Ukraine war latest: Kremlin denies Putin plans to invade European countries

Russia's pipeline exports of natural gas to China are expected to have risen by a quarter this year, a source familiar with the data has told Reuters.

It comes as Moscow ramps up sales to Asia and cements ties with the world's largest energy consumer.

However, calculations indicate this will not offset the fall in revenue from the loss of the European gas market.

Russia has re-routed most of its oil to India and China since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022 as Moscow and Europe - once its main commodity  export market and source of revenue - cut ties.

It's proven harder to  divert gas flows eastwards and painstaking talks to bring more Russian gas to China have yielded limited results.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to media, told Reuters that Russian energy giant Gazprom expected gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia Pipeline to reach around 38.6-38.7 billion cubic metres this year, up from 31 bcm in 2024 and exceeding the pipeline's planned annual capacity of 38 bcm.

Gazprom has not responded to a request for comment.

During Vladimir Putin's visit to China in September, the countries agreed to increase annual volumes on the route by an additional 6 bcm, to 44 bcm, a year. Russia and China also gave their blessing to the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which could one day deliver an additional 50 bcm of Russian gas per year through Mongolia from the Arctic gas fields of Yamal.

However, the main obstacle to implementing the project, the price of Russian gas, remains unresolved.

Russia's economy ministry estimates that revenue from gas exports to China will be 30%-40% lower than the value of exports to Europe in 2025-2028.

The only operational route for Russian gas supplies to Europe is via the TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea. Deliveries via Ukraine - which amounted to around 12-15 bcm in recent years - were halted at the start of the year as Moscow and Kyiv failed to extend a transit deal.

According to Russian finance ministry data, gas exports generated around 420 billion roubles (£3.93bn) for the state budget in January - November.

China is an ally of Russia and has been accused of helping its war in Ukraine, though Beijing has repeatedly denied allegations that it has supplied Kremlin forces with weapons.

As we have been reporting, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed when a car bomb detonated this morning in Moscow.

He became the latest high-profile Russian to be assasinated since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Here is a breakdown of those figures killed:

22 December 2025 - Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov is killed by a bomb that explodes under his Kia Sorento in southern Moscow. Sarvarov was head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate. Russian investigators say they suspect the involvement of Ukrainian special services, although here is no immediate comment from Kyiv.

25 April 2025 - Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, is killed by a car bomb near Moscow. Moskalik was deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff.

17 December 2024 - Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops, is killed outside a Moscow apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter goes off.

13 November 2024 - A bomb planted under a car kills a Russian serviceman in Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea. A Ukrainian security source names him as Valery Trankovsky, a Russian naval captain whom Kyiv accused of war crimes for ordering missile strikes on civilian targets.

4 October 2024 - Andrei Korotkiy, an employee at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is killed in a car bomb attack. Ukrainian military intelligence calls him a collaborator and a war criminal.

6 December 2023 - Illia Kyva, a former Ukrainian lawmaker regarded by Kyiv as a traitor, is shot dead near Moscow.

11 July 2023 - Russian military officer Stanislav Rzhitsky, who had commanded a submarine in the Blac Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals, is shot dead while out on a morning run in the southern city of Krasnodar.

2 April 2023 - Vladen Tatarsky, a pro-war Russian military blogger, is killed by a bomb concealed in a statuette presented to him by a woman in a St Petersburg cafe.

20 August 2022 - Darya Dugina, the daughter of a pro-war nationalist figure, is killed by a car bomb in the Moscow region.

Russian troops hit port and energy infrastructure in an overnight attack on Ukraine's Odesa region, causing a fire at a major port and disrupting electricity supplies to tens of thousands of people, a senior Ukrainian official has said.

Ukraine's Black Sea ports are crucial for its export-driven economy and their security and functionality have been vital for the country's economic survival throughout nearly four years  of war.

"Russia is attempting to disrupt maritime logistics by launching systematic attacks on port and energy infrastructure," deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

"Last night, ports and energy facilities were targeted again."

Kuleba said a blaze had broken out in the port of Pivdennyi after the attack, and that about 30 containers of flour and vegetable oil were on fire. Port workers and emergency services were battling the blaze.

Because of damage to the energy infrastructure, electricity supplies were disrupted to more than 120,000 customers in the Odesa region, he said. One person had been hurt in the attack, the interior ministry said.

Russia did not immediately comment on the overnight attack.

