**Ukraine Shoots Down 52 Russian Drones Overnight**
On December 22, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that they had shot down 52 attack drones launched by Russia against the country. This includes Shahed-type drones, which have been used in recent months to target critical infrastructure and deprive civilians of power, water, and gas.
**Drone Attacks Across Ukraine**
The drone attacks were reported over 12 Ukrainian oblasts, including Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia. Apartment buildings and private businesses were among the sites damaged by the attacks, but no casualties have been reported so far.
**Russia’s Increased Drone Attacks**
President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that Russia is launching about 10 times as many Shahed-type drones against Ukraine compared to last fall. The Air Force has also reported a sharp rise in Russia’s drone attacks, from 2,023 drones deployed in October to 2,576 in November.
**Casualties and Damage**
According to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russian forces suffered over 1,820 casualties just over the past day. This brings the total number of casualties to over 20,000 deaths confirmed over the past 12 months, with final conclusions still pending due to emerging data.
**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.
* President Volodymyr Zelensky 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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