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Russian defense ministry spokesperson Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said “a high-precision weapon” fired by Russia’s forces had destroyed a hangar in Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. He said the hanger housed “American 155-mm M777 howitzers and up to 30 Ukrainian militants shelling residential areas of Donetsk.” Konashenkov’s comments, reported by the state-run Tass news agency on Saturday, have not been independently verified. Newsweek has asked Ukraine’s armed forces, which have previously said they too had taken out Russian ammunition depot, for comment....

Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, believes it’s inevitable that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his army will be defeated by Ukraine. As the war head into its eleventh month, Ash said the real issue looming over Moscow’s invasion is what will happen to Putin’s Russia, and whether history will repeat itself. In an op-ed published by the Kyiv Post on Saturday, Ash, who has advised various governments on Ukraine-Russia policy, said that he believes Russia will break off into new states—resulting in the exact opposite of what Putin had hoped to achieve when he launched the invasion into Ukraine almost a year ago....

In an interview with Country Rosatom, the agency’s newsletter, Goverdovsky said physicists at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) are currently developing methods to combat viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. He said they have called the project “luminous gas.” “So far, no one has managed to hold UV disinfection inside a person,” he said. “We figured out how to do this. We select molecules and gas components that when inhaled remain activated and emit ultraviolet light directly in the lungs....

In an interview with CNN, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer revealed that additional sanctions will be announced Tuesday against Russia–a response to the “egregious step they took yesterday away from diplomacy and down the path for war.” “I believe that what Russia has done has made a diplomatic path much harder to walk down and much less likely,” said Finer. “We’ve been in close consultation with our partners about what the next diplomatic step should be, but they have closed the door even further to diplomacy by the way that they have conducted their business yesterday....

Sergei Chemezov, head of the state-run Rostec industrial conglomerate, told reporters Thursday that, “if our Turkish colleagues express an interest, we are ready to discuss the deliveries of Su-35,” according to the RIA Novosti news outlet. The Su-35, an advanced version of the Su-27, is meant to bridge the gap between fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets like the U.S.-built F-35 that was originally to be acquired by Turkey until President Donald Trump formally canceled the delivery Tuesday....

Gorbachev, now 89, regularly speaks on Russia’s international relations. He oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and has since been a vocal proponent of multilateral cooperation and arms restrictions. Gorbachev has been critical of President Donald Trump’s administration, suggesting hawks within the government were intentionally undermining landmark arms control agreements, some of which Gorbachev helped craft. Gorbachev told Russia’s state-backed Tass new agency Sunday that Biden’s victory over Trump could open the door to a more measured relationship with the U....

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held a conference call Friday with military leaders, whom he told that “it is necessary to conduct a deep analysis of potential military threats and outline measures to improve the Armed Forces.” Shoigu called on his personnel to keep an eye on the United States’ burgeoning short-to-mid-range missile program. “It is necessary to monitor the deployment of medium-range and shorter-range missiles by the United States of America,” Shoigu said....

In recent days, Russian forces in Luhansk have likely reinforced positions in the strategically important Russian-controlled city of Kreminna in the eastern Luhansk region, the U.K. ministry said in its daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian forces have clashed recently around the small city, which is located near to Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk—two larger, industrial cities that were seized by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops in the summer....

The Russian language Telegram social media channel Mozhem Obyasnit (“We Can Explain”), which reports critical news about Russia and its war effort, published accounts from some of its readers about the tactics that the country’s authorities are purportedly employing. The channel told its 134,000 subscribers that postal requests for Russians to sign up were being ignored and that “it seems that plans to mobilize for the war are being frustrated....

The U.S. think tank said on Friday that Russia has started its withdrawal from the southern region and this was likely to continue over the next few weeks, but Vladimir Putin’s troops could face a struggle if Ukrainian forces choose to attack. Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command has said Moscow is transferring ammunition, military equipment and units via ferry from the Dnipro River’s west bank to the east bank, while 2,000 Russian troops hold the frontline to cover their withdrawal by shelling Ukrainian positions....

The court said that she tested positive for the heart medication trimetazidine and admitted the offense, the fourth doping case to hit the Pyeongchang Olympics and second from Russia. Sergeyeva, who finished 12th in the two-woman bobsleigh, “is excluded from the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018”, the court said in a statement. It said the results of the women, competing for the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAS), would be discounted....

Russian media outlets reported how an amendment by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) to a defense budget bill would seek to punish 35 Russian officials, businessmen and journalists. The names on the list were given to the U.S. and the European Union in February by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, or FBK, a group linked to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny that has since been declared an extremist organisation by a Russian court....

Washington said it would sanction seven senior Russian officials following an intelligence assessment that concluded “with high confidence” the Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind Navalny’s poisoning by the Novichok nerve agent in August 2020. Their U.S. assets will be frozen, and any U.S. transactions with them will be subject to prosecution in the first sanctions on Russia imposed by the administration of President Joe Biden since he took office....

“The aim is the liquidation of Ukraine as a puppet of the Anglo-Saxon block,” says Pyotor Akopov, a columnist for the Russian state news outlet RIA-Novosti, his comments matching those of others close to power in the Kremlin. “Ukraine in its current form will not come out of this conflict,” Akopov told Newsweek. “It will be a different country with a different leadership completely in the Russian sphere of influence....

In its daily intelligence update on the Ukraine war on Friday, the ministry said: “The Russian defence manufacturing sector is highly likely resorting to using convict labour in an effort to meet war-time production demands.” It noted that in November, Uralvagonzavod (UVZ), Russia’s largest tank manufacturer, told local media that it would employ 250 prisoners after meeting with the Federal Penal Service (FSIN). The ministry noted that there is a long tradition of prison labor in Russia, but since 2017 forced labour as a specific criminal punishment has been reintroduced....

Roscosmos has said that it wants to establish a lunar base by 2040 as part of a three-stage program. The first of these will see a spacecraft sent to orbit the moon, The Moscow Times reported. The second will involved a manned mission to the lunar surface and the initiation of moon base construction—expected to take place between 2025 and 2034. The third stage will see the finishing touches added to the moon base....

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, nicknamed the “butcher of Mariupol” by Kyiv officials for his role in seizing the Ukrainian city in May, has been appointed in his place. It comes amidst a shake-up of Russian command after a Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed Russian troops out of almost all of the northern Kharkiv province earlier this month. Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed the counter has so far seized more than 2,300 square miles of land....

The military police arrested a Russian living permanently in the country, the Polish Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday, translated into English via Google. An investigation had been carried out by the Military Affairs Department of the District Prosecutor’s Office in the city of Gdansk, which determined the Russian should be detained, it added. A prosecutor’s office spokesperson said: “The findings of the Military Counterintelligence Service indicated that he was engaged in espionage activities for the intelligence of the Russian Federation....

In an interview with Russia’s state-run news outlet RIA Novosti, State Duma deputy Oleg Morozov took aim at the U.S. in the wake of Sunday’s explosions in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, which killed at least three people and damaged many homes. The regional leader, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private houses were damaged. Moscow said it was a Ukrainian missile attack, although Ukraine didn’t claim responsibility for the incident....

As the United States’ relationship with Russia and China deteriorated, the two countries grew closer. Russia and China have denied that there are any current plans for a military alliance, although both have kept the door open to the possibility of one, raising concerns that a pact between Moscow and Beijing could disrupt the world order. Denisov told the Global Times, a Chinese state-run outlet, that he wouldn’t answer the hypothetical question as to whether Russia would back China in a war with the U....