• Putin proposed a missile "duel" between the Oreshnik and US-made air defenses.
• He said Ukraine could concentrate its anti-missile systems in one spot and try to counter the new munition.
• In response, Ukraine's Zelenskyy called him a "dumbass."

Russian leader Vladimir Putin suggested on Thursday that an experimental "duel" be held between Moscow's newly unveiled Oreshnik missile and Western-made air defenses.

Speaking at his annual press conference, Putin slammed the idea that the Oreshnik could be shot down by anti-missile defenses.

"If the experts in the West think so, well, let them come up with a proposal to us, and to the US. They can suggest a kind of technological experiment, a kind of high-tech fighting duel of the 21st century," Putin said, per a translation of the conference.

Putin said both parties could agree upon a target in Kyiv, where Ukraine could "concentrate all of their air defense and anti-missile defense."

"We will strike it with Oreshnik and we will see what's going to happen. We are willing to conduct such an experiment," he said.

He also suggested that it could benefit the US by allowing the Pentagon to glean information from the strike.

"So let's conduct this duel and look at the outcome. It's going to be interesting because it's going to be useful both to us and the American side," he added.

Russia initially fired the Oreshnik in late November, hitting the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

The new missile, which appears to have its roots in the RS-26 Rubezh intermediate-range ballistic missile, was described by Putin as flying as fast as Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound.

That velocity makes it extremely difficult for anti-missile defenses to counter. The Oreshnik is also believed to deploy a cluster payload and is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Additionally, the missile's purported range allows it to hit any target in Europe. Russia has, in recent weeks, touted it as a new class of weapon in the Ukraine war.

Shortly after Putin's comment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to X to voice his disapproval of the "duel" proposal.

"People are dying, and he thinks it's 'interesting,'" Zelenskyy wrote on X on Thursday evening. "Dumbass."

US defenses vs Russian missiles

Ukraine has placed great emphasis on its need for US-made Patriot systems to protect its skies, and Zelenskyy has said his nation needs at least 25 of them. It's unclear exactly how many Patriot batteries Ukraine fields now, but it's been confirmed to have at least four systems donated by NATO members and another five on the way.

They're expensive to use. Each Patriot missile costs up to $6 million and even then, may struggle against advanced weapons maneuvering at the speeds Putin is advertising. These munitions, often called hypersonic missiles, have been a key concern for the Pentagon.

Notably, the Kinzhal, a previously much-hyped missile, was also touted by Russia as hypersonic and "unstoppable." But it has reportedly been downed dozens of times by Patriot batteries in Ukraine.

Still, the Kinzhal appears to be less advanced in maneuverability and glide potential than the Oreshnik and China's Dongfeng hypersonic missiles.

Meanwhile, Western experts still question how many Oreshnik missiles Russia has in its inventory, and the US calls it an experimental weapon. Moscow's strike on Dnipro was largely seen as a show of force, and the Pentagon has said it may launch a similar strike on Ukraine soon.

On Monday, Putin told state media that serial production of the Oreshnik would begin soon.

• North Korean troops are engaged in combat against Ukrainian forces, the White House said.
• They've had a rough start, and seem to lack experience with drones and working with Russians.
• This has led to reported losses, but analysts said they should be able to learn to adapt.

North Korean troops have engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, with media and intelligence reports suggesting they're off to a rough start.

Footage obtained by Radio Liberty on Monday showed Ukraine striking a group of soldiers, with sources telling the outlet that North Koreans were among them.

The same day, Ukrainian officials and soldiers told The Washington Post that North Korea's troops were operating in big groups out in the open, and were getting killed by drones they didn't realize were dangerous.

A senior US military official said this week that North Korea's dead and wounded could now be counted in the hundreds.

Military analysts told BI that, while the limited number of early reports makes it difficult to give a definitive assessment, they're not surprised by the reports.

"The North Koreans are taking apparently unnecessary casualties as they are rushed into combat without a period of training on the unique threats here," said Wallace Gregson, a former US Marine Corps officer and former assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

Uncharted territory

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that North Korean troops had moved to the front lines and were "actively engaged in combat operations."

Evans Revere, a senior advisor with Albright Stonebridge Group, said that while North Korean troops seemed "disciplined" and "tough," their lack of experience in ground combat and unfamiliarity with drone warfare was taking its toll.

He said that the reported casualty numbers suggest that North Korean forces are in the "thick of heavy fighting" and that "if the North Koreans continue to suffer casualties at this rate, they will very soon require fresh forces."