In the past few weeks, Russia has increased attacks on Odesa port and the surrounding region, trying to limit Ukraine's access to the Black Sea and disrupt critical logistics routes to the border with Moldova, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine also targets Russia's maritime logistics, increasingly focusing on shadow-fleet oil tankers that are used to bypass sanctions imposed on Russia over the war.

Russia's Defence Ministry announced this morning it had captured Vilcha in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, according to Russian state news RIA Novosti.

The report could not be immediately verified.

In our 7.44 post, we reported on the death of Fanil Sarvarov when an explosive device detonated underneath his car in southern Moscow this morning.

Here's what we know about the 56-year-old:

• Born on 11 March 1969, he graduated from the Krasnoznamensk Higher Tank Command School in Kazan in 1990. He also graduated from the Armoured Forces Military Academy in 1999 and the General Staff Military Academy of the Russian Armed Forces in 2008;
• From 1992 to 2003, he participated in combat operations during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya for six years;
• After graduating from the General Staff Military Academy, he continued his military service in the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Directorate of Operational Preparation of the Russian Armed Forces;
• In 2015-2016, he was involved in Russia's operations in Syria;
• Since 2016, he has been appointed to the position of Head of the Directorate of Operational Preparation of the Russian Armed Forces;
• He was awarded the Order of Courage, the Medal of the Order "For Services to the Motherland" of the second degree, the Order "For Military Merit", the Medal of the Order "For Services to the Motherland" of the first degree.
• He was also granted the honorary title of "Merited Military Specialist of the Russian Federation".

Reuters cited six sources last week as saying US intelligence reports continued to warn that Vladimir Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire.

The reports presented a starkly different picture from that painted by Donald Trump and his Ukraine peace negotiators, who have said Putin wants to end the conflict.

And the intelligence also contradicts the Russian president's denials that he is a threat to Europe.

The US findings have been consistent since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022. They largely align with the views of European leaders and spy agencies that he covets all of Ukraine and territories of former Soviet bloc states, including members of the NATO alliance, according to the sources.

However, the Kremlin said today that if US intelligence believed that Putin wanted to capture all of Ukraine and reclaim parts of Europe that were once part of the Soviet Union, then US intelligence was wrong.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow did not know how reliable the sources quoted by Reuters were, but that if the report was accurate, then the US intelligence conclusions were wrong.

"This is absolutely not true," Peskov said of the US intelligence conclusions as reported by Reuters.

As we have mentioned, Russian and ​the US officials spent the weekend holding talks about Donald Trump's peace plan in Ukraine, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff saying the discussions were "constructive".

And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this morning that Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev would report to Vladimir Putin on the talks as soon as he arrives in Moscow from Miami.

Dmitriev arrived in Miami on Saturday and held two days of talks with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Swedish customs have released a Russian ship they boarded over the weekend in order to perform an inspection, with marine tracking this morning showing the vessel was on the move again.

Customs service officials said yesterday that authorities had boarded the Adler, a Russian freighter, that anchored near Hoganas in south-west Sweden on Friday after developing engine problems.

"The prosecutor has decided not to open an investigation into suspected violation of sanctions," a spokesperson for the customs service said. "The ship has therefore been allowed to go on its way."

In addition to the Adler being on a European Union sanctions list, the vessel and its owners M Leasing LLC are both subject to US sanctions, suspected of involvement in weapons transport, according to OpenSanctions, a database of sanctioned companies and individuals, persons of interest and government watchlists.

The customs service declined to say what cargo the Adler, which left St Petersburg on 15 December for an unknown destination, had been carrying.

LSEG tracking data showed the ship travelling north up the west coast of Sweden.

Regional authorities in Russia's Krasnodar region say a Ukrainian drone attack damaged two vessels, two piers and sparked a fire in a village on the Black Sea coast.

Krasnodar region's operational headquarters said all crew on the ships at the Volna terminal on the Black Sea have been safely evacuated.

The damage sparked a fire spreading up to 1,500 square metres, said authorities, with the fire still raging at 2am UK time.

Ukraine has often struck the Krasnodar region with drones, targeting refineries, fuel depots, ports and airfields. The Black Sea region is vital for Russia's energy exports and military logistics, bordering Crimea and lying within drone range of southern Ukraine.

The village of Volna is close to the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, a major artery for Russian forces, as it links the mainland to the Crimean peninsula that was annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.

A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated underneath his car in southern Moscow, according to investigators. 

Lt Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, died from his injuries, Russia's Investigative Committee said.

"Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of enquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services," the committee said. 

Ukraine's security service claimed responsibility for a similar attack against a high-ranking Russian soldier in December 2024. 

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building.