Russian strikes killed four people in Ukraine on December 18

The National Police reported that as a result of shelling by the Russian military during the day of December 18, 2025, four people died in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, and more than two dozen sustained injuries in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.

A police officer looks at a house engulfed in flames after a strike by the Russian military on the Kharkiv Oblast

The victims of the enemy strikes on December 18 were:

• a resident of Novodmytrivka, on whom the Russians dropped explosives from a drone;
• a man from Kherson who died due to the Russian artillery shelling;
• a young man from Blahodativka, which the Russian military struck during the day using their aviation;
• a resident of the village of Osynove, at which the Russians launched a drone.

In addition to the dead in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions, a total of 17 civilians also sustained various injuries.

Among them are five neighbors of the deceased from Blahodativka, a driver with a passenger whom the Russians struck with a drone in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, as well as eight residents of Kherson, injured at different times on December 18 by enemy drones and artillery.

A child’s toy truck against the background of a rescue vehicle, visible from a broken second-floor window of a building in Zaporizhzhia, struck by the Russian military

Another 57-year-old woman and two men aged 55 and 58 were injured due to Russian shelling of Zaporizhzhia and the Polohy District of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

In the Donetsk region on December 18, the Russian Federation launched nearly two thousand strikes with various weapons, as a result of which a person was injured in Dobropillia.

A fire following Russian shelling in one of the settlements of the Donetsk region

A day earlier, on December 17, Russians killed five people in Ukraine in their shelling, and in total over nearly four years – more than 14.5 thousand officially alone.

To provide background, earlier Ukrainian experts pointed out that after aligning its position with Russia, there is increasing pressure on Ukraine from the security guarantor under the Budapest Memorandum — the United States of America — to violate international law and the Constitution of Ukraine, ceding Ukrainian territories as part of a plan that U.S. President Donald Trump calls a “peace plan.”

In the evening of December 18, Ukraine’s NSDC Secretary, Rustem Umerov, announced on X that the United States, together with Lieutenant General Andrii Hnatov, will soon begin another round of consultations with the American side. At the invitation of the U.S. side, European partners are also involved in this format.

“We thank the United States for the coordination that allows us to maintain a shared vision and coordinate our move forward. We are committed to a constructive process. We have already held preliminary consultations with our European colleagues and are preparing for further discussions with the American side. Following the consultations, we will report to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We are acting clearly in line with the priorities defined by the President: Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed reliably and in the long term,” Umerov stated.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been answering questions from journalists, and he was asked about the latest developments in Russia’s war, according to The Guardian.

He said the U.S. administration invested “a tremendous amount of time and energy” in ending this war, and is “trying to figure out what Ukraine can live with and what Russia can live with.”

“[We want to] sort of identify what both sides’ positions are and see if we can sort of drive them towards each other to some agreement,” he said.

“A negotiated settlement requires two things, both sides to get something out of it, and both sides to give something. And we’re trying to figure out, what can Russia give and what do they expect to get? What can Ukraine give and what can Ukraine expect to get? In the end, the decision will be up to Ukraine, and up to Russia will not be up to the United States,” Rubio said.

He added that “this is not about imposing a deal on anybody,” but trying to find where interests can “overlap.”

“I think we’ve made progress, but we have ways to go, and obviously, the hardest issues are always the last issues,” he said.