Russia

MOSCOW, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A shield is being set up over a storage site for spent nuclear waste at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine to protect it from shelling and drones, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday.

Video footage published by Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia province, showed workers mounting a screen of what appeared to be some kind of transparent sheeting on wires above dozens of concrete cylinders about 5 metres (16 feet) high.

MOSCOW, Dec 17 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has sought proposals from his armed forces commanders on how they think Russia's military campaign in Ukraine should proceed, during a visit to the operation's headquarters, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

A series of defeats in 10 months of fighting, resulting in Russian withdrawals from areas around the capital Kyiv and Ukraine's second city Kharkiv and most recently from the city of Kherson, have forced Putin to call up reservists and generated rare public criticism from military bloggers and some allies.

MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/: The world’s governing football body, FIFA, has declined a request from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to air his statement before the final match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, according to a report by CNN, the US-based multinational cable news network, on Friday.

"A request by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to share a message of world peace prior to kickoff at the World Cup final on Sunday has been rebuffed by FIFA," CNN revealed, citing its unnamed source.

ISS, December 16. /TASS/: The Russian crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) continue to carry out their routine tasks, TASS special correspondent, Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin, told the media on Friday, adding that the situation on board remained calm and businesslike.

MOSCOW, December 15./TASS/: Moscow is concerned about the Lachin Corridor being blocked and expects that this transport link will be re-opened soon, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/: Russia is working on establishing a visa-free regime with a number of Persian Gulf and Asian states, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov told TASS Thursday.

He underscored that the work on achievement of visa-free regime with more countries never stops.

NOVO-OGAREVO, December 15. /TASS/: Russian authorities will maintain the responsible financial and macroeconomic policy, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at the meeting of the Strategic Development and National Projects Council.

"We will keep the responsible financial and macroeconomic policy, which guarantees in three years to come not merely full financing of social commitments but also the resolution of new tasks the country is facing," Putin said.

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (NNN-TASS) – A fire at an oil plant in the city of Angarsk, in the Russian region of Irkutsk, killed two people and injured four others, Sputnik quoted authorities in the Irkutsk region as saying, today.

The fire broke out at a processing unit of the Angarsk Petrochemical Company industrial plant, covering an area of 2,500 square metres, earlier today, said Igor Kobzev, governor of Irkutsk.

The committee said, an investigation is underway.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - The hundreds of Russian drones hovering ominously over the Ukrainian battlefield owe their existence to an elastic, sanctions-evading supply chain that often runs through a shabby office above a Hong Kong marketplace, and sometimes through a yellow stucco home in suburban Florida.

The "Sea Eagle" Orlan 10 UAV is a deceptive, relatively low-tech and cheap killer that has directed many of the up to 20,000 artillery shells that Russia has fired daily on Ukrainian positions in 2022, killing up to 100 soldiers per day, according to Ukrainian commanders.

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation Address to the Russian Federal Assembly is likely to be arranged next year, a source in the parliament told TASS on Wednesday.

"The address is organized once a year and the countdown starts from the date of the previous address. This is why the address may be held next year… I believe that it won’t be organized this year," he said.

The source also said that "substantial preparations for the address are required, yet there is almost no time left before the end of the year."