Russian invasion

Sanctions
Russian arms manufacturers increase revenue – despite sanctions

Russia’s arms manufacturers increased their revenue last year – despite Western sanctions and falling exports. The reason was the insatiable demand from the country’s own military, a new report from the SIPRI peace research institute shows.

The two Russian arms companies on the top 100 list of the world’s arms manufacturers, Rostec and United Shipbuilding Corporation, increased their combined arms revenue by 23 percent to $31.2 billion, writes Politico.

“Domestic demand was more than enough to compensate for the loss from reduced arms exports,” the report says.

Fighting
Kremlin claims Russian army has taken Pokrovsk

Russian forces have taken the city of Pokrovsk, the important transport hub in Donetsk where intense fighting has raged in recent months. The Kremlin claims this in a post on Telegram according to AFP.

Ukraine has not commented. In its daily situation update on Sunday, the ISW think tank wrote:

“Russian forces continue to make slow advances and have not managed to take all of Pokrovsk despite having been positioned in the city for over 120 days.”

Biggest advance for Russian army in a year

In November, the Russian army made its biggest advance in a year in Ukraine, according to an AFP analysis of ISW think tank data.

A total of 701 square kilometers of land were captured. This is the second highest figure of the war after November 2024, excluding the earliest months.

Russia now controls 19.3 percent of Ukraine’s territory in whole or in part.

Corruption in Ukraine
Zelenskyj keeps quiet about Yermak's successor

Ukrainian President Zelenskyj has not announced who will succeed Andriy Yermak as Chief of Staff, reports Ukrainska Pravda.

At a press conference with French President Macron, he said that he will hold more consultations when he returns home, and that the choice depends on the diplomatic direction Ukraine will take.

- There are several worthy candidates, he adds.

According to Ukrainska Pravda's government sources, there are three likely candidates: Minister of Digitalization Mykhailo Fedorov, Head of the Intelligence Service Kyrylo Budanov, and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Pavlo Pavlisa.

Yermak, who was the president's right-hand man and Ukraine's second most powerful politician throughout the war, was forced to resign last week after the anti-corruption agency raided his home.