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Russia's President Vladimir Putin says his country will continue its yearlong "special military operation" in Ukraine, and he accused the US-led NATO alliance of fanning the flames.
Russia-Ukraine conflict would have cost world economy $1.6 trillion in 2022, according to a study published by the German Economic Institute.
Ukrainian authorities on Thursday began investigating the circumstances surrounding a helicopter crash that killed the country's interior minister and 13 others.
Wednesday's crash outside Kyiv came as the head of NATO said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos that allies were set to provide "heavier weapons" to the region.
Ukraine did not claim direct Russian involvement in the helicopter crash, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said the tragedy was a consequence of the military conflict.
Appearing by video link at Davos, he also renewed calls for modern, Western-designed heavy tanks, which analysts say are crucial to pushing through entrenched defensive lines in eastern Ukraine.
In a barely veiled reference to Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz is weighing whether to greenlight the export of its highly regarded Leopard tanks, Zelensky issued a "call for speed".
CNN quoted a senior US defense official as saying that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be "pressing the Germans" to allow their Leopard tanks to be transferred to Ukraine to provide "capability in a crucial moment" to counter any potential Russian spring offensive.
Austin is in Germany where he is set to meet with the German defense minister before convening a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday to discuss aid for Ukraine with approximately 50 countries and organizations.
Meanwhile, the United States is set to finalize a huge military aid package for Ukraine totaling approximately $2.5 billion worth of weaponry, including Stryker combat vehicles for the first time.
More Western supplies
The new package is one of the largest to be announced since the special military operation started last February, CNN reported. It would include more armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles that, combined with the Strykers, amount to a significant escalation in the armored vehicles the US has committed to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. Mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, known as MRAPs, are also on the list, the source said.
Ukrainian officials have been fiercely lobbying Washington for longer-range missiles known as Army Tactical Missile Systems, which have a range of around 300 kilometers.
US President Joe Biden's administration has resisted sending them out of fear of escalating the conflict. The administration has also pushed back on sending M1 Abrams tanks because of logistical and maintenance complications.
In his annual news conference on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said NATO members have provided Ukraine with substantial military aid because "the West makes all the decisions for Ukraine" with the goal of using the conflict to exhaust Russia.
Lavrov dismissed Zelensky's demands for a complete Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. He said Russia was ready to "seriously consider" any Western initiatives on ending the conflict, but added that "we haven't seen any serious proposals yet".
On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the goal of the military operation in Ukraine is to "end the war" in the eastern Donbas region, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
It is the second time since December that Putin used the word "war" to refer to the conflict in Ukraine.
Kyiv - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is finalizing the stationing of permanent missions at Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs), the Ukrainian government press service reported Wednesday.
While speaking at a joint briefing with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the mission at Khmelnytsky NPP in western Ukraine is to start working in the coming days.
"Today, I heard from Director General Rafael Grossi assurances of full support from the IAEA for our efforts to ensure nuclear safety, including at the Zaporizhzhia NPP," Shmyhal said.
"We are working on the issue of organizing a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and we are making progress on this matter," Grossi was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying.
According to an IAEA statement issued on Tuesday, the experts will monitor key nuclear safety and security systems, provide technical assistance, assess the plants' needs and report to the IAEA headquarters.
"With IAEA teams permanently present at all of Ukraine's NPPs and the Chornobyl site, the Agency will have around 11-12 staff simultaneously on the ground in the country, an unprecedented undertaking by the organization," the international nuclear watchdog said in the statement.
On Jan 16, the IAEA established its mission at the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
There are five nuclear power plants in Ukraine, four of which are functioning. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which witnessed a nuclear disaster on April 26, 1988, was completely shut down on Dec 15, 2000.
In August 2022, the IAEA sent its monitoring mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russian forces have controlled since March.
Russia and Belarus launched joint air force exercises on Monday, in a move that Ukraine sees as a "guise" for yet more airstrikes on the country.
The drills come as Russia's special military operation, now in its 11th month, grinds on with fighting in eastern Ukraine and a campaign of airstrikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure.
