Europe

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: India welcomes the growth of trade turnover with Russia, though it wants it to become more balanced, India’s Ambassador to Moscow Pavan Kapoor told a forum on Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has inspected the Russian armed forces’ units stationed in the special military operation zone, the ministry told reporters on Thursday.

"Sergey Shoigu checked the conditions of deployment of personnel and military equipment in the temporary deployment sites of military units. In talking with unit commanders, Sergey Shoigu paid special attention to the provision of comprehensive support for the troops in the field, who are involved in the special operation," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin presented him with the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday said Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky traveled to the US to get more financial and military assistance from Washington.

PARIS, Dec 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Colombia is considering buying 16 Rafale fighter jets from French aircraft manufacturer Dassault, the South American country’s presidency said, as it seeks to replace its Israeli Kfir planes.

The South American country has “pre-selected the French government’s offer for the sale of 16 Rafales”, after looking at Swedish Gripen and US F-16 planes, the presidency said in a statement.

“There are no signed contracts, it is a preliminary negotiation” for an offer estimated at up to 15 billion pesos (around $3 million), it said.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Russia's Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday that the frontline in Ukraine was stable, and that Russia had concentrated its forces on "completing the liberation" of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

In an end of year message delivered to foreign military attaches and published by the defence ministry, Russia's top military officer said: "The situation on the front line has stabilised, with the main efforts of the Russian troops concentrated on completing the liberation of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic."

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that U.S. supplies of Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, announced during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Washington, would not contribute to settling the conflict or prevent Russia from achieving its goals.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the Patriot shipment: "This is not conducive to a speedy settlement, quite the contrary. And this cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its goals during the special military operation", using Russia's term for the war.

KYIV, Dec 22 (Reuters) - As Russian cruise missiles sped towards their target this month, a Ukrainian pilot gave chase in an old Soviet MiG-29 fighter jet and locked onto two of them, but could not take the shot: they were nearing a large town and it was too risky.

He said he passed the targets on to Ukraine's ground-based air defences which shot them down, as they have done hundreds of missiles since October, blunting the impact of a Russian air campaign that aims to destroy the country's power grid.

MOSCOW, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The combat capability of the Russian armed forces is "increasing day by day" and Russia will certainly step up this process, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"Today, our goal is to implement the entire scope of necessary measures to achieve a qualitative renewal and improvement of the armed forces," Putin said at an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog met Thursday in Moscow with officials from Russia’s military and state atomic energy company as he pursues a long-running drive to set up a protection zone around a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine.