Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 27 people in a drone strike on a New Year's party in a hotel and cafe in the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region.

I would give anything in the world if, in this address, I could say that peace will also come in just a few minutes,” Ukraine's Zelenskyy said just before midnight on New Year's Eve.

Moscow reported a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine while Kyiv said Russia attacked its power supplies.

January, President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine will have dragged on longer than the war on the Eastern Front that ended with the fall of Berlin in May 1945.

Russia's battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were the highest since 2022, an AFP analysis showed, as Kyiv was set to host security advisers from allied states on Saturday despite Moscow's unrelenting strikes.

December saw a new record number of Ukrainian long-range drones shot down by Russian forces, according to statistics published by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Concerns were also raised at the United Nations, where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the developments surrounding Maduro’s capture amount to a “dangerous precedent.”

Russia filed a formal diplomatic request that the United States stop pursuing an oil tanker originally bound for Venezuela that has evaded US custody for almost two weeks, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.