Ukrainian officials reported on Friday that thousands of children and their parents were evacuated from frontline areas in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions as Russian forces continued to advance.
Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram: “Due to the difficult security situation, over 3,000 children and their parents have been forcibly evacuated from 44 frontline settlements.” Evacuations are also ongoing in the northern Chernihiv region.
Kuleba added that since 1 June, a total of 150,000 people have been moved from frontline areas to safer regions, including around 18,000 children and more than 5,000 people with limited mobility.
Russian troops continue to push through the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region. The evacuation orders came after Russia launched a major drone attack on Zaporizhzhia overnight, with regional administration head Ivan Fedorov reporting that at least nine drones struck the city, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, but causing no casualties.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia fired 116 long-range drones overnight, 86 of which were intercepted, while 27 reached their targets.
Russian territorial gains
Data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project show that the Russian army captured more than 5,600 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in 2025. While this exceeds gains from the previous two years combined, it remains far below the more than 60,000 square kilometres taken in 2022.
Diplomatic efforts
Kyiv is hosting security advisors from allied states on Saturday, with representatives from the European Union, NATO, and the United States joining, the latter via video link. The talks will be followed by a summit of leaders from the “coalition of the willing” planned next week in France.
In his New Year’s Eve address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a US-brokered peace deal is “90 per cent” ready, but the key issue of territorial disputes remains unresolved.
The diplomatic push comes as Russia continues to press its advantage on the battlefield against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces.
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