Ukraine has claimed to have struck a Russian industrial facility producing fuel for missiles, as Moscow says it has foiled several assassination plots on senior officers.Kyiv said on Thursday that its air force had had carried out a strike in Russia’s Rostov region on a factory which was used to produce solid fuel for ballistic missiles used in attacks on Ukraine.

To ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the operation of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Zhukovsky and Kaluga airports,” Russia’s aviation authority said.

The missile has been branded as Ukraine's answer to dwindling Western aid, building self-reliance in defense technologies.

"Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day," said Keith Kellogg, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Ukraine and Russia envoy.

A massive Russian missile and drone barrage on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Christmas morning was "inhumane," Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said.

Russia wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace in war-torn Ukraine that would ensure the security in the region, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Vladimir Putin declared on Thursday that Russia was closer to reaching its goals in Ukraine and that the front line was advancing every day.

Ukraine could consider continued transit of Russian gas on the condition that Moscow does not receive money for the fuel until after the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.

But he attached numerous caveats to the idea of compromise, suggesting Moscow’s goal of subjugating Ukraine and winning major security guarantees remain in place. Read the analysis by Steve ...

Russia is willing to work with Donald Trump's incoming administration to improve relations if the U.S. has serious intentions to do so but it is up to Washington to make the first move, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had asked the Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, after condemning Russia’s Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system and some of its cities.