The Belarusian defense ministry said the allies would carry out joint air patrols along the Belarusian border, airborne landings and support operations for ground troops, as well as train for deliveries of supplies and evacuations of wounded soldiers.
"The main purpose of the exercise is to improve interoperability in the joint execution of training and combat tasks," it said.
Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarus' Security Council, told the Belta state news agency that the exercises are "exclusively defensive", but warned that Minsk is "ready for any provocative actions from Ukraine".
The Belarusian military said on the Telegram messaging app that it has activated all of its air force and air defense sites for the drills with Russia.
Ukraine has repeatedly warned of possible attacks coming from its northern neighbor Belarus, though some analysts assess the possibility of direct involvement by Minsk as low.
Ukraine's General Staff said the joint aviation drills were a "guise "and that there is a high danger of further Russian air and missile strikes throughout Ukraine.
In a report by the state TASS news agency, an unidentified source in the military said Russia has produced the first set of Poseidon nuclear-capable super torpedoes for use by the Belgorod special-purpose nuclear submarine.
The Poseidon is described as an "intercontinental nuclear-powered nuclear-armed autonomous torpedo "with its own nuclear power supply, the development of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018. He predicted at the time that it would be a fundamentally new type of nuclear weapon.
'Destructive' policies
In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, Putin slammed Kyiv's "destructive" policies and the growing Western arms supplies to Ukraine.
Kyiv was pursuing "a destructive line" and that it had "bet on the intensification of hostilities with the support of Western sponsors, who are ramping up supplies of weapons and military equipment", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quoted Putin as saying.
Peskov also responded to a decision by Britain to send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, saying Western supplies of heavily armored vehicles to Ukraine are not likely to change the situation on the battlefield.
On Tuesday, Russia said that its armed forces would undergo "major changes" from 2023 to 2026, including changes in its composition and administrative reforms.
The defense ministry said that the changes would happen as Russia boosts the number of its military personnel to 1.5 million.
Agencies contributed to this story.
REN QI in Moscow
A German weapons manufacturer has said it will not be able to supply the Ukrainian government with battle tanks before 2024.
The announcement followed the United Kingdom government saying it would quickly supply tanks requested by Ukraine in a move that was seen as a first step in ensuring many more European nations start supplying offensive weaponry to the nation, instead of the mainly defensive weapons they had previously.
Armin Papperger, the chief executive of arms maker Rheinmetall, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper: "Even if the decision to send our Leopard tanks to Kyiv came tomorrow, the delivery would take until the start of next year."
The Guardian newspaper said the company's statement will be disappointing to Ukraine and put pressure on NATO nations to find tanks and armored vehicles elsewhere that can be delivered quickly to Ukraine.
News reports in the aftermath of the UK's announcement that it would send tanks to Ukraine suggested Germany's Rheinmetall had 22 Leopard 2 tanks and 88 older Leopard 1 tanks in its warehouses, raising hopes among Kyiv's allies that they could be quickly sent for use in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
But Papperger's assertion that their preparation will take many months, and cost hundreds of millions of euros that the company was unwilling to spend, ended thoughts of a quick delivery.
"The vehicles must be completely dismantled and rebuilt," he said.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general, said on Sunday Ukraine's Western allies will ensure the country soon gets an influx of heavy weapons, including artillery and missiles.
"The recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important — and I expect more in the near future," he told Germany's Handelsblatt daily newspaper.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the UK's commitment to send 14 Challenger 2 tanks, saying on Twitter it will "send the right signal to other partners".
Poland has also said it will send a company of Leopard tanks to the country — likely 14 vehicles-"as part of international coalition building".And the United States also recently said it will send 50 Bradley tank-killing armored vehicles.
Sky News said on Monday the UK's Challenger 2 tanks could be on the ground in weeks.
London also recently said it will send around 30 AS90s — large, self-propelled guns — to the country.
Ukraine's allies had previously held back on supplying offensive weaponry over fears it would escalate the situation. Russia's embassy in the UK said "the increasingly obvious involvement of London in the conflict" will only prolong it and cause more death and destruction.