Revere also said their lack of Russian language and absence of experience in training and operating jointly with Russian forces seemed to be a problem.

On Saturday, Ukrainian intelligence said North Korean troops opened fire on Russian military vehicles, killing eight soldiers, due to a language barrier between the two forces.

Too early, too inexperienced

The last time North Korean troops really fought was during the Korean War, where fighting ended in 1953.

Gregson said that this time around, Russia may have thrown North Korean troops to the front in earlier waves of attacks, which he said usually include the "least-trained" soldiers.

He told BI that "high casualties" weren't unexpected, given their light infantry capabilities and the likely language barrier.

However, he said you needed to respect their "apparent courage and determination — and sacrifice — in a conflict not of their choosing far from their home."

Military analysts also said that the North Korean troops could soon adapt to the new battlefield conditions.

Revere said it won't be long before the North Koreans learn how to operate in this environment.

However, he said it's "still not clear" how well Russian and North Korean troops are operating in tandem, or whether Russian commanders are providing good leadership and guidance.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Thursday that Russian and North Korean forces were "almost certainly" experiencing difficulties, with North Korean troops struggling to integrate into Russia's command and control structure.

Another major issue is their unfamiliarity with modern battlefield warfare.

John Hardie, the deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the evidence so far suggests North Korean troops were unprepared for the drone threat.

But, he said, "I suspect they'll adapt with time and may have started doing so already."

Covering up deaths

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia has been trying to conceal North Korean deaths. In a nightly address on Monday, he claimed that Russian forces were burning the faces of killed soldiers to conceal their identity.

Revere said attempts to cover up the deaths were likely part of Russia's effort to avoid admitting to the Russian people that the country lacks the ability to defeat Ukraine by itself.

North Korea has also often been the object of ridicule in Russia, he added, "so for the Russians to have to admit their need for DPRK support would be embarrassing."

For North Korea, the stakes are also high.

Bruce W. Bennett, a defense researcher and North Korea specialist at RAND, said that Kim Jong Un is taking risks by sending troops to support Russia, especially potential elite-class military personnel.

He said that Kim is unlikely to want to return the bodies of those killed to their families, fearing potential instability inside North Korea.

"Kim will likely prefer that the soldiers who are killed simply disappear," he said.

• Trump and his team have signaled opposition to some of Ukraine's recent attacks on Russian soil.
• Trump's Ukraine envoy said this week that the killing of a Russian general was outside the rules of war.
• Trump has also criticized Biden's decision to allow strikes on Russia using US-supplied missiles.

In a worrying sign for Ukraine, the incoming Trump administration has signaled its disapproval of recent attacks on Russian soil, including long-range strikes and the assassination of a top general in Moscow using a scooter bomb.

President-elect Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, said on Wednesday that Ukraine's claimed killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov this week was contrary to the rules of war.

Kirillov, who headed up Russia's chemical, nuclear, and biological protection troops, was killed by a bomb planted on a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday. Ukraine has claimed responsibility.

Speaking on Fox Business, Kellogg said, "There are rules of warfare and there are certain things you just kind of don't do."

He added: "When you're killing flag officers, general officers, admirals or generals in their hometown, it's kind of like you've extended it, and I don't think it's really smart to do it."

Russia said it had arrested a man in connection with the killing, saying he was suspected of a "terrorist attack," the BBC reported.

Kellogg said the events wouldn't be a setback for any peace talks.

The US State Department said it was unaware of the plot, with an unnamed official saying the US doesn't support this kind of action, according to Agence France-Presse.

Kellogg's remarks come after President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that the decision to allow Ukraine to make long-range strikes on Russia with US-supplied missiles was "stupid," and that he might reverse it once in office.

"I don't think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia," he said. "I think that was a bad thing."

Trump claimed that the decision prompted North Korea to send troops to fight alongside Russia, though intelligence agencies said that North Korean troops were being deployed at least two weeks before the Biden administration's decision.

He also said that the Biden administration should have asked for his opinion "weeks before I take over."

"Why would they do that without asking me what I thought?" he added.

Trump has repeatedly stated he would end the war in Ukraine, without publicly saying how he would achieve it.

Plans under discussion have included establishing a demilitarized zone in the areas occupied by Russia and requiring a pledge from Ukraine not to join NATO, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.

In an interview with Le Parisien on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his stance that ceding territory to Russia in any talks would be unacceptable, along with any promise not to join NATO.

• Gazprom's share price hit a 15-year low amid ongoing export challenges to Europe.
• It comes after the company posted its first annual loss since 1999 in May.
• The EU is pushing to phase out its use of Russian gas, impacting Gazprom's European market share.

Gazprom's share price tumbled to a new low on Wednesday, the latest episode in a calamitous year for the Russian state-owned energy juggernaut.

According to Russian outlet RBC, Gazprom's 106.1-ruble share price on Tuesday represented its lowest value since January 2009. As of Wednesday, the share price had dropped further to 105.75 rubles.

In comparison, just before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Gazprom's share price hovered around 300 rubles.

Analysts speaking to RBC attributed the slide to broader market factors as well as roadblocks in Gazprom's ability to export gas to Europe, as the continent doubles down on its commitment to end its dependence on Russian energy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In May, Gazprom posted its first annual loss since 1999, and its share price immediately dropped by 4.4%. It continued to tumble through June, to a then-low of around 113 rubles.

The dreary May report reflected Gazprom's "loss of a significant share of the European gas market," Katja Yafimava, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Business Insider.

Impact of Russia's war

Prior to 2022, Europe sourced around 40% of its natural gas from Russia. In June, a Gazprom report seen by the Financial Times said that it would take a decade for the company to recoup losses caused by the war in Ukraine.

Compounding the concerns, an agreement to transit Russian gas via Ukraine is set to end on January 1, 2025.

In September, European Commissioner Kadri Simson said that the EU is "fully committed" to phasing out Russian gas via the Ukraine pipeline. "We started preparing two years ago," she said.

The move away from Russian gas is not without its headaches for EU countries, and Slovakia is leading efforts from some affected countries to stop this flow running out.

On Monday, following a meeting with Slovakia's prime minister, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reiterated what the country had been signaling for some time: that it has no interest in renewing the deal.

He added, however, that Ukraine is open to the transit of gas from other sources.

Yafimava told BI that "the transit question is still hanging in the balance," but a recent decision by Austrian energy company OMV to cut ties with Gazprom amid a thorny contract dispute has "arguably weakened" its chances of continuing.

OMV's decision earlier this month was a historic blow to Gazprom, with the company among the first in Western Europe to import and invest in Russian gas during the Soviet era.

Industry experts told Business Insider this month that the end of the OMV deal was a significant indicator of Europe's success in weaning itself off Russian energy, one that would have been unthinkable before the invasion of Ukraine.

Even so, Gazprom's problems in Europe are not a death knell for the company, Yafimava said.

Gazprom can stay afloat thanks to the large domestic gas market in Russia, she said, adding that the blow had been cushioned by sharply increased gas prices.

Gazprom needs to find new markets "while the cushion lasts," she added.

One option ahead for it is an agreement over Power of Siberia 2, a Russia-China pipeline that would sharply increase exports to China. "In my view, this will eventually happen," Yafimava said.

• Trump's return to power comes as Ukraine struggles to stop Russia's advance.
• Trump says he'll move quickly to end the war, but Russia may be disinclined to negotiate now.
• Here are four scenarios for how the war could play out.

With the Russia-Ukraine war nearing its fourth year, attention is turning to President-elect Donald Trump and how his return to power may affect the conflict.

Trump looms as a distressing question mark for Ukraine, which has leaned into personal diplomacy to make its case in the weeks since his election. As a candidate, Trump called the war "a loser" and vowed to end it in 24 hours without saying how he would do so.

The US has provided the bulk of international security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, committing more than $60 billion so far. Drastic cuts or zeroing of this could enable Russia to achieve the decisive breakthrough it has so far been denied.

As both Kyiv and Moscow scramble to place their respective sides in the best possible position ahead of any changes Trump's administration may bring, Business Insider has taken a look at four ways the war could play out.

A cease-fire deal and frozen lines

The possibility of a temporary halt to the fighting has received renewed attention with Trump's reelection.

Trump, who has pledged to bring the war to a swift end when he returns to office, took to Truth Social on December 8 to call for an immediate cease-fire and the start of negotiations.

"Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness," he said, adding: "It can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act."

In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has long rejected the idea of ceding land to end the war, suggested such a deal could be achieved if unoccupied parts of Ukraine came "under the NATO umbrella."

"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine could then "get back the other part of its territory diplomatically."

John Lough, an associate fellow at Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Programme, told Business Insider that Ukraine was seemingly moving away from its "maximal position" of getting back all its occupied territory but that it would want "credible security guarantees from the West."

However, with Western nations reluctant to provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin with binding commitments to Ukraine, the most likely outcome was the war being "frozen" roughly where it is now, he continued, adding that a "settlement is just too ambitious at this stage."

Many analysts say any peace deal is likely to be fragile. Russia seized Crimea in 2014 by force before launching a broader invasion in 2022. Putin, furthermore, has repeatedly called Ukraine's independence fictional, and many observers worry a pause of a few years will allow Russia to train more troops and stockpile more weapons ahead of another offensive.

Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told BI that any peace deal brokered by Trump would likely involve some form of territorial concession.

"It's hard to imagine that it would be stable," Cancian said. "It's easy to imagine another war in a couple of years."

Long-term war

Another possibility is that Russia refuses to compromise and the fighting continues. War experts with the Institute for the Study of War think tank, for example, have repeatedly argued that Russian leaders believe they are winning on the battlefield and are not likely to seriously pursue negotiations while that continues.

In such a scenario, Ukraine would require significant levels of continued Western aid, which could be a hard sell for Kyiv. Both Trump and the vice president-elect, JD Vance, have been openly skeptical of US support for Ukraine under the Biden administration.

It would also put further strain on Ukraine's manpower as well as its economy, which is already facing "intensifying" headwinds, as the International Monetary Fund said in a September update.

While Russia, too, is facing its own economic issues — the Russian central bank raised its key interest rate to 21% in October in an effort to combat high inflation — some analysts have said Moscow could go for years before it has to confront its overspending.

"For Ukraine, the long war is nothing short of disastrous," James Nixey, the director of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Programme, wrote in February. "The country cannot recruit anything like the numbers Russia can press into service. It also places greater value on human life than its opponent, meaning it inevitably suffers more from a protracted war of attrition."

However, a long war is likely to strain Russia's military resources. Moscow is losing armored vehicles at what may be an unsustainable pace, and it may need another round of mobilization to continue replacing its troop losses.

Russian victory

Putin wanted a swift military victory when his forces launched the full-scale invasion.

Almost three years later, that goal has been well and truly quashed, but Moscow could still claim victory — which would likely mean occupying more of Ukraine and toppling Zelenskyy in favor of a deferential head-of-state.

For Kyiv, a worst-case scenario would see its forces' frontlines collapse due to a lack of resources or a shift in international support, Cancian said.

In such an instance, Ukraine would likely be forced into ceding large chunks of territory, with "everything east of" the Dnipro potentially coming under Russian control through either annexation or effective oversight, he added.

Russian forces have been advancing in eastern Ukraine in recent months, straining Ukrainian defenses and compounding Kyiv's much-reported manpower shortage.

While Russia itself continues to suffer high casualties, it has been able to draw on vastly superior numbers while also adding extra recruits from North Korea to support its offensives.

Moscow has also appeared intent on avoiding distractions and keeping its focus on events in Ukraine, putting up little support to help its ally Bashar Assad as his regime collapsed in Syria — despite Russia's important military bases in the country.

In addition, Kyiv is now facing serious uncertainty in the form of Trump's imminent return, with some fearing he could cut aid to the country.

In a recent interview with Time Magazine, the president-elect said he wanted to "reach an agreement" rather than abandon Ukraine, but he added that he strongly disagreed with Biden's decision in November to allow the use of US-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russia, which Kyiv had long coveted.

"I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia," Trump said. "Why are we doing that? We're just escalating this war and making it worse."

Ukrainian victory and Russian retreat

Ukrainians had harbored hope of winning the war after some notable early successes, such as the liberation of Kharkiv in 2022, Ukrainian journalist Svitlana Morenets said.

And while Putin's grip on power seems strong, the conflict has exposed some of the largest fissures since he came to power, such as the armed rebellion by Wagner mercenaries and protests over mobilization.

Russia's government is "authoritarian and it has control over the media, but it's still sensitive to public opinion," Cancian said, adding that it had likely avoided another round of mobilization as it did not want to "stir up domestic opposition," despite needing the manpower.

Washington has also pointed to North Korea's involvement in the war as a sign of the Kremlin's "desperation" and "weakness."

But with Trump's goal of achieving a quick end to the fighting, Russia's continued gains in the east, and Kyiv facing dwindling resources and drooping morale, an outright Ukrainian victory seems off the cards for now.

