Russia-Ukraine war LIVE Updates: Heaviest fighting rages in east Ukraine

A security officer at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, prompting Kyiv to order greater security at all its representative offices abroad.The letter, which arrived by regular mail and was not scanned, caused "a very small wound" on one finger when the officer opened it in the embassy garden, Mercedes Gonzalez, a Spanish government official, told broadcaster Telemadrid.Hours later, an arms company in Zaragoza, northeastern Spain, received a similar package, local media reported citing police sources. Reuters could not independently confirm the information.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all of Kyiv's embassies abroad to "urgently" strengthen security and urged Spain to take investigate the attack, a ministry spokesman said.The perpetrators, he added, "will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work on strengthening Ukraine and countering Russian aggression."Ukraine's ambassador to Madrid, Serhii Pohoreltsev, told TVE later that he was working as usual at the embassy "with no fear".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday invited Elon Musk to visit Ukraine to see the damage done to the country by Russian forces, saying that such a visit could help the billionaire understand the situation before making pronouncements about it.In October, Musk sparked controversy on Twitter by proposing a peace deal involving re-running under UN supervision referendums in Moscow-occupied Ukrainian regions, acknowledging Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula and giving Ukraine a neutral status.

Police in Spain are examining a possible link between two letter bombs sent to the Ukrainian ambassador in Madrid and to an arms company that manufactures rocket launchers donated to Kyiv, they confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.In the first incident, an officer at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador, prompting Kyiv to order greater security at all its representative offices abroad.The letter, which arrived by regular mail and was not scanned, caused "a very small wound" on one finger when an officer opened it in the embassy garden, Mercedes Gonzalez, a Spanish government official, told broadcaster Telemadrid.Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told the Ukrainian news site European Pravda that the suspicious package addressed to him was handed to the embassy's commandant, a Ukrainian staff member."The package contained a box, which raised the commandant's suspicions and he decided to take it outside – with no one in the vicinity – and open it," Pohoreltsev was quoted as saying."After opening the box and hearing a click that followed, he tossed it and then heard the explosion...Despite not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commandant hurt his hands and received a concussion."

In the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, site of the heaviest fighting, Russian forces tried to make further advances and shelled several towns, including Bakhmut and nearby Soledar and Opytne, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Wednesday night statement.On the southern front, it said Russian forces took up defensive positions and trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Ukrainian positions and on the regional capital of Kherson, abandoned by Russian troops earlier in November.Other battleground activity was reported in northeastern and central Ukraine, the military said.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin had focused "his ire and his fire" on Ukraine's civilian population and warned Russia that its strategy would fail to divide Ukraine's supporters."Heat, water, electricity ... these are President Putin's new targets. He's hitting them hard. This brutalisation of Ukraine's people is barbaric," Blinken told a news conference in Bucharest following a two-day Nato meeting.

Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday his country needed US-made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, which has been under heavy attack by Russia at the start of winter.

Ukraine's state emergency service said on Wednesday nine people had been killed in fires in the past 24 hours as people broke safety rules trying to heat their homes following Russian attacks on power facilities. The number of fires has risen, it said, with Ukrainians increasingly resorting to using emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in their homes because of power outages.

Ukraine said Wednesday it will strengthen security at all the country's embassies after an employee of the embassy in Madrid was injured when a letter bomb blew up. "Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba instructed to strengthen the security of all Ukrainian embassies," Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on social media in English.

Russia has employed the Wagner Group, whose head Prigozhin is said to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and has admitted meddling in US elections — in several armed conflicts worldwide.

He said the Zambian Embassy in the Russian capital of Moscow had established that Nyirenda died Sept. 22 and that his remains were transported to the Russian border town of Rostov ahead of repatriation to Zambia. Before his prison sentence, Nyirenda was studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. He was serving his approximately nine-year sentence at a prison on the outskirts of Moscow, according to the Zambian government.

A Zambian student who had been serving a prison sentence in Russia and died fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine had been employed by Russian mercenary group Wagner, its leader said. Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on the Russian social media app VKontake on Tuesday that the student, 23 year-old Lemekhane Nyireda, “died a hero.”

Among the other new targets is Arkady Gostev, the head of Russia's prison service, for "supporting the recruitment of prisoners" into Russian mercenary outfit Wagner. Western officials and Russian rights groups accuse Wagner's head Yevgeny Prigozhin -- a businessman close to the Kremlin -- of personally participating in a recruitment drive at Russian prisons to send to Ukraine.

Britain Wednesday unveiled a new round of sanctions on Russian officials over the war in Ukraine, targeting those accused of spearheading recent mobilisation efforts and the recruitment of "criminal mercenaries". The new package of 22 sanctions hit Russia's deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, who London said is responsible for overseeing the country's weapons industry and equipping newly mobilised troops. It also targeted 10 governors and regional heads in places including Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kalmykia, from where it noted "a significant number" of conscripts have been drawn.

Ukraine's foreign minister told some NATO diplomats visiting Kyiv earlier in the day that transformers were the biggest element of the country's power infrastructure that needed to be restored. Blinken said the main message out of this week's NATO summit was that the Western alliance's support for Ukraine will continue and that it was "clear-eyed" about the difficult winter ahead.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin had focused his "fire and ire" on Ukraine's civilian population and warned that Russia's recent strategy of targeting vital infrastructure would fail to divide Ukraine's supporters. Blinken accused Putin of trying to divide the Western coalition and to force it to abandon Ukraine by freezing and starving Ukrainians and driving up energy costs not across Europe but around the world.

Ukraine needs the US made Patriot missile defence systems to protect its civilian infrastructure, under heavy attack by Russia, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday, adding he would try to convince Germany to allow their delivery. Russia has carried out regular missile bombardments on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since early October, with damage accumulating as temperatures drop. The last big wave on Nov. 23 caused widespread damage.

European Commission officials said that one short-term option for Western nations would be to create a fund to manage and invest liquid assets of the central bank, and use the proceeds to support Ukraine. The assets would be returned to their owners when sanctions were lifted, which could be part of a peace agreement that ensured Ukraine received compensation for damages.

The European Commission proposed a plan on Wednesday to compensate Ukraine for damage from Russia's invasion with proceeds from investing Russian funds frozen under sanctions. Officials in the EU, United States and other Western countries have long debated whether Ukraine can benefit from frozen Russian assets, including around $300 billion of Russia's central bank reserves and $20 billion held by blacklisted Russians.

A teenager was killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, a presidential aide said Wednesday. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had pounded the region, which borders Russia, with artillery and mortar bombs over the past 24 hours. Another person was killed and one was wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said.