A spokesman told Sky News: "As for the Challenger 2 tanks, they are unlikely to help the armed forces of Ukraine turn the tide on the battlefield, but they will become a legitimate large target for the Russian artillery."
Britain has announced it will send 14 of its main battle tanks along with additional artillery support to Ukraine, a move that may reinforce perceptions aired in US media that the country has become a "test bed for Western weapons".
In a recent CNN special report, experts and open-source analysts said Ukraine has become a veritable battle lab for cheap but effective solutions, mainly because officials from the United States and other Western countries don't always have perfect insight into exactly how Ukraine's custom-made systems work. These limitations stem in large part from the fact that the officials are not on the ground in Ukraine.
The military operation in Ukraine has also offered the US and its allies a rare opportunity to study how their own weapons systems perform under intense use, and what munitions both sides are using to score wins in this hotly-fought modern military contest. For the US military, the conflict in Ukraine has been a source of data on the utility of its own systems, the CNN report said.
Some high-profile systems given to the Ukrainians, such as the Switchblade 300 drone and a missile designed to target enemy radar systems, have turned out to be less effective on the battlefield than anticipated, according to a US military operations officer with knowledge of the battlefield, as well as a recent study from a British think tank.
The debate over the effectiveness of the supplied arms comes as a statement from the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the 14 Challenger 2 tanks would arrive in Ukraine within weeks and around 30 self-propelled AS90 guns, to be operated by five gunners, are expected to follow.
The UK will begin training Ukrainian forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.
Ambition outlined
The announcement follows a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Saturday during which Sunak "outlined the UK's ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine, including through the provision of Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems".
Sunak's office said last week that Britain would coordinate its support with its allies after Germany, France and the US indicated last week that they would provide armored vehicles to Ukraine.
The Russian embassy in London said the decision to send the tanks would drag out the confrontation, leading to more victims including civilians, and was evidence of "the increasingly obvious involvement of London in the conflict".
The Challenger 2 is a battle tank designed to attack other tanks, and has been in service with the British Army since 1994.
Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday praised his forces after their claimed capture of the Ukrainian town of Soledar.
Ukraine denied the claims and said heavy fighting continued in Soledar.
The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on military targets in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 35, an official said on Monday.
Agencies contributed to this story.
REN QI in Moscow
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
KYIV -- The death toll from a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 20, the regional governor said Sunday.
At least 73 people were injured, with four in intensive care, Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said on Telegram.
About 40 people are still missing following the strike on Saturday that destroyed 72 apartments and damaged 230 others, Reznichenko said, noting the rescue operation at the site is still underway.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, wrote on Telegram that 530 emergency workers and volunteers and 144 units of equipment are participating in the rescue operation.
Russia has yet to respond or comment on the attack.
KYIV - Ukraine's Ambassador to Turkiye Vasyl Bodnar said that a summit to discuss the peace plan for Ukraine may take place on Feb 24, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Thursday.
The summit, which is due to be held under the mediation of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, is expected to be held at the UN headquarters in New York, Bodnar said.
He thanked Turkiye for the support for a Kyiv-proposed plan on establishing peace in Ukraine, and its readiness to assist in its implementation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put forward a 10-point peace plan for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the G20 summit in Indonesia in November 2022.
MOSCOW -- Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov has been appointed the new commander of Russia's integrated group of forces in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Gerasimov will succeed Sergei Surovikin, commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, who was appointed commander of Russia's integrated group of forces in the special military operation in Ukraine in October last year.
Surovikin, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov, and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Alexei Kim have been appointed as Gerasimov's deputies, according to the ministry.
The decision was made due to the fact that a wider range of tasks will be implemented within the scope of the special military operation, the ministry said, adding that closer interaction will be required between branches of the forces, and the troops will need stronger support as well as more effective command and control.
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest aides said on Tuesday that Moscow was now fighting the US-led NATO military alliance in Ukraine and that the West was trying to wipe Russia from the political map of the world.
"The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv — this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain," Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
"The Westerners' plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world."
The US had sown chaos in Afghanistan, Vietnam and the Middle East, and has been trying for years to undermine Russia's "unique" culture and language, Patrushev said.
