A Ukranian navy partisan group has claimed it sabotaged a key railway line between Moscow and Kursk, disrupting Russian provide strains.

An operative set fireplace to a relay cupboard close to the village of Chekhov in Moscow Oblast, the Atesh group posted on Telegram on Friday, together with an undated video of the alleged sabotage.

The railway line has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces since August.

Norway’s $1.8tn sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, can begin promoting shares it holds in Russian firms, so long as it complies with worldwide sanctions, the deputy finance minister informed Reuters on Friday.

“Permission to promote the fund’s Russian shares is given on the situation that the sale could be completed in keeping with relevant sanctions,” Ellen Reitan mentioned in an electronic mail.

The Norwegian finance ministry ordered a halt to all transactions within the fund’s Russian property shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and mentioned on the time that the last word aim was to divest its holdings.

The fund has to date been unable from offloading Russian property as a result of it isn’t permitted to promote to counterparties underneath US or EU sanctions.

Russia’s capability to outpace Ukraine’s artillery barrages has lowered to simply 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired, Western officers mentioned.

Beforehand Russia has been in a position to launch a minimum of 5 occasions as many rounds as Ukraine may, with ratios increased at occasions.

Nameless Western officers mentioned the narrowing hole was all the way down to a “extensive number of elements”, together with limitations on Russian manufacturing strains, disruptions to arms rail transportation, Ukrainian drone strikes in opposition to Russian and North Korean ammunition stockpiles inside Russia, and Western provides bolstering Ukraine’s armoury.

However giant numbers of Russian glide bombs could also be compensating “to devastating impact” for the lowered artillery entrance, the Western officers warned.

The particular forces shared footage on Telegram exhibiting intense close-quarters fight between Russian and Ukrainian troops in a wooded space.

Ukraine claimed that 17 Russian troopers had been killed within the assault targetting Kursk, an space Kyiv had invaded in a daring incursion again in August.

This recent Kursk advance follows Ukrainian advances throughout a counterattack south of Korenevo, close to the Ukrainian border, in line with the Institute for the Examine of Conflict.

Russia is believed to have reclaimed about 40 per cent of the Kursk area initially taken by Ukraine. Troopers informed the BBC that they had been instructed to carry their place “till Trump’s inauguration and the beginning of negotiations.”

The White Home has devised a last-minute technique to strengthen Ukraine’s conflict efforts via important navy help and sweeping new sanctions on Russia, in line with a safety briefing shared with the Guardian.

US Nationwide Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan, throughout a gathering with Ukrainian presidential workplace head Andrii Yermak on Thursday, dedicated to delivering lots of of hundreds of artillery rounds, hundreds of rockets, and lots of of armoured autos by mid-January.

The US additionally plans to coach Ukrainian troops outdoors the nation and finalise $20bn in loans backed by frozen Russian property, in line with the briefing.

The technique features a closing push of sanctions on Russia earlier than US president-elect Donald Trump renters the White Home. The transfer goals to weaken Russia’s conflict effort and improve Ukraine’s leverage in future negotiations.

The Crimean Bridge was closed on Friday morning following stories of Ukrainian drone exercise within the area.

Explosions had been heard close to Zaliv shipyard within the metropolis of Kerch, in line with the pro-Ukrainian Crimean Wind Telegram channel. Air defence programs had been additionally activated, in line with information outlet Krym.Realii.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed Friday to have downed a Ukrainian drone over Crimea and destroyed two uncrewed boats heading to Crimea within the Black Sea.

Russian forces suffered about 53 casualties per sq. kilometre as they superior in Ukraine in autumn 2024, in line with an Institute for the Examine of Conflict (ISW) report.

From September to November 2024 Russian troopers misplaced about 125,800 personnel as they captured roughly 2,356 sq. kilometres of territory together with the Kursk Oblast, the report mentioned.

Russia’s overseas foreign money reserves, accrued over a decade via its uncooked supplies sector, are actually almost depleted, in line with native stories.

Russia’s largest lender Sberbank SBER.MM plans to open places of work in Russian-controlled elements of the Ukrainian areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia this month, Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of Sberbank’s board has mentioned.

Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas in September 2022, following what Ukraine mentioned had been sham referendums.

Russian forces would not have full management of any of the 4 areas although are near gaining that in Luhansk.

Sberbank opened accomplice places of work in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in July 2024. Vedyakhin mentioned the primary full-size places of work would open in December and begin serving purchasers, together with firms, from the primary quarter of 2025.