"Russians have not reached the outskirts of the town," said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia grouping of forces.

Even while at war, Ukraine piped Russian gas to Europe. Moscow earned an estimated $5 billion in 2024, while Ukraine raked in up to $1 billion in fees.

The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria cut heating and hot water supplies to households on Wednesday after Russia stopped supplying gas via Ukraine.

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of his rule, President Vladimir V. Putin delivered an upbeat and vague New Year’s Eve message that did not address casualties in Ukraine or rising inflation at home.

Hoping to bolster the resolve of a nation whose heart “is covered in scars” after more than 1,000 days of unrelenting Russian assaults, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in his New Year’s address on Wednesday that he believed the United States would continue to stand with Kyiv in “compelling Russia into a just peace.”

Russian investigators have determined that an oil spill from two tankers in the Black Sea last month was smaller than initially thought, the Transport Ministry said on Thursday.

Nearly three years of war have devastated much of Moscow's military, but its other forces, like its naval fleet and air force, remain strong.

Marking 25 years in office, Vladimir Putin says he has remade Russia as a sovereign power and will prevail in Ukraine, but economic and strategic setbacks complicate the picture.

Ending the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine has dealt Moscow a significant blow in its attempts to use energy as a weapon, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Ukraine's head of state made the comment in a Telegram post on January 1,

At least six people were injured in Kyiv as Russia launched a drone strike on the capital in the early hours of Wednesday, city officials said.