"There is no place for our country in the West," he said.
In response, he said Russia would achieve economic sovereignty and financial independence, while also building up its armed forces and special services to deter any potential aggressor.
When asked about Patrushev's remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said NATO and the US were part of the Ukraine conflict.
"They have de facto already become an indirect party to this conflict, pumping Ukraine with weapons, technologies, intelligence information and so on," Peskov told a regular news conference.
Oklahoma training
Russia's special military operation in Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Meanwhile, about 100 Ukrainian troops will head to Oklahoma's Fort Sill as soon as next week to begin training on the Patriot missile defense system, getting Kyiv closer to obtaining the long-sought protection against Russia's missile attacks, The Associated Press reported.
The number of Ukrainians coming to Fort Sill is approximately the number it takes to operate one battery, and they will focus on learning to operate and also maintain the Patriot, Pentagon spokesman Air Force General Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.
The US pledged one Patriot battery in December as part of several large military assistance packages it has provided to Ukraine in recent weeks. Last week, Germany pledged an additional Patriot battery.
Each Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station and a generator. The army said it currently has 16 Patriot battalions.
On the battlefield, fighting for salt mining town Soledar raged in subzero temperatures on Wednesday as Russia's paramilitary group Wagner claimed it had taken control, with its fighters training their fire on a pocket of resistance in the town center.
Agencies contributed to this story.
Moscow claimed on Sunday that its army conducted a "retaliatory strike" in a city in Donetsk that killed more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen. However, Ukrainian officials denied there were any casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in the city of Kramatorsk, killing more than 600 of them. Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said the strikes were in retaliation for Ukraine's attack on Jan 1 in Makiivka, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers died.
But Ukraine's armed forces quickly rejected the Russian claim about the Kramatorsk strikes.
"This information is as true as the data that they have destroyed all of our HIMARS," Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces, told Ukraine's Suspilne news. In the attack on Makiivka, Ukraine used United States-supplied HIMARS artilleries.
Cherevaty said Russia could not deliver high-precision strikes and the Russian statement did not say when exactly the strike had taken place.
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko told Reuters that there had been no casualties.
Also on Sunday, the Ukrainian military claimed to have hit a residential hall of a medical university in Rubizhne, a town in the Lugansk region, killing 14 Russian soldiers housed there. The number of wounded was unknown, it said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour cease-fire last week to allow Orthodox Christians to mark Christmas, which was celebrated on Saturday in Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials, who dismissed the cease-fire as a "cynical propaganda move", said Russia had in any case not respected it.
Also on Sunday, Russia and Ukraine swapped 50 captured soldiers each in a deal that both sides welcomed even as fighting continued between the troops.
Russia's Defense Ministry said the 50 returned Russian soldiers, "who were in mortal danger while in captivity", would be flown to Moscow for medical and psychological rehabilitation.
Prisoner swap
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, confirmed the information and said Russia had freed 50 Ukrainian servicemen as part of the same deal.
"To be continued. We must bring all our people home, and we are on it," Yermak said on Twitter, posting images of the freed Ukrainian soldiers holding bags of food near a bus they were about to board and a video of them singing the Ukrainian national anthem once underway.
Separately, Russia and Belarus will hold joint air force exercises in Belarus from Jan 16 to Feb 1, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced.
A Russian air division team arrived in Belarus on Sunday, while personnel, weapons, military and special equipment of the Russian armed forces will continue to arrive before the exercises.
Agencies via Xinhua contributed to this story.
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
KYIV - Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Thursday that Kyiv will agree on a ceasefire with Russia only after Russian troops are withdrawn from Ukraine.
The Russian Federation must leave and only then will it have a "temporary truce," Podolyak said in his twitter account.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a temporary ceasefire along the frontline of fighting, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.
According to the statement, the truce will last for 36 hours starting at noon local time (0900 GMT) on Jan 6, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas.
Putin also called on Kyiv to declare a ceasefire based on the fact that a large number of Orthodox citizens live in the combat areas, according to the statement.