Seth Jones, the president of the Defense and Security Department at CSIS, previously told BI that as long as Putin is in charge, it would be highly improbable that Russia's forces would retreat entirely. A Russian defeat, however, may threaten Putin's hold on power.

• Ukraine said that North Korean troops had accidentally killed 8 Russian soldiers in Kursk.
• Ukrainian intelligence said it was a "friendly fire" incident caused by a language barrier.
• Experts previously told BI that language issues would pose a challenge for the military alliance.

Eight Russian soldiers were killed by North Korean forces in a recent "friendly fire" incident in Kursk, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

North Korean soldiers opened fire on Russian military vehicles, Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said on Saturday, attributing it to a language barrier between the two forces.

It didn't say when the incident took place, but added that language barriers continue to be a "difficult obstacle" for Russian and North Korean personnel, per The Kyiv Independent's translation.

Business Insider could not independently verify the report.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine, officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the US have said.

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America last month that the number could reach 15,000, with troops rotated out every two to three months. He said a cumulative 100,000 North Korean soldiers could serve in Russia within a year.

Experts on the relationship between the two states have previously said that the language difference between North Korean and Russian soldiers would be a key logistical issue.

Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an expert in North Korean defense at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, told BI that though the two countries have historical ties, they rarely learn each other's language.

"To conduct combat operations with an allied force that doesn't speak your language presents real problems," he said.

North Korean soldiers have been sent to aid Russian forces in Kursk, an area of Russia that was partially occupied by Ukraine in August.

The North Korean soldiers are reported to have been scattered across various Russian units and had already come under Ukrainian fire as of early November.

Audio intercepted by Defense Intelligence of Ukraine in October suggested a chaotic start to the Russia-North Korea partnership, not least because of language difficulties.

In the intercepted audio, a Russian soldier complained about leaders having "no fucking clue" what to do with the new troops and remarked that they had been allocated one interpreter per 30 soldiers.

The soldiers reportedly killed in the friendly fire incident were from the Ahmat battalion, Ukrainian intelligence said — a group under the control of Chechen warlord and Putin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.

"Kadyorovites," as they are known, have been fighting in Kursk since August, according to reports.

Ukraine initially seized a large swathe of Kursk in its surprise cross-border raid — around 500 square miles — but Russian forces have retaken about 40% of that land, a senior Ukrainian military source told Reuters in late November.

• FIFA, soccer's world governing body, is facing backlash over a map it showed of Ukraine.
• The map appeared to show Ukraine without Crimea as part of it.
• A spokesperson for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry demanded a public apology from FIFA.

FIFA, soccer's world governing body, is facing backlash after showing a map that appeared to omit Crimea from Ukrainian territory.

The map, which was shown during a 2026 World Cup qualifying draw earlier this week, was designed to show countries that cannot be drawn to play against each other for geopolitical reasons, such as Ukraine and Belarus.

However, the graphic appeared to highlight Ukraine but without Crimea as part of it.

In response, Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on X: "Are you OK, @FIFAcom?"

"By redrawing international borders in yesterday's broadcast, you not only acted against international law, but also supported Russian propaganda, war crimes, and the crime of aggression against Ukraine," he continued, adding that Ukraine expected "a public apology."

He said they had also "fixed" the map for FIFA and shared another version of it with Crimea highlighted.

In a statement to Business Insider, FIFA said it was "aware of an issue, which affected one of the graphics displayed during the draw and addressed the situation with the federation."

"The segment has been removed," it added.

The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) said it had written to FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström and UEFA Secretary General Theodore Theodoridis about the matter.

"We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the infographic map of Europe shown during the TV broadcast of the European Qualifiers draw," the letter reads.

"We emphasize that the version of the map presented by FIFA during the global broadcast to a multi-million audience is unacceptable," it continues. "It appears as an inconsistent stance by FIFA and UEFA on this crucial issue, especially in light of the ongoing destructive invasion initiated by Russia against Ukraine in the 21st century, in the heart of Europe."

Business Insider contacted the UAF for comment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long vowed to end Russia's occupation of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

The peninsula — the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet — holds great strategic importance for the Kremlin, and it has been a major target for Kyiv since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.

The 2026 World Cup is set to take place across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Ukraine is in qualifying group D, where it is set to face off against Iceland, Azerbaijan, and the winners of the France vs. Croatia Nations League quarter-final.

FIFA this week confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup.

