Europe

SOFIA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Bulgaria protested to Russia on Thursday for putting Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev on a wanted list, with its prime minister criticising the move as an intimidatory tactic designed to muzzle free speech.

Grozev, chief investigator on Russia for the Bellingcat news outlet, is "wanted under an article of the Criminal Code," according to information published on Russia's interior ministry website this week.

Interim PM Galab Donev said Bulgaria would demand full information from Russia on why Grozev had been put on the list.

WARSAW, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Poland is prepared for a Russian ban on oil sales to countries implementing a price cap, the climate minister said on Thursday, with the country having cut its intake of Russian crude and secured alternative supplies from producers such as Saudi Arabia.

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Belarus protested to Ukraine's ambassador on Thursday after saying it had downed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile in a field, during one of Russia's heaviest aerial onslaughts against Ukraine since the start of the war.

The military commissar of the Brest region, Oleg Konovalov, played the incident down in a video posted on social media by the state-run BelTA news agency, saying locals had "absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, these things happen".

KIEV/MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Thursday came under major missile attacks carried out by Russian forces from strategic aircraft and ships, the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has said.

The strikes followed overnight attacks with kamikaze drones across Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force Command said in a statement on Facebook.

Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that more than 120 missiles were launched against Ukraine on Thursday morning.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said late Wednesday that Serbs will start removing their barricades in Kosovo on Thursday in a move that could deescalate tensions that triggered fears of new clashes in the Balkans.

The agreement was reached at a late-night crisis meeting with the leaders of Kosovo Serbs, Vucic said.

MOSCOW (AP) — With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union loomed over the world like an immortal colossus.

It led humankind into outer space, exploded the most powerful nuclear weapon ever, and inflicted bloody purges and cruel labor camps on its own citizens while portraying itself as the vanguard of enlightened revolution.

But its lifespan was less than the average human’s; born 100 years ago, it died days short of its 69th birthday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit Ukraine Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather.

Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and Ukrainian forces shot down 54, Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said. Local officials said attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The strikes also wounded at least six people across the country, although the toll of the attacks was growing as officials assessed the day’s events.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Russian forces have wiped out 950 Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and almost 400 surface-to-air missile systems since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: The restriction on the supply of Russian oil will apply not only to new contracts but also to existing ones if they refer to some kind of price ceiling, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"If there is reference to any price ceiling, then, of course, [the restriction will be applied], but if there is no reference to a price ceiling, then it does not apply," he said responding to a relevant question.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: The US-led collective West declared war on Russia long ago, most notably, after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Great Game program, an excerpt of which was aired by Channel One on Wednesday.