Armen Sargsyan, the leader of the “Arbat” battalion, was severely injured following a blast in the entrance hall of a residential building in north-west Moscow, 12km (7 miles) from the Kremlin.

He was evacuated to a hospital by helicopter and placed in intensive care after the explosion, but eventually succumbed to his injuries, according to usually reliable Telegram sources.

Others – including one of Armen Sargsyan’s bodyguards – were also reportedly seriously injured, with some sources saying one other person had died.

In December, the Ukrainian security service SBU said “crime boss” Mr Sargsyan was a suspect in “recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine” and added that he had been on an international wanted list since May 2014 for his involvement in murders carried out in the centre of Kyiv.

The SBU added that Mr Sargsyan was part of the inner circle of fugitive former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

“The assassination attempt on Sarkisyan was carefully planned and was ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime,” TASS quoted a law enforcement official as saying.

Images shared on social media show rubble and plaster strewn across a heavily damaged entrance hall with blown-out windows and doorways.

Olga Voronova, a 36-year-old mother of three who lived in the building next door to the explosion, told AFP news agency that she was “very scared” and did not understand how the blast could’ve happened.

“We have quite serious security guards, they ask every car at the checkpoints, we order passes for guests, even for family members,” she said.

Mr Sargsyan was born in Gorlovka, a town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.

In a Telegram post confirming his death, the town’s mayor, Ivan Prikhodko, said Mr Sargsyan’s “most significant achievement was the creation and leadership of a separate special forces battalion”.

Mr Prikhodko said Mr Sargsyan was also the head of the Boxing Federation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The “Arbat” battalion has been known to operate in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are still present after they launched a surprise offensive in August.

There have been a number of attacks on high profile supporters of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Moscow and in occupied areas.

Senior Russian naval officer Valery Trankovsky and Russian prison boss Sergei Yevsyukov died after car bombs exploded in Russian-occupied Ukraine in late 2024.

And in December, a high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces and his assistant were killed in Moscow by Ukraine’s security service, a Ukrainian source told the BBC.

While they did not capture new settlements, Russian forces maintained their strongest pressure on the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in Donetsk, devoting almost half of their activity to those fronts.

On Sunday they also appeared to be closing in on Velyka Novosilka on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border, in an operation coordinated with their assaults on Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

“We understand that Velyka Novosilka is a continuation of the events taking place in the Kurakhove-Pokrovsk region. This is a logistics hub that also helps our Kurakhove garrison,” said Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman of the volunteer Ukrainian army group “South” on the ArmyTV stream.

He said if Velyka Novosilka fell, pressure was likely to pass onto Orikhiv, 6km (3.7 miles) from the frontline, and Huliaipole, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the frontline, both towns lying south of Zaporizhzhia.

 Russian stamina has not abated since the beginning of the year, when Moscow’s forces began a gradual crescendo of attacks that stole the initiative and put Ukrainian forces on the defensive.

They have paid dearly for it.On November 28, Ukraine estimated Russian casualties at 2,030 for the day, one of the highest daily tallies of the war, and more than 738,000 for the duration of the war.

Mazzaltov World News was unable to confirm the toll.

Until this year, Russia has employed what Ukrainians called “meat assaults”, in which a large number of soldiers charged a target until they overwhelmed it, suffering high casualties.

Since the summer, Russian forces have switched to using small vanguards that establish a bridgehead and are later reinforced – but attrition has remained high, as Ukrainian forces target them with pinpoint precision and drop small munitions on them using drones.

Describing a Russian attempt to reach the Oskil River, Oles Malyarevich, deputy commander of the 92nd separate assault brigade, said: “Out of a hundred people, about 10 reach the line, and the rest die. They do not save manpower. Life is worth nothing to them. They throw them forward in order to grab something.”

Mykola Koval, spokesman of the 14th brigade, described similar enemy tactics in Pokrovsk: “If we repel the assault, we destroy 90% of the group. Another group enters after it.”

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, Russia lost 45,720 soldiers in November, setting a monthly casualty record for the war.

The figure is equivalent to three motorised rifle divisions, said Ukraine.

Ukraine also destroyed or disabled 307 Russian tanks during the month, equivalent to 10 battalions’ worth, after destroying or disabling similar numbers in September and October.

Ukraine estimated it had hit 884 artillery pieces – in all, incurring equipment losses worth $3bn – in November alone.

Yet Russia’s defence industrial base has proven resilient enough to replace these losses and provide firepower.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Sky News on Sunday: “In just one week, Russia used more than 500 guided aerial bombs, almost 660 attack drones and about 120 missiles of various types against us. No country in the world has faced such attacks every day for such a long time.”

Russia has flown more than 57,000 drones and 13,000 missiles into Ukraine during the war, according to Ukraine’s Radio Engineering Troops, which spot them.

Russia has defied international sanctions that have crimped its earnings from oil exports and restricted the flow of raw materials to increase production of drones and missiles.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published research this week finding that Russia’s biggest defence contractors increased their turnover by 40 percent last year, compared with 2.5 percent increases among their US counterparts and 0.2 percent among their European counterparts.

That, experts said, was because of the reflexes Russia has shown during this war.

“The 40 percent growth in Russian defence revenues reflects preparations made as early as 2022, when state orders and industrial shifts were accelerated,” said Hanna Olofsson, spokesperson for Security and Defence Companies (SOFF), the Swedish defence industry lobby.

“The rapid scaling of production – including arms for prolonged attritional conflict – was facilitated by state planning, multi-shift factory work, and reduced export dependencies,” Olofsson said.

In contrast, Western companies’ revenues “largely reflect delivery timelines on older contracts”, she said. “The disparity emphasises the immediate operational focus of Russian arms production compared to the logistical and structural constraints in Western countries, showing varying capabilities in crisis adaptation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a three-year budget into law.

It increases 2025 defence spending to $128.6bn, or 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, according to Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet. Military and national security spending will together amount to $162bn – up from $157bn this year – taking up 41 percent of government expenditure.

Russia has also sought additional weapons from North Korea and Iran.

Russian Minister of Defence Andrei Belousov met with his North Korean counterpart No Kwang Chol on Friday, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to bolster that military relationship.

Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) spokesman Andriy Chernyak said Russia had used 60 out of 100 KN-23/24 ballistic missiles it had received from North Korea.

North Korea had also sent approximately five million artillery rounds, 170 self-propelled artillery pieces and 240 multiple-launch rocket systems, Chernyak told Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

“We discussed what more allies can do to provide critical ammunition and air defences, as Russia steps up its attacks and expands the war with the aid of North Korean troops and weapons,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told journalists on the second day of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Wednesday.

“Allies are working to deliver on the financial pledge of 40 billion euros ($42bn) in security assistance for Ukraine in 2024,” Rutte said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a 650-million-euro ($684m) package of military aid as he paid a visit to Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday.

Germany has been a leading supplier of air defence systems to Ukraine, providing five IRIS-T systems, three Patriot systems, and more than 50 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. It is to deliver another IRIS-T system and additional Patriot and Gepard units this month.

Ukraine has sought to shore up military aid pledges from its Western partners to ensure its armies were supplied through the US presidential transition in January.

“It is vital for Ukraine that the level of German support does not decrease in the future. This would be the most important and timely signal to all our other partners,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

“During my meeting with the Chancellor, we agreed that Germany will continue to support Ukraine as needed, regardless of what happens in global politics or how sentiments may shift.”

The US Pentagon on Tuesday announced a $725m drawdown on air defence missiles, rocket artillery, man-portable air defence systems and other systems.

Between now and mid-January, we will deliver hundreds of thousands of additional artillery rounds, thousands of additional rockets, and other critical capabilities,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.

In his interview with Sky News, Zelenskyy said US permission to use long-range weapons in Russia had come late, and the number of available missiles was not enough: “The Russians knew that we could not destroy them. We lost people, territories, initiative at a certain point. Before this decision was made. Is it good? Yes. Is it late? Yes. Are such complexes enough for us? Not enough. And we have the right to attack only military objects.”

The European Union sought to provide political support as it transitioned to a new Commission.

The new president of the European Council, Antonio Kosta, together with the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaya Kallas, and the commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit on Sunday.

“In my first visit since taking up office, my message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war. We will do whatever it takes for that,” Kallas wrote on X.

• One person was killed and several others injured following Russia’s drone attack on Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil, according to Viacheslav Negoda, the head of the military administration of Ternopil region. Parts of the residential building, where the victims were staying were also damaged by fire.
• At least three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Seven others were wounded in the attack.
• A Russian missile strike on a town in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least four people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. More than a dozen others were wounded, including a child.
• One child was killed in Russia’s western Bryansk region following a massive Ukrainian drone attack, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding that the attacks destroyed one house in the Starodubsky district.
• Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, the RIA state news agency reported citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had gained control over two settlements, Illinka and Petrivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.The ministry also said its air defence shot down 55 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours.

These were the key developments on the 1,012th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.

