Russia

A shopping center and a school stadium were hit in the Belgorod attack, according to Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's Kursk region.

The five-and-a-half-hour attack targeted agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, officials for Ukraine’s southern defense forces wrote on Telegram.

The International Court of Justice noted that it had already ordered Russia to "immediately suspend" its military operations but that "the armed conflict continues to this day."

Russia's defence ministry said 195 of its soldiers were freed, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 207 people -- both soldiers and civilians -- had returned to Ukraine.

As Putin ramps up presidential election campaign, he wants to maintain normalcy but the increasing Ukrainian attacks have raised the visibility of the war on Russian soil.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian media on Monday the longtime leader would not take part in pre-election debates.

In Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, two people were killed and at least 11 were wounded, according to the regional governor.

Since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, India has bought hundreds of millions of barrels of cut-price Russian crude, saving itself billions of dollars while bolstering Moscow's war coffers.

Ukrainian authorities said that 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months whereas 248 Russian servicemen have been freed under the deal.

The statement comes amidst deadly attacks from Ukraine on Russia on the New year's eve which took four lives, according to Russian authorities.

Russian authorities accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after an 18-hour aerial bombardment across Ukraine killed at least 41 civilians.

Ukrainian officials have urged the country's Western allies to provide it with more air defenses to protect itself against aerial attacks like Friday's one.

Putin has said that he will make "sovereignty" -- a loosely defined term -- one of the key aims of his fifth term in the Kremlin.

He reiterated that Moscow's goals in Ukraine — "de-Nazification, de-militarization and a neutral status" of Ukraine — remain unchanged.

The storms were part of a weather system that created blizzard-like conditions in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Serbia on Sunday, dumping snow and causing power outages and fatal traffic accidents.

Moscow: Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be detained in Russia this year. A Russian-American journalist working for a US government-funded media company has been detained in Russia and…