MOSCOW (Reuters) - A British man captured fighting on the Ukrainian side in Russia's Kursk region will face terrorism and mercenary charges that could see him jailed for years, Russian state investigators said on Thursday.

A Russian drone attack on a residential block killed eight people including three elderly couples in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, prosecutors said on Thursday. Moscow has pummelled Ukrainian cities with dozens of drones or missiles almost daily since it invaded in early 2022.

Putin has indicated that he will not view any peace agreement with Ukraine as binding, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections in 2024 did not come as a surprise in Kyiv. Instead, Ukrainian authorities are now focused on building institutional ties with the incoming administration and closely monitoring appointments to foreign policy positions.

Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery 250 miles east of Moscow in a huge wave of attacks on Russian power plants, say military sources. A large fire exploded at the refinery in Kstovo city in the Nizhny Novgorod region following the attack, the Ukrainian military said, adding it was assessing the scale of damage there.

A ‘100-day plan' for ending the war between Ukraine and Russia has suggested the long-running conflict could be over in just a few months.

Billions of dollars of investment may be needed to rebuild Ukraine's power systems, brought to the brink of total decimation after relentless attacks by Russia.

With Western sanctions cutting off supplies, China has become Russia’s sole source of critical minerals used in weapons production—including nuclear arms—deepening concerns over Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war effort.

According to Vinay Kumar, Indian diplomatic and commercial missions are facilitating negotiations between India and Russia on mutual acceptance of payments from Mir payment systems and Indian RuPay

The president is reluctant to send more aid to Ukraine, let alone U.S. troops; nor does he want Ukraine admitted to NATO. As for overseeing an eventual ceasefire and guaranteeing Ukraine’s security — without which an armistice would be meaningless, given Moscow’s neo-imperialist ambitions — he sees that as Europe’s problem.

Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu raises the possibility of Romania and Poland annexing Ukrainian territory.