No signs of conflict ending

In November, the US put forward a 28-point proposal, which was later revised by Ukraine and European countries but still failed to gain Russia's full acceptance. A meeting involving the United States, Europe, Russia and Ukraine in Miami, Florida, in December also yielded no significant progress.

On the battlefield, Russian forces have taken control of more than 300 populated areas so far this year, including the recently captured strategic logistics hub of Krasnoarmeysk. Ukrainian forces have continued to resist Russian advances in parts of the Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, while launching frequent artillery and drone attacks on several regions in western Russia. Overall, however, the battlefield situation has become increasingly challenging for Ukraine.

Along the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia front line, Russian forces are on the offensive while Ukrainian troops remain largely on the defensive.

However, no single battle is likely to determine a decisive shift in the overall trajectory of the conflict. The Ukraine crisis in 2025 was defined by its protracted and enduring nature, said Li Yonghui, researcher at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Wan Qingsong, an associate research professor at the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University in Shanghai, also pointed out that the Russia-Ukraine conflict had escalated across military, political, and diplomatic fronts over the past year.

"On the military-political level, Russia leveraged progressively upgraded technological capabilities, particularly expanded fiber-optic control systems and longer-range drones, alongside accumulated combat experience to refine its assault and advance tactics, thereby maintaining overall battlefield initiative."