PM Kyiv time on Tuesday, December 16, there have been 167 combat clashes on the front. Almost a third of them occurred in the Pokrovsk direction, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

President Donald Trump has directed U.S. officials to help to facilitate a “lasting and durable peace" between Ukraine and Russia, with a "very, very strong" package being presented.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News that he is "very much confident and pretty sure" that Moscow and Kyiv are "on the verge" of a deal to end the war, as U.S.-brokered peace talks make slow but steady progress.

The attack appeared to have been inspired by white supremacist ideology, Telegram channels close to intelligence agencies reported.

“We believe that we probably solved … 90% of the issues," an official said.

Russian crude prices are at their lowest since the war in Ukraine began, as sanctions deepen the discounts the nation’s oil industry needs to offer and benchmark futures tumble.

Russia’s Central Bank says it has filed a lawsuit against Belgian financial institution Euroclear. That's the Brussels-based clearing house that holds most of Moscow’s frozen assets in Europe.

Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News Moscow cannot compromise on key territories.

Ukrainian drone attack in southwestern Russia killed two people as parts of Ukraine went without power after Russian assaults on energy sites hours before peace talks were to restart in Germany.

The new head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 has warned the nation in her first public speech that the UK is “now operating in a space between peace and war” and “the front line is everywhere,

The Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit in Moscow seeking 18.2 trillion rubles ($229 billion) from Euroclear, the state-run Tass news service reported Monday.

The EU has imposed sanctions on the high-profile oil trader Murtaza Lakhani for allegedly assisting Russia’s Rosneft in exporting crude and others petroleum products in breach of western restrictions. Lakhani is the best known trader to have been targeted by Brussels since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.