• A series of NATO air policing missions around Estonia has seen F-35 and Rafale jets called into action.
• French Rafale jets intercepted a Russian IL-18 aircraft off Estonia's coast on Friday.
• Dutch F-35s intercepted three Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea last week.

A series of recent NATO air policing missions around Estonia has seen Dutch and French fighter jets called into action to intercept Russian aircraft.

Two French Rafale jets intercepted a Russian Ilyushin Il-18 airliner off the coast of Estonia on Friday, the General Staff of the French Armed Forces said in a post on X.

NATO Air Command said the mission was the Rafale's first scramble since it began an air policing mission based out of Šiauliai, Lithuania.

It comes after Dutch F-35 fighter jets intercepted a number of Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea last week.

The Dutch defense ministry said two F-35s stationed in Estonia were scrambled after three Russian planes — an Antonov An-72, a Su-24, and an Ilyushin Il-20 — were identified in the region.

Dutch F-35s have been keeping a watch over NATO airspace on the alliance's eastern flank since the start of December, the ministry said.

It's not the first time such an incident has occurred in recent months.

Norwegian F-35s were called into action in November in response to Russian aircraft "not adhering to international norms" off the coast of Norway, NATO's Air Command said at the time.

Italy's air force also intercepted a Russian Coot-A plane flying over the Baltic Sea on the same day.

The Rafale

The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-jet fighter aircraft that can operate from both an aircraft carrier and a land base.

It entered service with the French Navy in 2004 and with the French Air Force in 2006.

It is used to carry out a variety of missions, including air policing, deep strikes, and reconnaissance, according to the manufacturer.

The F-35

The F-35, which is billed as the "most advanced fighter jet in the world" by manufacturer Lockheed Martin, has faced criticism from Elon Musk.

The Tesla CEO said on X in late November that the jet's design "was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people."

"This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes," Musk wrote, adding: "And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed."

Some reports have suggested that Musk may be eyeing the F-35 program, and possibly other fighter jets, for potential spending cuts through his role in the Department of Government Efficiency.

Although he would likely face an uphill battle to do so, as Business Insider previously reported.

• Russia is dispatching four ships to its bases in Syria, per Ukraine's main intelligence directorate.
• They will evacuate weapons and military equipment from its key base in Tartus, they said.
• Russia is trying to secure a deal with Syria's new leadership to keep the bases, per reports.

Russia is sending four ships to its bases in Syria to evacuate weapons and military equipment, according to Ukraine's main intelligence directorate (GUR).

In a Telegram post on Thursday, the GUR said that Russia was moving its Ivan Gren-class large landing ship and the Ropucha-class tank landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak from the Norwegian Sea to Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

Their mission, it said, is to evacuate weapons and equipment.

It also said the Russian Sparta and Sparta II cargo ships left Baltiysk, Kaliningrad Oblast, and St Petersburg, respectively, and are heading to Tartus to transport military equipment from the Russian base.

The trips are long voyages, requiring the ships to sail long stretches of European coastline to access the Mediterranean.

Russia was a close ally of Syria's recently-toppled ruler Bashar Assad. It struck a 49-year lease with his government for two bases in Syria — the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base — which it has used since 2017 to project power in the Mediterranean and into Africa.

However, these bases have come under threat after Syrian rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, overthrew Assad on Sunday and formed a transitional government.

On Sunday, Russia's foreign ministry said it was maintaining contact with "all" Syrian opposition groups, adding that while Russia's Syrian bases are on high alert, there's no serious threat to their security at the moment.

The TASS state news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying that Russia established direct contact with HTS in Damascus.

Sources familiar with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Thursday that talks were taking place for Russian forces to stay at the bases and that Russia was nearing a deal with Syria's new leadership.

Images taken this week by Maxar Technologies and obtained by Business Insider on Tuesday showed Russian aircraft still present at the Hmeimim Air Base, but warships no longer stationed at its nearby naval facility in Tartus.

Videos captured by The Times of London's Middle East correspondent on Friday showed Russian trucks entering the Hmeimim Air Base.

On Thursday, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War said Russia's ships may be on the move as a precaution in case it needs more comprehensive evacuations.

They also said that it would probably take weeks for the Russian ships to get to Tartus.

• An Austrian gas company ended its historic relationship with Russia's Gazprom.
• Austria framed the move as defiance against Russian energy blackmail attempts.
• It's a key step in Europe's thorny path to gaining energy independence from Russia.

