Russia-Ukraine war live updates: US to send anti-drone, air defense system worth $275 million to Ukraine

"The potential for conflict in the world is growing and this is a direct consequence of the attempts by Western elites to preserve their political, financial, military and ideological dominance by any means," Putin said.The Russian leader was speaking in a video message to a summit of defence ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and a group of ex-Soviet countries that was published by the Kremlin."They deliberately multiply chaos and aggravate the international situation," Putin said.

Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attacks near 15 settlements in the eastern Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions over the past day, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook. According to its statement, Russian forces conducted seven missile attacks and 16 air strikes as well as more than 40 assaults with multiple-launch rocket systems. The Nikopol district in the central Dnipropetrovsk region was shelled again overnight, according to local authorities. Russia may have modified its drones to operate in colder weather and could increase their use in coming weeks to target Ukrainian critical infrastructure, according to the latest report by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to keep battering Ukraine's energy grid despite an outcry against the systematic attacks that have plunged millions into the cold and dark as winter sets in.He instead blamed Ukraine for initiating a trend of attacking civilian infrastructure, pointing to a blast on a key bridge between the Russian mainland and the annexed Crimean peninsula that he recently visited."There's a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighbouring country. This will not interfere with our combat missions," Putin said at a military awards ceremony in the Kremlin.Weeks of Russian missile barrages across Ukraine have crippled key infrastructure at a critical time, as temperatures drop ahead of long winter months that already have brought suffering to Ukrainians lacking water, heating and gas.He presented the strikes as a response to the explosion in October on the Kerch bridge and also accused Kyiv of blowing up power lines from the Kursk nuclear power plant and for not supplying water to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine."Yes, we do that," Putin said of the strikes on the Ukraine grid.

Turkey will host talks with a Russian delegation in Ankara on Friday to seek a discount of more than 25% for the price of its gas imports from Russia, senior Turkish officials said.A deal with Russia could ease the pressure on the lira, one of the world’s worst-performing currencies over the last year, and help President Recep Tayyip Erdogan avoid hiking energy prices ahead of elections next year to boost his popularity at a time when Europe is facing an energy crunch.

The Kremlin said Thursday that the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula was vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks after officials said they had shot down a drone near a key naval base.The latest drone attack came after Russian President Vladimir Putin recently visited the only bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland to survey repair work on the key artery damaged in a blast Moscow blamed on Kyiv."There are certainly risks because the Ukrainian side continues its policy of organising terrorist attacks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters."But, on the other hand, information we get indicates that effective countermeasures are being taken."The Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov said last month that Russia was strengthening fortifications on the peninsula in the wake of recent attacks.The governors of two Russian regions bordering Ukraine this week said they had inspected defence lines being built, days after Ukrainian drones struck key military airfields.In the latest incident over Crimea Thursday, Russia said it had shot down a drone over the Black Sea near Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean peninsula, which hosts a key Russian naval base."As per usual our military carried out its work well," said the governor of the Sevastopol administrative region, Mikhail Razvozhayev.The peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a controversial referendum that Ukraine and the West never recognised.

In the settlement of Posad-Pokrovske in the southern region of Kherson, retaken by Ukraine, some villagers have returned to homes damaged or reduced to rubble by Russian shells, set in a landscape of downed utility poles and spent munitions.Zelenskyy in his late Thursday video address paid tribute to four policemen killed by landmines in Kherson province."This is perhaps even fiercer and more devious than missile terror," said Zelenksiy."For there is no system against mines that could destroy at least part of the threat as our anti-aircraft systems do."He accused Russian forces of leaving landmines, tripwire mines, mined buildings, cars and infrastructure in places they abandoned under Ukrainian military pressure.On Thursday, Russian naval forces shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Black Sea, according to the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, an important port and the largest city in Crimea.

President Vladimir Putin has given conflicting statements on the goals of the war but is now clear the aims include some expansion of Russia's borders, in contrast with comments at the beginning of the "special military operation", when he said Russia's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian land.The Kremlin said on Thursday it was set on securing at least the bulk of the territories in east and south Ukraine that Moscow has declared part of Russia, but appeared to give up on seizing other territory in the west and northeast that Ukraine has recaptured.Russia proclaimed in October that it had annexed four provinces, which it calls "new territories", shortly after holding so-called referendums that were rejected as bogus and illegal by Ukraine, the West and most countries at the United Nations.While Russia made clear it wanted to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk - two largely Russian-speaking regions collectively known as the Donbas - it left unclear how much of the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson it was annexing.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his troops will eventually drive Russia from all captured territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