• One person was killed and several others injured following Russia’s drone attack on Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil, according to Viacheslav Negoda, the head of the military administration of Ternopil region. Parts of the residential building, where the victims were staying were also damaged by fire.
• At least three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Seven others were wounded in the attack.
• A Russian missile strike on a town in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least four people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. More than a dozen others were wounded, including a child.
• One child was killed in Russia’s western Bryansk region following a massive Ukrainian drone attack, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding that the attacks destroyed one house in the Starodubsky district.
• Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, the RIA state news agency reported citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had gained control over two settlements, Illinka and Petrivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.The ministry also said its air defence shot down 55 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged additional military support worth 650 million euros ($680 million) as he made a surprise visit to war-torn Ukraine, to reaffirm Berlin’s support for Kyiv in its fight against Russia.
• Zelenskyy called on the outgoing United States President Joe Biden to help convince NATO members to invite Ukraine to join the alliance.
• In Kyiv, Zelenskyy met European Council President Antonio Costa for talks and praised his decision to visit Ukraine immediately after starting his job. He told Costa and the European Union’s new head of diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, that Ukraine needs security guarantees from NATO and more weapons to defend itself before any talks with Russia.
• The US is not considering returning to Ukraine the nuclear weapons it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, following reports that some unidentified Western officials had suggested to Biden to do just that before he leaves office.
• German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has accused China of providing Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine and threatening peace in Europe and the Asia Pacific. Baerbock is scheduled to visit Beijing next week for a meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a military-focused budget for 2025-27, a document published on the official legal acts website showed. It includes a 25 percent hike in military spending as the country continues its military operation in Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said he would strengthen troops on the eastern front with reserves, ammunition and equipment after he visited Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in the Donetsk region. Syrskii said Ukrainian forces are continuing to repel Russian advances in the east.
• Russian authorities returned more than 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, with most having died in the eastern Donetsk region, Kyiv said.Social media video released on Friday showed the Atlas Oil Depot in the Rostov Region of Russia on fire.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Major-General Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new commander of Ukraine’s land forces. “The Ukrainian army needs internal changes to achieve our state’s goals in full,” Zelenskyy said.
• Ukraine has lost about 40 percent of the territory it captured in Russia’s Kursk region in a surprise incursion in August, amid intensifying Russian counter-assaults.
• Military analysts say Ukraine’s military is experiencing manpower shortages, making it harder to rotate troops out of the more than 1,000km (620 miles) of front line or to build up reserve forces.
• Residents of Kyiv went about life on Friday with flashlights and candles after Russia fired nearly 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure a day earlier, leaving more than a million households without power.
• A possible resumption of nuclear weapons tests by Moscow remains an open question in view of hostile US policies, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying early on Saturday. “This is a question at hand,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the TASS news agency when asked whether Moscow was considering a resumption of tests.
• Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and agreed to boost military cooperation between the two nations, according to Pyongyang state media.
• Kim told Belousov that Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons is the result of direct military intervention by the United States and the West, and Moscow is entitled to take action in self-defence, the country’s KCNA news agency reported.
• France’s President Emmanuel Macron has promised to provide Ukraine with intense support in its battle against Russia’s “escalation” of its invasion, his office said.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has reportedly urged NATO counterparts to issue an invitation to Kyiv to join the Western military alliance at a meeting in Brussels next week.
• Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Friday that offering Ukraine NATO membership while allowing Russia to keep for the moment territory it had captured could be a solution to end the “hot stage” of the 33-month-old war.
• The spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for Russia to “immediately cease all attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure”.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Russia-Ukraine war “has shown us the weakness of the rules-based international system”.
• Outgoing European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the situation in Ukraine as “worsening” and said he is pessimistic that United States President-elect Donald Trump will improve it. Borrell said Ukraine is able to defend itself only as long as its allies support it.
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured Zelenskyy of Germany’s continued support in a call on Friday, in which they agreed to stay in contact, also with a view on possible paths to a just peace, he said on social platform X.
• Ukraine accused Georgia of trying to “please Moscow” after the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said his country would suspend EU accession talks.
• Russia is waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe, while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine, the head of the United Kingdom’s MI6 foreign spy agency said.
• Poland has deployed Leopard 2 battle tanks in Latvia to reinforce the NATO brigade there.German defence giant Rheinmetall and Lithuania signed deals to begin construction of a $190m ammunition plant to make artillery shells in the country.
• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius wants to order four new submarines to help meet NATO’s security requirements in Europe, a parliamentary budget committee source told the AFP news agency.
• Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency has warned of possible attempts by other states to influence the upcoming federal election.
• Russia sentenced Alexei Gorinov, the first person to be convicted for speaking out against Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, to another three years in prison in a second trial. The 63-year-old – a former Moscow city councillor – is already serving a seven-year sentence following a conviction in 2022.

