Ukraine updates: Russian forces step up presence in Pokrovsk

Russia has lost its battle with Australia's federal government to build a new embassy near the parliament in the capital, Canberra. 

On Wednesday, Australia's High Court ruled that the government can reclaim land leased by Russia for the new embassy.

In June 2023, Australia rushed through a law to prevent Russia from building an embassy a few hundred meters from the parliamentary precinct over fears that it could pose a threat to national security.

At the time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said that his government had "very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House."

Russia took the decision to revoke its lease to court. It argued that the decision was unconstitutional because there was no evidence of a security threat. 

In its Wednesday ruling, the court found the new law was valid but said Australia had to pay Russia compensation for the canceled lease.

A Ukrainian drone attack has sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the Stavropol region in southern Russia. 

Stavropol lies almost 900 kilometers (over 550 miles) east of the Ukrainian border.

Stavropol regional governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Telegram on Wednesday that Russian air defenses had downed several drones. Their wreckage sparked a fire in Stavropol's Budyonnovsk district, he said, adding that there were no casualties. 

He didn't give further details on what industrial facility was on fire.

Recent Ukraine strikes have targeted the Stavrolen petrochemical plant in Budyonnovsk, one of Russia's main producers of polyethylene and polypropylene.

Russian investers have agreed to withdraw from key Serbian oil company NIS, Serbia's energy minister said on Tuesday. 

Russia's state-owned oil company Gazprom Neft and its owner Gazprom hold a controlling stake of NIS. 

NIS operates Serbia's only oil refinery, which supplies about 80% of the country's needs.

The United States has waived sanctions against the company several times since January, when it expanded sanctions against Russia's oil industry.

NIS' Russian owners have requested an extension of a US operating license "on the basis of negotiations with a third party," Serbia's Energy Minister Dubravka Dedovic Handanovic wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. 

"The petition states that the Russian side is ready to cede control and influence over the NIS company to a third party," Handanovic wrote. She didn't indicate who the potential buyer may be. 

NIS is the latest Eastern European energy company to seek a new owner because of sanctions.

Bulgaria's parliament on Friday passed a law to let a major refinery owned by Russia's Lukoil come under state control.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban meanwhile has secured a one-year exemption from US sanctions so that his country can keep buying Russian oil.

Germany is sending an additional €40 million ($46.4 million) to Ukraine this winter as Russia attacks the war-torn country's energy infrastructure.

"We are helping to keep homes warm and lit, and to ensure that Russia does not succeed in breaking the morale of those defending their homeland,"

We are helping the people of Ukraine to endure another winter of war. We are helping them to keep their lights and heating on, and helping to prevent Russia and its targeted terror attacks on the civilian gas and heat supply from breaking the spirit of the defenders of their homeland," Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in Bolivia on his way to the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada.

The funds will cover the cost of repairs to heating systems and generators, as well as essential goods such as blankets and hygiene products.

Ukraine is facing its fourth winter of war, with temperatures plummeting to minus twenty degrees.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than twelve million people in Ukraine need help as strikes on power and water systems intensify.

Although Germany remains a key supporter of Ukraine, cuts to the Foreign Ministry's budget have reduced humanitarian aid to the country this year.

Editors note: This entry has been updated to include Wadephul's full quote and his correct location. 

Ukrainian authorities have dismissed the supervisory board of the state nuclear company Energoatom after an investigation was launched into alleged corrupt activity, Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on Telegram.

She also announced that a new audit of the company would be conducted.

On Monday, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) announced an investigation as the country prepares for another winter of widespread power outages.

Nuclear power is a key source of electricity generation in Ukraine.

Ukraine's army has pulled back from five villages in the southern Zaporizhzhia region following intense battles with Russian forces, the Army Group South said.

In a statement on Facebook on Tuesday, the Ukrainian command reported that positions northeast of Huliaipole — including the villages of Yablukove, Rivnopillia, and Solodke — had come under heavy artillery fire, leading to the "de facto destruction of all shelters and fortifications."

