MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia sees no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war in Ukraine but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbours,

The future of gas transit through Ukraine is at a turning point. If a last-minute deal isn’t struck by Wednesday, billions of cubic meters in gas flows could come to a halt.

Benchmark European natural gas futures jumped as much as 5% in early trading Friday after Russia's President Putin said it would be impossible to reach agreement on any new transit contract for the flow of natural gas through Ukraine to Europe before year’s end.

With much fanfare, Ukraine was granted permission to fire Western long-range missiles at Russian military targets more than a month ago. But after initially firing a flurry of them, Ukraine has already slowed their use.

US President-elect Donald Trump believes that an end to the war in Ukraine is possible only if Ukraine is strong militarily. Source: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an interview with the German media outlet t-online,

By Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Osborn and Nailia Bagirova MOSCOW/BAKU (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defences were fired against Ukrainian drones.

The UK foreign office has criticised Russia after President Vladimir Putin apologised to his Azerbaijani counterpart over a plane crash in Russian airspace that left dozens dead.Mr Putin said he was sorry “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace” during a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Saturday.

Russia is deploying “human waves” of North Korean soldiers, the U.S. said, and one soldier captured by Ukraine died of his injuries. Others died by suicide.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia was trying to "conceal losses" of North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine.