Russia-Ukraine war live updates: 5 killed, 20 wounded by Russian strike on Kherson, says Ukraine

A group of blind students from South Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area set up a camp on one of the routes of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi on Saturday.Around 15-20 blind students gathered on the route of Apollo hospital holding banners and chanting slogans “Nafrat Chodo, Bharat Jodo” (forget hatred, unite India).Speaking to PTI, a blind student, Saransh, said they participated in the Yatra to “protest against rising unemployment” in the country. He said there are several blind students who have excelled in education but remained unemployed for years.“Educated people have been roaming unemployed because there's paucity of jobs in the country. What is the point of getting education if there are not enough jobs for us? There are several blind students who have been excelling in their studies but what's the point? What are we going to do despite all these degrees?” 14-year-old Saransh asked.

A top Ukrainian presidential aide called for the "liquidation" of Iranian factories making drones and missiles, as well as the arrest of their suppliers, as Kyiv accused Tehran of planning to supply more weapons to Russia.

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Iran "blatantly humiliates the institution of international sanctions", before calling for the destruction of Iranian weapon factories in response.

Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying 1700 Shahed-136 loitering munitions to Moscow, which it says have been used to hit targets in Ukraine since September. Iran denies the allegations.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned his citizens that Russia could launch attacks over Christmas and urged them to heed air raid alarms.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine declared Friday that Ukraine was “working toward victory,” buoyed by his hero’s welcome in Washington and a brief visit to Poland in a sprint of diplomacy aimed at thanking his country’s most robust allies and cementing their support.

Zelenskyy was back in Kyiv after his trip, which has boosted morale in a country where millions have been plunged into darkness and cold from Russian missile strikes that have knocked out power as winter sets in.

“I am in my office,” he said in a video posted to his channel on the Telegram social media app early Friday. “We are working toward victory.”

Western allies have pumped aid into Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, and the U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval Friday to nearly $50 billion in assistance to Ukraine.

The director of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Friday that Russia was trying convince Ukraine to divert soldiers from the combat zone in the southeast with a flurry of military activity to the north in Belarus, dismissing the activity as routine maneuvers or feints intended to confuse.

“These are all elements of disinformation campaigns,” he said.

In a wide-ranging interview on the state of the war in Ukraine, the military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, also spoke about Russian efforts to encourage Iran to continue to supply its forces with drones and missiles, as well as Moscow’s apparently senseless obsession with conquering the city of Bakhmut, which has little strategic value.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sounded another defiant note on his return to his nation's capital on Friday following his wartime visit to the United States, saying his forces are “working toward victory” even as Russia warned that there would be no end to the war until it achieved its military aims. Zelenskyy posted on his Telegram account that he's in his Kyiv office following his US trip that secured a new USD 1.8 billion military aid package, and pledged that “we'll overcome everything.“

US lawmakers approved a sweeping annual spending package Friday that includes $45 billion in Ukraine aid and reforms to election law aimed at avoiding a repeat of last year's assault on the Capitol. The $1.7 trillion blueprint passed by senators on Thursday was rubber-stamped by the House of Representatives by 225 votes to 201 -- just hours ahead of a midnight deadline to keep the federal government open.

The United States on Friday derisively called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to acknowledge reality and pull troops from Ukraine after he finally called the conflict a "war." Since Putin ordered the invasion in February, Russia has officially spoken of a "special military operation" and imposed a law that criminalizes what authorities call misleading terminology.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Kyiv would intensify diplomatic efforts in Africa, Latin America and Asia to take advantage of "colossal economic potential" and other international benefits. African countries have had varying responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as some countries like South Africa have close trade and security ties with Russia they do not want to jeopardise.

The US House of Representatives gave final approval on Friday to a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned his citizens that Russia could launch attacks over Christmas and urged them to heed air raid alarms. The aid measure passed by the Democratic-controlled house, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that won Senate approval a day earlier, will now go to US President Joe Biden for signing into law.

Russian authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol have begun demolishing most of the city's drama theatre, where Ukrainian authorities say hundreds died in an air bombardment in March. Video posted on both Ukrainian and Russian websites on Friday showed heavy equipment taking down much of the building, while leaving its front facade intact.