Russia Ukraine War

"A massive air raid. More than 100 missiles in several waves," presidential office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych wrote on Facebook, while another adviser Mykhailo Podolyak claimed more than 120 missiles had been fired at Ukraine, Daily Mail reported.

For months, he struggled to come to terms with what instead became a costly quagmire, and found himself isolated and distrustful at the pinnacle of a power structure designed to reinforce his belligerent worldview and shelter him from discouraging news, media reports said. Through the summer, delegations of military experts and arms manufacturers emerged from presidential meetings questioning whether Putin understood the reality on the battleground, according to people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported.

At least 16 people were killed and 64 others were wounded in Russian strikes in Ukraine's Kherson Oblast. The Russian forces on Saturday shelled the city centre, industrial premises, medical institutions, private and apartment buildings with tubed artillery, MLRS and mortars, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

The Ukraine war has emerged as a catalyst for calls to change both the UN as well as the international institutions created after World War II, and there will be renewed efforts next year in that direction even if changes don't happen next year. As the long-simmering disenchantment with the functioning of the Council seemed ready to boil over, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "The possibility of enlarging the Security Council is now seriously on the table."

While various "unknown unknowns", in the picturesque language of former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, or "Black Swan Events" of writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, may loom over us, it is the mostly the known issues from 2022 that seem set to stay in the headlines in 2023. Accompanying them will be a few elections, slated for the coming year, that may have ramifications far beyond their respective countries.

The remarks by Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani came in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's "repeated accusations" against Iran in his speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, said the Ministry in a statement on Thursday. "Iran has always respected the territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine," said Kanaani.

"There are two possibilities. First, it will end when we win (and) at that moment. It's not too easy though. And the second possibility is that this fight will end with the end of the world. Whether we win, or the world will be destroyed," Alexander Dugin, also widely acknowledged as Putin's guru or 'Putin's Brain', said.

Kherson, one of the first major cities to fall to Russia since the early days of the invasion, was recaptured by Ukraine last month, dealing a major setback to Moscow. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the city was shelled more than 16 times on Thursday and Kherson's Governor Yaroslav Yanushevich confirmed that the city is completely without power following the shelling in Kherson's port district.

John Kirby, the National Security Council's coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters during a virtual press gaggle that he could confirm "a US national has been transferred as part of a transfer of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine today (Wednesday)", Xinhua news agency reported.

President Alexander Lukashenko has so-far avoided throwing his army into the fighting in Ukraine, but has allowed Belarusian territory to be used for attacks. Russian troops attempting to take Kyiv early in the war had advanced on the city from Belarus, and missiles which devastated the capital were fired from there.