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the country's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start a 36-hour truce along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from Jan 6 to 7, the Kremlin said Thursday.
"Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, I instruct the Russian Defense Minister to introduce a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from 12:00 (0900 GMT) on January 6 to 24:00 (2100 GMT) on January 7," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin also called on Kyiv to declare a ceasefire based on the fact that a large number of Orthodox citizens live in the combat areas, according to the statement.
The death toll from a Ukrainian strike targeting Russian soldiers in the city of Makiivka has risen to 89, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"The number of our dead comrades has gone up to 89," Lieutenant General Sergei Sevryukov said in a video statement released by the ministry. More bodies had been found under the rubble in the temporary barracks in the city in Russian-controlled territory, he added.
Ukraine struck the base in Makiivka in the minutes after New Year's Day began, using United States-supplied HIMARS rocket systems, Sevryukov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had just delivered his traditional New Year's address when the attack occurred.
On Monday, Russia said that 63 soldiers had been killed in the Makiivka strike — the biggest loss of life from a single attack reported by Moscow since the start of the conflict on Feb 24. It stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the way the offensive is being conducted.
Kyiv took responsibility for the strike, and the Ukrainian military said the death toll was much higher.
Sevryukov also said on Wednesday that mobile phones used by the soldiers had led to the deadly strike.
"Currently, a commission is working to investigate the circumstances of what has happened," he said.
"But it is already obvious that the main reason ... was the turning on and massive use by personnel of mobile phones within reach of enemy weapons contrary to the ban."
He said measures were being taken to ensure such incidents would not happen in the future, and all those responsible will be punished.
The new announcement came after mourners gathered in several cities of the Volga region of Samara — where some of the servicemen came from — to mourn the dead.
United in grief
At the gathering, Yekaterina Kolotovkina, head of a group of army spouses, said she had asked her husband to "avenge" the victims.
"I haven't slept for 3 days, and Samara hasn't slept, … this is very difficult and scary, But we can't be broken," she told mourners. "We will crush the enemy together. We are left with no choice."
Those in attendance waved flags from pro-Kremlin groups, including the ruling United Russia party. Some 200 people laid roses and wreaths in a central square in the city of Samara as an Orthodox priest recited a prayer.
Similar gatherings were reported in other cities including Tolyatti.
Sevryukov also said that Russia had destroyed Ukraine's multiple launch rocket system used in the attack on Makiivka.
In addition, Russian strikes had destroyed four more HIMARS launchers and killed 200 Ukrainian and foreign mercenaries in the town of Druzhkivka in Donetsk, he said.
Putin has yet to react to the Makiivka attack, which happened during the holiday season before Orthodox Christmas, which many Russians spend with their families.
Agencies via Xinhua contributed to this story.
Anger grows over highest casualty count since start of conflict last year
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed on Monday that 63 soldiers had been killed on New Year's Eve in a fiery blast that destroyed a temporary barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the regional capital Donetsk.
Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for those they accused of ignoring dangers, as fury grows over the killing of so many soldiers in the biggest loss of life reported by Moscow so far.
Some military bloggers said the soldiers were being housed alongside an ammunition dump at the site, which the Russian Defense Ministry said was hit by four rockets fired from US-made HIMARS launchers.
The New Year's Eve strike on Makiivka came as Russia was launching what have become nightly waves of drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine said the Russian death toll in Makiivka was in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials called that an exaggeration.
Russian military bloggers said the extent of the destruction was a result of storing ammunition in the same building as the barracks, despite commanders knowing it was within range of Ukrainian rockets.
Igor Girkin, former commander of militias in eastern Ukraine who is now a high-profile Russian nationalist military blogger, said the death toll could be even higher.
The vocational college was "destroyed almost entirely" as a result of the detonation of an ammunition dump in the same building. "Almost all the military equipment, parked next to the building without any camouflage, was also destroyed," Girkin said.
"What happened in Makiivka is horrible. There were a significant number of killed and wounded. Yesterday evening, they were still sorting through the rubble," wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.
"Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?"
Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks on Russian-controlled territories, and President Volodymyr Zelensky did not address the Makiivka strike in his speech on Monday.
But the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported the Makiivka attack as "a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment". It did not mention casualties, but said 10 pieces of military equipment were destroyed.
Criminal liability
The fury in Russia extended to lawmakers.
Grigory Karasin, a Russian Federal Assembly member and former deputy foreign minister, had not only demanded vengeance against Ukraine and its NATO supporters but also "an exacting internal analysis".
Sergey Mironov, a legislator and former chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, demanded criminal liability for the officials who had "allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building" and "all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security".
Unverified footage posted online of the aftermath showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.
Some of the dead came from the southwestern Russian region of Samara, the region's governor told Russian media, urging concerned relatives to contact recruitment centers for information.
Andrey Medvedev, deputy speaker of the Moscow City Duma, said authorities, whether civilian or military, must value Russian lives.
"Either a person is of the highest value — and then punish for stupid losses of personnel, as for treason to the fatherland — or the country is over," he wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Russian military enterprises are working nonstop during the New Year holidays, Sergey Chemezov, head of Russia's state defense military conglomerate Rostec, told TASS news agency.
Agencies via Xinhua contributed to this story.
MOSCOW/KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday oversaw the commissioning of several new warships and a nuclear-powered submarine, as he vowed to further strengthen Russia's navy.
Putin gave the green light for Russian flags to be hoisted on the new vessels via video link.
Among the newly commissioned vessels were a corvette, a minesweeper and the Generalissimus Suvorov nuclear-powered submarine that is capable of launching ballistic missiles.
Another submarine, Emperor Alexander III, was put to sea on Thursday and will be commissioned following trials.
"We will increase the pace and volume of construction of various ships, and equip them with the most modern weapons," Putin said in televised remarks.
"All in all, everything to reliably ensure Russia's security, the protection of our national interests in the world ocean."
Putin has made strengthening his armed forces a top priority, equipping the navy with new warships and adding hypersonic missiles described by Putin as "invincible", to Russia's arsenal.
This comes as more Western supplies pour into Ukraine. According to an interview published on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on NATO member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine.
"I call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails," Stoltenberg told the German news agency DPA.
He said it was perhaps even more important that Ukraine receives enough ammunition for the systems already in place, adding that the need for ammunition and spare parts was "enormous".
In an address to a group of Western leaders last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for a wide range of weapons and air defense systems to help combat efforts.
In Kyiv, local officials said Russia launched 16 kamikaze drones into Ukraine overnight on Friday, a day after Moscow fired dozens of missiles in its latest barrage against critical Ukrainian infrastructure.
The Ukrainian Air Force said all 16 drones, which it said were sent from the southeast and north, had been destroyed by air defenses.
In another development, Belarus said on Thursday that it shot down an air defense missile launched from Ukrainian territory, in the first such incident reported by Minsk since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Belarusian authorities had summoned Ukraine's ambassador over the missile. "A strong protest was made in connection with the launch of an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile from the territory of Ukraine," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Minsk demanded an immediate investigation of the incident, saying such incidents could lead to "catastrophic consequences" and should not happen again, the statement said.
Agencies Via Xinhua
KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday voiced his hope for a quick implementation of agreements with the United States reached during his recent visit to Washington, the presidential press service said.
"We will not waste time. We will quickly implement everything that was agreed upon in Washington," Zelensky said in his daily video address without specifying which agreements he was talking about.
The president said about 9 million people across Ukraine are without power, but the number of outages is gradually decreasing.
Last week, Zelensky traveled to Washington on his first foreign visit since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in late February.
Following the trip, Zelensky said he had reached new agreements regarding assistance for Ukraine's energy industry.
Kyiv - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv is counting on holding a summit to discuss the peace plan for Ukraine by the end of February, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Monday.
"The UN could be the best platform for holding this summit," Kuleba said, suggesting that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could be a possible mediator for the peace negotiations.
Kuleba said he believes that Russia is not ready for peace talks, though the minister pointed out that "every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table."
While commenting on the recent visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, Kuleba said he was "absolutely satisfied" with its results.