The withdrawal order was issued after sustained Russian attacks that military observers say resulted in a breakthrough along this stretch of the front. Moscow has claimed the capture of several settlements in the area.

Ukraine has been defending against Russia's invasion for more than three and a half years. In the eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, its forces have been gradually retreating under continued Russian pressure.

A Russian court has sentenced 18-year-old street musician Diana Loginova to another 13 days in jail for performing anti-war songs, marking her third consecutive detention amid an escalating crackdown on dissent.

Loginova, a music student who performs under the stage name Naoko, was arrested in St. Petersburg after staging impromptu concerts featuring songs by exiled artists Monetochka and Noize MC — both labeled "foreign agents" by Russian authorities.

Her performances went viral on social media, drawing large crowds and widespread online support. Since then, she has faced repeated short-term detentions, a pattern rights groups describe as "carousel arrests" — a tactic used to keep activists in custody through consecutive minor charges.

In the latest case, the court found her guilty of organizing an unauthorized public gathering. The band's guitarist, Alexander Orlov, received the same 13-day sentence.

Public criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine or of President Vladimir Putin remains outlawedin Russia under sweeping wartime censorship laws, which rights advocates have likened to Soviet-era repression.

The home of Ukranian Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko was searched on Tuesday as part of a wide-ranging corruption investigation into state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom.

Halushchenko, the former energy minister, said in a statement that he was "fully supporting law enforcement authorities to ensure a comprehensive, objective, and unbiased investigation."

Yesterday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) said it was investigation suspicions that Energoatom laundered around $100 million (€86 million) in bribes.

At least one of the suspects in the case is known to have had close ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his pre-politics days.

Authorities said that had made five arrests in relation to the case on Tuesday.

Moscow has denied reports from Western media that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has fallen out of favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin amidst a noticeable public abscence.

According to the reports, Lavrov landed himself in hot water after a disastrous call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended in a potential summit between Putin and President Donald Trump being nixed.

He has not been seen in public since October, and was noticeably absent from a televised meeting of top officials at the Kremlin last week. Lavrov was also not named as the Russian envoy to the G20 summit in South Africa later this month, meetings he regularly attends as Putin's proxy.

 "All these reports are absolutely false," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "When appropriate public events take place, then you will see him."

Lavrov has been in office for 21 years and is the longest-serving member of Putin's cabinet.

A Russian drone attack on Ukraine's major port city of Odesa damaged energy and transport infrastructure, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Tuesday.

At least one person was injured and multiple energy facilities reported fires.

"Critical infrastructure in the region is operating on generators, and emergency centers have been opened," Kiper said.

Moscow has repeatedly targeted energy hubs ahead of the cold winter months in successive years of its invasion.

The attacks on Odesa were part of a major strike that saw at least 400 drones downed overnight, according to the Ukrainian military.

Despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that the embattled town of Pokrovsk  remains in Ukrainian hands, Russian troops have been pushing hard into the former rail hub.

They reportedly tried to enter Pokrovsk on light vehicles, but were pushed back.

Ukraine's military said some 300 Russian soldiers were now in Pokrovsk, adding that they were now trying to reach the northern parts and encircle the remaining troops defending the town. 

Russia has been trying to take Pokrovsk for more than a year, as the city is at a strategically important crossroads and would provide Russian forces a base of operations to push deeper into Donetsk. It has been largely destroyed.

If the city falls, it would amount to a major victory for Russia, similar to the fall of Avdiivka in February 2024. The advance on Pokrovsk comes after a summer offensive yielded small and hard-won chunks of territory to Russia. 

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry has also claimed Russian forces now completely control the eastern section of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.

Today, Russia is claiming gains in embattled areas of eastern Ukraine.

Major drone attacks on the Ukrainian city of Odesa targeted energy infrastructure ahead of the cold winter months.

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