largest children’s hospital in the capital, which was badly damaged by a Russian attack in July 2024.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any future deal to end the war in Ukraine would need to build into it “the necessary deterrence” to prevent Russia from once again attacking Ukraine.

Zelenskyy will attend a defence meeting of Kyiv’s allies hosted by the US at the Ramstein airbase in Germany, he said in a video message on social media.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, where illegal migration and support for Ukraine are likely to be among the topics up for discussion.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a memorial event commemorating the fifth anniversary of a Ukrainian Airlines flight that was shot down by Iran in 2020 that was carrying passengers from Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, the UK, Afghanistan and Iran.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country is ready to replace Hungary in the European Union and NATO should Budapest prefer to join Russian-led blocs after Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto criticised Ukraine’s refusal to renew a five-year transit gas deal with Russia.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb will host a summit in Helsinki of the NATO countries that border the Baltic Sea together with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal next week.
Lithuania said it would bring forward increased security of a key electricity cable linking it to neighbouring Poland, citing the potential for sabotage. The EU and NATO member, along with its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia, is set to decouple from the Russian power grid next month, the culmination of decades-long efforts to reduce reliance on Moscow.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, however powerful, and suggested that expansionist comments by US President-elect Trump regarding Greenland, Panama and Canada are being met with “incomprehension” among European leaders.
Zelenskyy played down concerns over comments by Trump in which he said that he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine to join NATO. “Don’t draw conclusions about the policy of the US right away,” Zelenskyy said.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said he had secured a gas supply for Slovakia during a visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, just before Ukraine halted the transit of gas from Russia at the start of 2025.
Zelenskyy and Moldovan President Maia Sandu discussed using Ukrainian coal to ease the energy crisis which has subjected Moldova’s separatist Transdniestria region to blackouts and a heating shortage. Pro-Russian Transdniestria relies on supplies of Russian gas. But flows to the region through Ukraine were halted on January 1 after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement on allowing gas to transit through its territory.

California Winds Ease Slightly but Are Expected to Pick Up Again