Key Takeaways from ISW:
- A senior Russian official reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that negotiations with Ukraine must be based on the same uncompromising demands he made before the full-scale invasion and at the moment of Russia’s greatest territorial gains, despite the fact that Ukraine has liberated significant amount of territory since then.
- The Kremlin’s economic limitations will likely hinder its efforts to impose policies combatting long-term demographic decline in Russia.
- A Russian cargo ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea on December 23, possibly while traveling from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok via Syria and Libya.
- The United States provided Ukraine on December 24 with the first tranche of loans generated solely from profits from frozen Russian assets.
- Russian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk, Toretsk, Vuhledar, Velyka Novosilka, and in Kursk Oblast.
- Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev claimed on December 24 that 440,000 recruits signed military service contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) in 2024.
Authors: Christina Harward, Nicole Wolkov, Grace Mappes, William Runkel, and George Barros.
See the original here.