A European gas supplier ended a decades-long contract with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy juggernaut.

Analysts are hailing the decision as a sign of Europe moving to be more resilient in its energy supplies.

The Austrian gas conglomerate OMV announced on Wednesday that it was cutting ties with Gazprom over a protracted contract dispute, ending its dealings with Russia.

OMV was one of the last large, long-term buyers of Russian gas.

"Huge, positive development. Russia is in trouble," political scientist Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, wrote on X about the collapse of the deal.

The termination of the 34-year contract comes after months of wrangling between the two companies, in which Gazprom switched off the gas supply to OMV last month.

Austria's government — which owns 31.5% of OMV — framed the move as defiance against Russian attempts to blackmail the country, a common refrain from European leaders.

Austria's chancellor, Karl Nehammer, wrote on X on Wednesday: "Russia wanted to use energy as a weapon against us — that didn't work," adding: "Austria cannot be blackmailed by Russia!"

Austria has a secure energy supply, he added.

The news is a blow to Gazprom and, despite rising prices, is one sign of success on Europe's rocky path to wean itself off energy dependence on Russia, industry experts told Business Insider.

Dmitrij Ljubinskij, Russia's ambassador to Austria, denied in an interview with Ivzestia that Russia uses energy as a tool of pressure and said that OMV's move would not go unanswered.

Gazprom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A calculated move?

Gazprom's supply to OMV and Austria — which comes via Ukraine — was not likely to be there for long anyway.

Ukraine has long signaled that it will not renew an agreement, which expires in January, to allow Russian gas to transit its pipelines.

Jack Sharples, a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Business Insider that OMV had likely been eyeing the Ukrainian decision, in parallel to the Gazprom dispute, for some time, and preparing alternative suppliers.

"There were significant risks to transit as a result of the Ukrainian transit deal ending in January, so canceling the deal seems a good idea," Tom Edwards, a modeler at the energy-market analysis company Cornwall Insight, told BI.

OMV now says its gas storage is at around 85%, and that it's well positioned to supply gas from alternative sources.

A feud entangled deep in the Ukraine war

OMV's announcement ends a historic partnership. It was among the first Western European, non-socialist companies to import gas and invest in Soviet Russia in the 1960s.

It signed its 34-year contract with Gazprom to supply Austria with gas in 2006, signaling a relationship of trust that showed signs of breaking down with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

By March that year, the company announced it would no longer invest in Russia, but kept up its long-term supply relationship.

A Brookings Institute report from June highlighted that remaining tie as one of the many issues Europe still faced in decoupling, saying any break would be fraught with risk.

But a long-running, separate contract dispute sowed the seeds. A subsidiary of OMV had a smaller contract with Gazprom to supply gas to Germany via the Nord Stream undersea pipelines.

In summer 2022, Gazprom said that newly-imposed sanctions were preventing it from accessing key parts needed to drive the pipe's turbine.

That supply petered out and then stopped. Infamously, it never restarted after the attack on Nord Stream a few months later.

OMV went to commercial arbitration over the lack of supply to Germany, and in November was awarded 230 million euros, or about $240 million, plus interest and costs.

It said it would offset this award "against payments to be made by OMV to Gazprom Export under its Austrian gas supply contract."

Gas prices jumped 5% at the news, reaching a new high for the year. Three days later, Gazprom shut off the supply to Austria.

Europe is — slowly — weaning itself off Russian gas

The start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine stiffened political will across Europe to end dependency on Russian energy — something few could have foreseen, Sharples said.

Before 2022, Europe got around 40% of its imported natural gas from Russia.

"I think if you had asked European gas market analysts back in 2021, could the European market cope with losing 80% of what it gets from Gazprom via pipelines? We'd have said no, it would be horrendous," he said.

The landscape has changed significantly, Sharples said.

Over the last years, Europe has invested more not only in alternative suppliers but also the integration of its distribution system, meaning it can more flexibly respond to shortages, he said.

There are still many difficulties. A Chatham House analysis from this year pointed out that some replacement imports are Russian gas being "laundered" via third states.

And as of 2024, gas prices are still higher than they were before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sharples said.

But the market has reacted with both a reduction in demand and the seeking out of alternative supplies, he said.

"What has actually happened is that European gas demand has come down by a fifth, and we've ramped up our imports of LNG from the global market," he said.

"There's no doubt that Gazprom has lost a huge chunk of its revenues by losing these export volumes to Europe," he said.

