What did Ukraine's news cycle bring by 27 January 2025?
A look back at the reports of 24 January 2025 that framed the situation as 27 January 2025 began, from mobilisation reform to drone strikes.
What was Ukraine dealing with as 27 January 2025 began? The reports from the preceding Friday, 24 January 2025, point to a country adjusting its military rules, trading blows by drone and burying its dead.
Mobilisation rules change
On 24 January 2025, Ukraine finalised military reforms aimed at recruiting 18- to 25-year-olds to the armed forces. The changes also penalise draft dodgers and lower the minimum compulsory military service age to 25 from 27.
Drones in both directions
The same day, a Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil refinery in Ryazan Oblast, Russia, in one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia of the conflict to date. The Russian military said it had shot down at least 121 drones over 13 regions overnight.
In Ukraine, a Russian drone struck a ten-storey apartment building in Fastiv, Kyiv Oblast, killing at least three people.
The dead come home
Also on 24 January 2025, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced that, with assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the bodies of 757 Ukrainian soldiers had been returned to Ukraine.
Politics abroad
Beyond Ukraine's borders, more than 60,000 people demonstrated across Slovakia on 24 January 2025 against the policies of Prime Minister Robert Fico, described in the reports as anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian and Eurosceptic.
Taken together, these reports show a domestic policy shift on recruitment, an escalating drone exchange and the continuing human cost, set alongside public protest in a neighbouring state.
