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What 1 January 2026 showed about the war
Summary
A retrospective on drone strikes in Kherson region and a US sanctions licence for a Serbian refinery, reported around 1 January 2026.
What did the first day of 2026 look like in the Russo-Ukrainian war? On 1 January 2026, one person was killed and another injured in Russian drone strikes on Dniprovskyi District in Kherson, Ukraine.
A strike on the eve of the new year
The previous day, 31 December 2025, Russian authorities reported at least 24 people killed, including a child, and dozens injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a hotel and a restaurant in Khorly, in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast. Together, the two reports placed drone warfare in the Kherson area at the turn of the year, with each side reporting civilian casualties from the other's strikes.
Sanctions and a Serbian refinery
The war's economic dimension surfaced on the same date as the Khorly report. On 31 December 2025, the United States issued a temporary licence allowing Serbia's majority-Russian-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije to resume refinery operations until 23 January, despite sanctions linked to the war.
The licence sat within a wider sanctions framework. Since 2022, the European Union, the G7 nations and Australia have imposed sanctions on Russia. The oil measures began in December 2022 and included an embargo on bringing Russian crude oil and refined products to the EU and other G7 nations by ship, with a few exceptions. The time-limited Serbian licence fitted a pattern of sanctions that came with a set end date.
Washington's position
The American approach to the war also formed part of the backdrop. The Biden administration condemned the 2022 invasion and provided military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as imposing sanctions on Russia and Belarus. The second Trump administration, in office since 2025, proposed a peace deal and increasingly sought to distance itself from financially supporting Ukrainian resistance.
What the day showed
The reports from 31 December 2025 and 1 January 2026 describe a conflict that continued without a pause for the holiday: drones struck populated areas in and around Kherson, and sanctions policy was adjusted in small, dated steps. The Serbian licence ran only to 23 January, so the status of the refinery was set to come up again within weeks.
