**Trump Claims Putin Wants to Meet with Him**
US President-elect Donald Trump said on December 22 that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to hold a meeting with him “as soon as possible.”
At a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump claimed that Putin had made this request. He also emphasized the need to end the war in Ukraine, which he said was causing heavy military losses.
Trump repeated his claim that Russia would not have launched the full-scale invasion if he had been president in 2022. “Millions of soldiers have died,” he said. “We’ve got to stop it, it’s ridiculous.”
**Ukraine War Update**
The war in Ukraine continues to escalate. On December 22, the Ukrainian Air Force reported shooting down 52 attack drones, including the Shahed type, that Russia launched against the country overnight.
Oryol Oblast Governor Andrey Klychkov claimed that Russian forces downed 20 drones over Oryol Oblast targeting fuel and energy infrastructure facilities. The Air Force added that it lost track of 44 decoy drones that Russia launched alongside the real attack drones.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported that Russia suffered 1,820 casualties just over the past day. According to current estimates, over 20,000 deaths have been confirmed in Ukraine since the start of the war.
**Other News**
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk defeated U.K.-born Tyson Fury by unanimous decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 22 to retain his unified heavyweight championship title.
A Ukrainian woman is in serious condition after a car plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on the evening of December 20. The incident has claimed five lives and left over 200 people injured, many of them critically.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on December 21 that he met with CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine, marking a rare public acknowledgment of their discussions during Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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