Zelensky put forward a peace plan for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the G20 summit in Indonesia last month.
The West is trying to "tear apart "Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on national television on Sunday, warning that Patriot air defense systems would be destroyed if the United States provides them to Ukraine.
Putin used the concept of "historical Russia" to argue that Ukrainians and Russians are one people during his interview with Rossiya-1 television, and said the 10-month "special military operation" aimed to "unite the Russian people".
He said Russia's geopolitical opponents were "aiming to tear apart Russia, historical Russia".
"Divide and conquer, that's what they have always sought to accomplish and are still seeking to do. But our goal is different, it's to unite the Russian people."
Putin declared his government was acting "in the right direction …protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, of our people".
He repeated that Moscow was ready to negotiate and appeared unfazed when asked about the new air defense system the US will deliver to Ukraine.
Last Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Washington at the invitation of US President Joe Biden. During his visit, the US announced a new assistance package worth $1.85 billion, which included the Patriot air defense system.
"Of course, we will destroy it, 100 percent," Putin said, adding that Ukraine does not yet have these systems.
Earlier last week, Putin noted that "the Patriot is a fairly outdated system", and that an "antidote" to these systems will be found.
On the battlefield, the Russian military reported on Monday that it shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching an air base deep inside Russia, the second time the air base has been targeted this month.
Russia's Defense Ministry said the incident took place early on Monday, and three servicemen were killed by debris at the Engels air base that houses strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.
Price cap
Apart from military action, Russia warned that it would cut oil supplies over a Western price cap.
"We won't supply oil under contracts that will indicate a price cap that's proposed by Western countries. That's ruled out," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
On Dec 5, an embargo on maritime Russian oil shipments to the European Union came into force. Moreover, EU states also agreed on a price cap for Russian oil delivered by sea, setting the ceiling at $60 a barrel.
A similar decision was announced by the G7 and Australia. The West is also banning its companies from providing transportation, financial and insurance services to tankers carrying oil from Russia at a price above the agreed-on ceiling.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the Russian side will wait until the final parameters of the EU embargo are clear, as Moscow does not understand what can substitute for Russian oil products in Europe.
At the same time, he did not rule out that several countries may ask to be exempt from the embargo on supplies of Russian oil products.
Agencies contributed to this story.
REN QI in Moscow
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
MOSCOW/KYIV — High-ranking US figures, many associated with US intelligence services or pharmaceutical companies, have helped with military biological studies in Ukraine, Russia's Defense Ministry has said.
The ministry has a document with names of all the key US officials supervising Ukraine's military biological programs, Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Saturday.
The participants include Kenneth Myers, former director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency with the US Department of Defense, and Thomas Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kirillov said.
Kirillov said in June that the Pentagon admitted the United States had supported 46 biological research facilities in Ukraine.
The latest accusation came a day after the Kremlin said Russia had made significant progress toward "demilitarizing" Ukraine, one of the goals President Vladimir Putin declared before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered the assessment of Russia's military progress when asked about comments by Putin, who on Thursday said that Ukraine's defense potential was close to zero.
In a Sunday interview, Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine but that Kyiv and its Western backers had refused to engage in talks.
Moreover, the West has poured tens of billions of dollars' worth of weapons into Ukraine, and US President Joe Biden last week promised a US Patriot air defense system.
In the latest supply, the US House of Representatives approved $45 billion of aid to Ukraine as the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint sitting of the House and the US Senate on Wednesday. The package, already passed by a Senate majority vote, was on its way to US President Joe Biden's desk for final approval.
On the battlefield, Russian shells pummeled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55 in the city.
Zelensky, just back from his quick trip to Washington, posted photos of the wreckage on his social media accounts. The destruction came as Ukrainians were beginning Christmas celebrations that for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional celebration on Jan 7.
"This is not sensitive content — it's the real life of Kherson," Zelensky tweeted. Accompanying images showed cars on fire, bodies on the street and building windows blown out.
In another development, air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv and across all Ukrainian regions on Sunday morning, officials said.
