However, Ukrainian forces said it has come under intense Russian attack over the past 24 hours, with continuous assaults along the front line, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday.
Russian election officials will check the authenticity of the signatures submitted by Nadezhdin and other would-be candidates, several of whom have withdrawn from the race in recent days.
Attacks led by the Ukraine army are dealing a heavy blow to President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to reassure Russians that life in the country is largely untouched by the nearly 2-year-old war.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that an IL-76 cargo aircraft carrying 65 captured Ukrainian service members as well as six crew members and three people accompanying the POWs went down during a pre-planned flight at around 11 am local time.
The North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Putin reaffirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang and said that he could come at an “early date.”
Putin dismissed "so-called peace formulas" being discussed among Western countries and Ukraine and the "prohibitive demands" these negotiations entailed. This came as the United States and the European Union are unable to fund Kyiv due to their own internal complications.
At Davos, Zelenskyy endeavoured his country’s long and largely stalemated defence against Russia on the minds of political leaders, just as Israel’s war with Hamas, which has siphoned off much of the world’s attention and sparked concerns about a wider conflict.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said during a visit to Moscow that ties with Russia were developing in line with the plans of the two countries leaders, a deepening of a relationship that the United States and its allies view with concern.
During the conversation, PM Modi and Putin reviewed progress on a number of issues of bilateral cooperation in follow-up to recent high-level exchanges between the two countries.
At least 24 people were killed and over 110 injured in a retaliatory attack by Ukraine in Russia's Belgorod on Saturday. Putin called it "a terrorist act" that would not go unpunished and promised more strikes on Ukrainian targets.
A further 110 people were wounded in the strike, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, making it one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 22 months ago.
Russia launched a massive barrage of 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets on Friday, killing 31 people and injuring 120 others. This was the largest aerial assault since the war erupted last year, as the previous biggest assault was in November 2022 when Moscow launched 96 missiles.
This comes after Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, where the latter invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia next year. Putin told Jaishankar that Russia's relations with India and its people are making "steady headway" despite "current turbulences".
The party, in Moscow's Mutabor nightclub on December 21, was organised by blogger Anastasia (Nastya) Ivleeva and was attended by well-known singers in various states of undress who have been staples on state TV entertainment programmes for years.
Both Jaishankar and Lavrov are expected to discuss a wide range of issues including bilateral, trade, currency, the Middle East conflict, the Ukraine crisis and other global issues.
Putin's critics said the decision showed that no one with genuine opposition views would be allowed to stand against him next March in the first presidential election since the start of the 22-month war.
"We are not going to abandon the goals of the special military operation," Putin said, though he added that Russia needed better military communication, reconnaissance, targeting and satellite capability.
Putin said in an interview published on Sunday by Rossiya state television, saying it was an attempt by Biden to justify his "erroneous policy" on Russia.
The Kremlin leader vowed to achieve the "de-Nazification, de-militarisation and a neutral status of the country" of Ukraine as part of its "special military operation". Offering a rare detail, Putin said that a total of 617,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine.
A unit made up of Russians who have joined Ukrainian military ranks to fight against their homeland, hoping someday to help oust Russian President Vladimir Putin. Check how they are fighting against their own country.
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