Russian forces shelled the entire front line of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, part of what appeared to be the Kremlin's scaled-back ambition to secure only the bulk of lands it has claimed.The fiercest fighting was near the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, the region's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a TV interview. Artillery slammed into the town of Toretsk southwest of Bakhmut, killing one civilian and damaging 12 buildings, Kyrylenko said.He said "the entire front line is being shelled" and Russian troops were also trying to advance near Lyman, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November, one of a number of setbacks suffered by Russia since invading its neighbour in February.In Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region that neighbours Luhansk province, Ukrainian forces countered with barrages from rocket launchers, Reuters witnessed.Ukraine's military command said Russian artillery attacked civilian infrastructure in the towns of Kupiansk and Zolochiv in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, and Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region. Ukrainian anti-aircraft units downed several of the missiles trained on Kharkiv region on Thursday evening, governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have installed multiple rocket launchers at Ukraine’s shut-down Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials claimed Thursday, raising fears Europe’s largest atomic power station could be used as a base to fire on Ukrainian territory and heightening radiation dangers.Ukraine’s nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement that Russian forces occupying the plant have placed several Grad multiple rocket launchers near one of its six nuclear reactors. It said the offensive systems are located at new “protective structures” the Russians secretly built, “violating all conditions for nuclear and radiation safety.”The claim could not be independently verified.The Soviet-built multiple rocket launchers are capable of firing rockets at ranges of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles), and Energoatom said they could enable Russian forces to hit the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, where each side blames the other for almost daily shelling in the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets. The plant is in a southern Ukrainian region the Kremlin has illegally annexed.

Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer who was released as a result of a US prisoner swap, arrived in Russia on Thursday, state television said."Don't worry, everything is OK, I love you very much," he told his mother Raisa in comments broadcast by state television. He spoke to his family when his plane made a refuelling stop in Russia. Dubbed the "Merchant of Death", Bout was released Thursday in a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi involving American basketball star Brittney Griner.He was met by his family when he arrived in Moscow, in footage shown by state news channel Rossiya 24."They simply woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to pack my things. There was no clear information beforehand," he said.

In a career spanning two decades, and which stopped when he was sentenced to 25 years in a US prison in 2012, Viktor Bout, aka 'Merchant of death', allegedly stoked violence from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan by bartering deals for planes and guns. The mustachioed Bout, who is thought to speak six languages, travelled under various false names including "Boris" and "Vadim Markovich Aminov". His notoriety inspired the Hollywood film "Lord of War", starring Nicolas Cage, in which the anti-hero escaped justice.

US President Joe Biden's authorization to release Bout, the Russian felon once nicknamed "the Merchant of Death,” underscored the heightened urgency that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case on drug charges and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony. Griner, who also played pro basketball in Russia, was arrested at an airport there after Russian authorities said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil.

The United States is preparing to send Ukraine a $275 million military aid package offering new capabilities to defeat drones and strengthen air defenses, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday and people familiar with the package.The package could be announced as early as Friday. Details of the anti-drone and air defense equipment included could not be determined.The Pentagon is also expected to include rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin Corp, 155mm ammunition, Humvee military vehicles and generators, according to the people and the document.A National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment on the aid package. The contents and size of aid packages can shift until they are signed by the president.The $275 million will be covered by Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

'Russian forces plan to 'liberate' parts of Ukraine that Moscow annexed'The Kremlin said on Thursday that its forces are still set on seizing parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own.Asked about the goals of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia still has to "liberate" parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.Moscow proclaimed it had annexed those four regions of Ukraine after holding so-called referendums in September. The votes were rejected as bogus and illegal by Kyiv, the West and a majority of countries at the United Nations.

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovkis, responding to Putin’s comments on the risk of nuclear war, said the EU will not give in to Russian blackmail and manipulation. He pledged to continue to provide support to Ukraine including providing 18 billion euros ($18.9 billion) of financial assistance for the coming year.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, whose country seeks to join Nato alongside Finland, pushed back against calls for Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow, saying Russia must not succeed.“Messages from partners that Ukraine needs to engage in negotiations risk reinforcing Mr. Putin’s conviction that time is on his side and therefore prolong the war,” Billstrom said at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday. “Whether to negotiate with Russia or not — and if so, about what — is for Kyiv to decide.”

Time magazine called this year’s choice of President Zelenskyy “the most clear-cut in memory” as the Ukrainian leader had galvanized the world in a way unseen in decades. Each year, the magazine chooses a person who has influenced the world the most for good or for ill. In 2007, Putin took the accolade.

Putin has discussed “attempts of some western nations to introduce anti-market limits on the price of Russian crude” in a phone call with the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to a statement from the Kremlin.Russia is looking for ways to counter the price-cap and the decision will be taken by the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this week. One of the potential solutions is setting a ‘price floor’ for international sales of Russian oil barrels, according to two officials familiar with the discussions.

Asked about recent strikes inside Russia, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine has the right to defend itself against attacks by Russia on its cities and critical infrastructure.The alliance chief said the conditions are currently not ripe for peace negotiations because Russia has showed “no sign of engaging in negotiations which are respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. He said that Ukraine has concerns Russia could use a pause in fighting to regroup and launch a bigger offensive later on, given that Ukraine currently has the momentum.Stoltenberg added that Nato needs to be prepared for a difficult relationship with Russia for a long time. “When this war ends, it doesn’t mean that we go back to some good or normal relationship with Russia,” he said.