Xinhua
MOSCOW -- With no positive sign in sight for a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, governments and economists are now increasingly worried about its economic impact, not only on Ukraine, Russia and other European nations, but also on the whole world.
The crisis is depleting the Ukrainian economy and significantly retarding the world's post-pandemic recovery, analysts say.
Ukraine in recession
Ukraine has suffered bitterly from the conflict, with its economy now mired in a severe recession.
Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister and economy minister, predicted at a recent briefing that the country's GDP would plummet by 32-33.5 percent in 2022 due to energy infrastructure damage.
The Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the World Bank estimated in September that the cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine amounted to $349 billion, which was more than 1.5 times Ukraine's GDP last year, with the figure expected to grow as the conflict rages on.
At the same time, Ukrainian government debt grew to $103.1 billion as of the end of October. Borrowing to cover the budget deficit was the main reason for the hike, said Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament)'s committee on finance, tax and customs policy, in November.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in October that his country needed $38 billion to cover next year's estimated budget deficit and another $17 billion to rebuild critical infrastructure.
Half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure was damaged during 10 months of combat, according to Zelensky.
Kyiv "could be left without international reserves to pay for critical imports and unable to meet its foreign debt obligations," The Washington Post reported last week.
Limited impact on Russia
Since the start of the conflict, Western countries have imposed rounds of finance, trade and energy sanctions, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said were aimed at crushing the Russian economy, wrecking the ruble and provoking devastating inflation.
Analysts say Russia has withstood the impact of sharp ruble depreciation and the departure of Western companies in droves, stabilized the financial system and preserved its economic order. Russia also benefits from selling its energy, which remains in broad demand.
"The contraction in Russia's economy is less severe than earlier projected, reflecting resilience in crude oil exports and in domestic demand with greater fiscal and monetary policy support and a restoration of confidence in the financial system," said the International Monetary Fund in its October World Economic Outlook.
One of the main goals of the Western sanctions was to limit Russia's access to oil and gas markets. But energy prices rose higher, allowing Russia to grow its coffers, said Valery Krutikov, professor of economics at Russia's Kaluga State University.
"This plan has failed. The Russian business community and government bodies worked in a well-coordinated and professional manner, and our citizens displayed unity and responsibility. The government, the Bank of Russia and the Russian regions have stabilized the situation by pooling their efforts," Putin told a government meeting earlier this month.
Putin said that Russia's gross domestic product is expected to contract by 2.5 percent in 2022, much better than a 20 percent decline previously forecast by many Western experts.
After a surge in March and April, inflation has stabilized since May, while the federal budget deficit is expected to remain at a low level of about 2 percent of the GDP this year and next year, he added.
Global recession feared
The European countries have been hard hit by the spill-over effects of the conflict, suffering under painfully high energy prices. As the share of Russian natural gas supply on the European market fell from 40 percent last year to 9 percent this year, European countries have been forced to buy much more expensive American liquefied natural gas.
Moreover, the soaring energy prices are forcing a large number of European energy-intensive plants to curtail or even terminate production, which is a sign of expanding deindustrialization in Europe. If the trend continues, the industrial structure of Europe may be eroded for good, industry observers have warned.
For the world economy, the Ukrainian crisis was the "single most important negative factor" this year, and likely the next, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in November.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted in November that the world economy would grow 3.1 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year. The IMF forecast that growth in 2023 would slow down to 0.5 percent in the eurozone and 1 percent in the United States.
World Bank President David Malpass warned that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its impact on food and energy prices and the availability of fertilizers could trigger a global recession. Developing countries would be hit even harder.
Meanwhile, with the fallout from the crisis wrecking havoc on the world, Washington is busy pocketing billions by selling massive weaponry and overpriced fuel to its European allies.
Since late February, European Union countries have pledged to beef up their arsenals by some $230 billion, US media outlet Politico reported in October. The American arms industry has been a significant beneficiary.
Eighty-seven cargo ships departed from US ports in September carrying 6.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas, and almost 70 percent of that cargo headed to Europe, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. According to various European media outlets, each vessel can result in $100 million of profit.
