The Russian military has claimed that 1,350 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours, with nearly 500 deaths in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
According to the Russian military, by December 29 its troops had advanced or fortified positions in multiple regions, including Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also stated that Kyiv must pull its forces out of the portion of the Donbas it still controls, including Donetsk and Luhansk, if it seeks peace.
Responding to remarks by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov regarding decisions Kyiv needed to make about the Donbas, Peskov said Ukraine should withdraw its troops.
“We are referring to the withdrawal of the regime’s armed forces from the Donbas,” he said.
The Donbas, which Russia estimates it controls around 90 percent of, remains a major point of contention in ceasefire talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
Russia Completes 2025 Military Draft
The Russian Defence Ministry announced that the 2025 military draft has concluded, with 135,000 recruits, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Most recruits were assigned to training and military units, where they are expected to learn how to operate modern military equipment and develop a military specialty, the ministry said.
The ministry noted that special attention was given to staffing scientific, research, and production units, as well as sports companies.
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A total of 680 recruits were assigned to research and production roles, while 240 athletes from national Olympic sports teams were placed in sports units.
“The majority of conscripts were assigned to training units and military units, where they will master modern military equipment and acquire a military specialty,” the statement read.
“Particular attention was paid to staffing scientific and research-and-production units, as well as sports companies. 680 people were assigned to scientific and research-and-production units, and 240 conscripts from the national Olympic sports teams were assigned to sports companies.”
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Putin’s Forces Executed 2 Ukrainian In Donetsk Oblast
At the same time, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported on December 29 that two unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war were shot dead by Russian forces on December 27 in the village of Shakhove, near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast.
According to investigators, Russian troops forced one of the captives to partially undress at gunpoint before executing both.
“Seeing that the prisoners of war were dead, they also took off the clothes of the second defender who had already been killed,” the prosecutor said.
A pretrial investigation has been launched under Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which criminalizes war crimes resulting in death.
Earlier in December, the Ukrainian open-source group DeepState reported that three POWs were executed south of Huliaipole in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on December 20.
Another case involved a surrendered soldier who was shot in the Siversk area on December 5. Such acts are prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and are considered war crimes.
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