Kim Jong Un said Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons is the result of direct military intervention by the United States, and Russia is entitled to fight in self-defence, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden this month allowed Ukraine to use US-provided, long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) inside Russian territory.

Kim pledged that his country “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against imperialist moves for hegemony” while hosting Russian Minister of Defence Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang on Friday, KCNA reported.

Russia and North Korea have deepened their military links, with Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to participate in Moscow’s war effort.

Kim and Belousov agreed on further strengthening the strategic partnership between their countries.

North Korea has wholly backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a defensive response to NATO’s “reckless” eastward advance and US-led moves to stamp out Russia’s position as a powerful state.

Kim slammed the US decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia as a direct intervention in the conflict, calling it Washington’s “anti-Russia measures” that are “irresponsible acts of fomenting prolonged conflict and threatening all mankind”.

Recent Russian strikes on Ukraine, Kim added, are “a timely and effective measure” to demonstrate Russia’s resolve.

According to NATO, US, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia and some of them have already begun engaging in combat on the front lines. They also say North Korea has also shipped artillery systems, missiles and other conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s exhausted weapons inventory.

Neither North Korea nor Russia have formally confirmed the North Korean troops’ movements, and have steadfastly denied reports of weapons shipments.

South Korea, the US and their partners are concerned that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help to build more powerful nuclear missiles.

Last week, South Korean national security adviser Shin Won-sik told local SBS TV that Russia has provided air defence missile systems to North Korea. He said Moscow also appeared to have given economic assistance to Pyongyang and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system.

In June, Kim and Putin signed a treaty requiring both countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. It is considered the two countries’ biggest defence deal since the end of the Cold War.

• Russia unleashed its second major attack this month on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, triggering severe power cuts that affected at least one million people across three western regions.
• The attacks cut power to 523,000 consumers in the Lviv region, 215,000 in the Volyn region and 280,000 in the Rivne region, regional governors reported.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia used 91 missiles and 97 drones in the attack, with 12 hitting their targets, most of which were energy and fuel facilities.
• President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had struck in response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory with US medium-range ATACMS missiles. He warned future targets could include “decision-making centres” in Kyiv using its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile – which Moscow claims is incapable of being intercepted.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of a “despicable escalation”, saying it had used cruise missiles with cluster munitions in the attack. Zelenskyy said he was speaking to Western leaders – including NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – to forge a response to the Russian attempt to “drag out the war”.
• US President Joe Biden labelled Moscow’s attack “outrageous”, saying it serves as “another reminder of the urgency and importance of supporting the Ukrainian people in their defence against Russian aggression”.
• Russian air defences destroyed or downed 30 Ukrainian drones in the southern Rostov region early on Friday, Regional Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
• Fragments from downed Russian drones struck buildings in two Kyiv districts and injured one person late on Thursday, officials said.
• Explosions were heard in Odesa on Thursday morning amid reports of a cruise missile attack in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city.
• President Zelenskyy has signed into law Ukraine’s first wartime tax increases, with Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko saying the bill is vital to ensure smooth funding for the Ukrainian defence sector.
• The changes, which will take effect from December 1, will see the war tax on personal income rise from 1.5 percent to 5 percent.
• Ukraine has urged its partners to speed up military aid, saying quicker delivery of critical battlefield equipment is more important than drafting more men, after a senior US administration official urged Kyiv to reduce the conscription age from 25 to 18.
• Ukraine is ready to host a second global summit aimed at ending Russia’s invasion in the “nearest future”, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has said. Ukraine held its first “peace summit” in Switzerland in June.
• France, which is under pressure over its stance claiming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is immune from an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, has declined to say whether it would be prepared to arrest President Putin under a similar warrant.
• Putin said during a news conference in Kazakhstan that Russia would use “precisely all means of destruction available” against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear arms, adding that he would be “watching their every move”.
• Putin added that there were no conditions to start talks with Ukraine on a possible peace settlement, but that terms he set out in June, including Kyiv dropping its NATO ambitions, remained unchanged.
• Germany has offered to re-deploy Patriot air defence missiles to NATO ally Poland at the start of the new year, the German Defence Ministry said.
• A Russian court has sentenced lawyer Dmitry Talantov, who has represented critics of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, to seven years in prison after convicting him of spreading false information about the Russian army and “inciting hatred”.
• Russia and Ukraine have agreed to each return a total of nine children to be reunited with family members, in the latest humanitarian exchange agreed upon following mediation by Qatar.