Ukraine Conflict Monitor
Update
Ukraine war situation update | 6 – 12 December 2025
Overview of political violence events in Ukraine from 6 to 12 December 2025.
Key stats
1,511 political violence events
3% increase compared to last week
106 incidents of violence targeting civilians
7% decrease compared to last week
At least 38 fatalities from civilian targeting
16% decrease compared to last week
Key events
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7 Dec.
Kharkiv — Russian strikes kill two civilians and injure eight others in Staryi Saltiv
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10 Dec.
Black Sea — Ukrainian naval drones strike a Comoros-registered oil tanker, associated with the Russian shadow fleet
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11 Dec.
Kyiv — Locals recruited by Russia trigger two explosions in Kyiv city, killing a national guard officer
Key trends
- Russian forces seized four villages near Pokrovsk and advanced toward Lyman and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region. Russian forces also seized a settlement in the northern part of the Sumy region, in addition to capturing another settlement near Orikhiv and advancing toward Huliaipole in the Zaporizhia region.
- Ukrainian forces counter-attacked around Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, recapturing part of the town and three nearby settlements. Ukrainian forces also regained a settlement in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
- Russian forces launched at least 43 long-range missile and drone attacks, including on the Kyiv region and the western regions of Lviv and Volyn.
- Russian strikes killed at least 31 civilians in the Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Sumy regions. Ukrainian drones and shelling reportedly killed seven civilians in the Russian-occupied parts of the Donetsk and Kherson regions.
Spotlight: Ukrainian forces counter-attack near Kupiansk amid sweeping Russian advances
On 11–12 December, weeks after Russia claimed control over Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, counter-attacking Ukrainian forces regained most of the city and three settlements to its northwest. To secure these gains, Ukraine may seek to clear the western bank of the Oskil River north of Kupiansk to delay further Russian attempts to encircle the city. Meanwhile, Russian forces also tried to approach the city from the south, with Russian sources claiming they seized a settlement near Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi.1 Ukraine’s rare successful counter-offensive on a major logistical hub was widely reported, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly visiting Kupiansk2 to boost the morale of Ukrainian forces facing infantry shortages and struggling to hold off creeping Russian advances in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia regions.
Russia has been trying to approach Kupiansk since Ukrainian forces liberated most of the Kharkiv region in September–October 2022. Capturing Kupiansk would allow Russian forces to support further offensives in the parts of the Donetsk region that remain under Ukrainian control and deeper into the Kharkiv region. The prospect of capturing the city became more real once Russia crossed the Oskil River and seized Dvorichna north of Kupiansk in early 2025. Since then, armed clashes have been on the rise in the Kupiansk district, peaking in October and November. In recent months, Russia has attempted to infiltrate the city multiple times, including in September, when Russian forces used a gas pipe, recently destroyed by Ukrainian forces, to enter the city;3 and also in October, when Russian soldiers in plain clothes shot dead three evacuating civilians in Kupiansk.4
Explore the ACLED Conflict Exposure Calculator to assess the number of people affected by armed violence, disaggregated by locations, time period, and actors involved.
