With fighting raging in the partially Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Kyiv's Western allies appear to be moving toward providing advanced armored combat vehicles to the Ukrainian military.
In its daily briefing on the war on January 5, the Ukrainian military said more than 800 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded, mostly in fighting around the Donetsk region city of Bakhmut and other locations in the Donetsk region.
RFE/RL could not independently verify the Ukrainian military's figures.
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Amid the intense fighting, U.S. President Joe Biden on January 4 confirmed that Washington was considering sending Bradly infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. The M2 Bradley has been the main infantry fighting vehicle of the U.S. military since 1981, which has thousands of them available.
Washington is expected to unveil a new package of assistance to Ukraine in the coming days.
Biden's comment came after a telephone conversation earlier in the day between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and French President Emmanuel Macron after which it was revealed that France will provide AMX-10 RC light-armored vehicles to Ukraine.
Reuters quoted an unidentified French official as saying that "this is the first time Western-made armored vehicles are supplied to support the Ukrainian Army." No further details were reported.
Earlier, Australia provided 90 Bushmaster vehicles, which are armored against land mines.
Kyiv has been pressing Western governments for heavy armored vehicles, particularly U.S.-made Abrams and German Leopard battle tanks.
"There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.
WATCH: Only a small fraction of the prewar population remains in the village of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhya region. The settlement is located near the front line and suffers daily shelling by Russian forces.
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'Everything Is Destroyed': Life In A Frontline Village In Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Region
A senior U.S. official said on January 4 that the fighting around Bakhmut was "still quite hot" and predicted "continued fighting in the coming months."
At a conference in Norway on January 5, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged the West not to underestimate Russian President Vladimir Putin's resolve in Ukraine.
"They have shown a great willingness to tolerate losses and suffering," Stoltenberg said. "We have no indication that President Putin has changed his plans and goals in Ukraine."
At the same event, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Berlin remained committed to providing equipment to Ukraine.
"We will not stop to deliver weapons to Ukraine," Habeck said in English. "We will always adjust our deliveries to the need of the battlefield."
Ukrainian officials have been warning in recent days that Russia is planning a fresh offensive, as Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine nears its first anniversary on February 24.
“There are many signs that give us reason to say that they may make another attempt in February,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, said on January 4.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that because of high casualties in the ongoing fighting, Russia will likely have to implement a second military mobilization in the first quarter of this year.
In December, Putin said there was no need for further mobilization.
The office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on January 5 that he had pressed Putin during a telephone call to implement a "unilateral cease-fire" in Ukraine in order to support efforts for peace talks.
Erdogan was expected to speak by telephone with Zelenskiy later in the day.
The Turkish leader, who helped broker a deal to resume shipments of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports that were closed during the early months of the conflict, has repeatedly offered to host a peace summit between the warring leaders.
The Kremlin reported that Putin informed Erdogan of Russia's "openness to serious dialogue on the condition of Kyiv authorities...taking into account the new territorial realities," a reference to Russia's unrecognized claims to have annexed five Ukrainian regions.
Also on January 5, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who has been a staunch supporter of the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine, called on "all sides" involved in conflicts to observe a truce on January 6-7 to enable Orthodox believers to attend church services for Christmas.
Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the same day that, because of the Russian invasion, Ukraine's gross domestic product declined by more than 30 percent in 2022, the largest annual decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union over 30 years ago.
Svyrydenko noted that Russian missile and drone attacks continued to pummel Ukraine's civilian energy infrastructure, which has put increased pressure on the economy.