Russia has grappled with a shrinking and aging population for decades, with President Vladimir Putin viewing it as a threat to national security.

The claim contradicts Moscow's actual negotiating stance, as Russia continues to reject any compromise and insists on its maximalist demands.

U.S. officials also told European counterparts that they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for Kyiv.

Air raids hit Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk region as Ukraine’s allies expand sanctions on Russia. Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine have killed at least four people and wounded several others, local officials say, as Kyiv’s allies push sweeping measures against Moscow as the war nears its four-year mark.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was delighted to learn last week that Russia and the United States had chosen his country as the venue for another summit on ending the war in Ukraine.

Waves of Russian missiles and drones battered Ukraine overnight on October 22, killing six people, including two children, and wounding dozens more. The large-scale bombardment occurred just hours after reports that a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Budapest, Hungary, had been canceled.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha believes that the latest sanctions imposed by the EU and the US are a real blow to Russia, although Moscow denies this. Details: Sybiha believes that this week marked a new stage in the pressure to force Russia to make peace,

The plant is Russia's fourth-largest oil refinery and processed 13.1 million tons of oil last year, according to Russian estimates.