Choice to send Steve Witkoff highlights Washington's growing urgency to bridge remaining gaps with Kyiv over plan's terms

The drones are still in limited supply and are not always the ideal interception method, Ukrainian soldiers and an official told Business Insider.

Ukraine’s cheap, effective drones boost defense and exports, but extensive politicization and complex bureaucracy risk slowing production at a critical moment.

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a major long-range drone strike on an offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea. This strike reportedly took place earlier in the week. The attack is described as part of an undisclosed mission.

A top Ukrainian sea-drone commander says more complex attacks on Russian forces are expected next year as Kyiv's uncrewed fleet continues to restrict the once-dominant Black Sea navy.

On Dec. 6, Russia launched a sweeping attack on Ukraine, comprising 653 drones and 51 missiles. Ukraine’s Air Force reported intercepting 585 drones and 30 missiles; still, impacts targeting primarily energy infrastructure were recorded in 29 locations.

Ukrainian drone attack in southwestern Russia killed two people as parts of Ukraine went without power after Russian assaults on energy sites hours before peace talks were to restart in Germany.

Ukrainian sea drones on Wednesday hit and disabled a tanker involved in trading Russian oil as it sailed through Ukraine's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk,

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, as Trump grows increasingly exasperated by delays.