Elsewhere, the president of Finland warned that a ceasefire in Ukraine is unlikely before the spring and urged European allies to keep up support.

Denis Pushilin, the top Russian-backed official in Donetsk, said an attack by Ukrainian strike drones on energy infrastructure had left roughly 500,000 people without power across several districts. Work was continuing to restore the electricity supply, Pushilin wrote on Telegram.

Russian attacks have killed four people and wounded more than a dozen in Balakliya and Velykyi Burluk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Two people have also been killed and many wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The scene looks almost post-apocalyptic. A convoy of Russian soldiers emerging from thick fog and moving towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. Some of the troops are riding motorcycles and mopeds;

Putin has not indicated a willingness to negotiate an end to the war that doesn't include giving Russia gains it has not acquired militarily.

Marco Rubio’s comments suggest that there is little chance (at least for now) of high-level diplomacy between Russia and the U.S. ushering in a ceasefire, leaving Russian and Ukrainian forces to slog through another bitter and deadly winter on the front lines.

A HUGE CORRUPTION scandal is turning into Ukraine’s biggest crisis since Russian tanks bore down on Kyiv in early 2022. President Volodymyr Zelensky is said by sources in government to have been “floored” by the scale of the charges made against members of his closest circle.

A drone has struck a Turkish-flagged tanker in Ukraine's Odesa region and set it ablaze. Monday's strike at Izmail port came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a deal to import U.