The impact on Russia

"Gazprom has lost a substantial share of its gas sector revenues since February 2022, and the loss of the Austrian market is another chip away at those revenues," Sharples said.

"It's not make-or-break for Gazprom, but it certainly doesn't help."

There's also a domestic impact — the Russian government derives much of its tax revenue from energy sales and also uses the funding from Europe to subsidize domestic gas prices, Sharples said.

• Ukraine is making videos and dropping leaflets on North Korean troops to get them to surrender.
• North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to help Russia in its war against Ukraine, per sources.
• "Many see it as a chance to escape the regime," the project's spokesman told Euronews.

Ukraine is trying to persuade North Korean soldiers to surrender rather than fight alongside Russia.

Ukrainian intelligence services have been distributing leaflets via drones and projectiles, and making videos urging North Korean troops to desert, according to Euronews.

Vitality Matvienko, spokesperson for the "I Want to Live" project, told Euronews that "of course, not everyone wants to fight."

"We know very well the living conditions in North Korea," he said. "Therefore, many see it as a chance to escape the regime and go to another country."

Ukraine is carrying out its efforts under "I Want to Live," a service that has facilitated Russian soldiers' surrender. In October 2022, Russia blocked access to its hotline and chatbot, though it is still accessible in the country via VPN.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine, per officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the US.

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America last month that the number could reach 15,000, with troops rotated out every two to three months, with a cumulative 100,000 North Korean soldiers serving in Russia within a year.

Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project told Business Insider the leaflets state that Kim Il Sung — North Korea's founder — does not want North Korean soldiers to fight for Russian "imperialists."

The leaflets also contain step-by-step instructions on how to surrender, with guarantees and benefits for those prisoners of war, it said.

It declined to disclose other methods being used to convince North Korean troops to surrender.

"I Want to Live" posted a video on its Telegram channel earlier this month showing a North Korean volunteer in the Ukrainian armed forces calling on his countrymen to take their chance.

"We will not just welcome you but help you start a new life," he said. "Support, work, and the opportunity to live a decent life are waiting for you here. Even money, so you can start your way with a clean slate."

The text accompanying the video said Ukraine guaranteed all prisoners humane treatment. "Far away from 'Big Brother,' who watches over all the inhabitants of North Korea, it is a sin not to take advantage of this unique opportunity," it said.

In October, Ukraine's military intelligence agency put out a statement with the promise of providing comfortable beds and warm meals to North Korean soldiers who surrendered.

It also published a Korean-language video showcasing its prisoner-of-war camps, as well as the meals served there.

Last month, South Korean intelligence estimated that Russia was paying about $2,000 a month for each soldier.

But Bruce W. Bennett, a defense researcher and North Korea specialist at RAND, told BI that he suspects the money is going directly to North Korea's ruling elite.

"Perhaps only a small amount or even nothing" will go to the soldiers themselves, he said.

• Ukraine sent drones and drone operators to Syrian rebel forces, The Washington Post reported.
• Groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew Bashar Assad's decades-old rule on Sunday.
• The Ukrainian aid played a modest role in toppling him, Western intel sources told the outlet.

Ukrainian intelligence supplied Syrian rebels with about 150 drones and 20 drone operators last month, shortly before the offensive that toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad last week, The Washington Post reported, citing sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities.

Ukraine's aid was sent four to five weeks ago by Ukrainian intelligence operatives as part of efforts to weaken Russia and its Syrian allies in the region, sources familiar with Ukraine's operations abroad told the Post.

Business Insider was unable to independently verify the report.

The military aid played a modest role in ousting Assad, Western intelligence sources told the outlet.

On Sunday, Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew Assad after a lightning two-week campaign that caught the world off guard and ended Assad's 24-year rule.

The Post's report would be in keeping with Ukraine's efforts to undermine Russia's influence abroad.

Earlier this year, The Kyiv Post published videos that it said showed Ukrainian special forces interrogating Russian mercenaries in Sudan, and special forces fighting side by side with Syrian rebels against Russian mercenaries and Assad's forces.

A source within Ukraine's military intelligence agency told the outlet in June that since the start of the year, Ukrainian operatives had supported Syrian rebels in inflicting "numerous" strikes on Russian military facilities in the region.

In September, the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan reported comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Ukrainian intelligence emissaries in Idlib, in Syria's northwest, were conducting "new dirty operations" and recruiting rebel fighters there.

Last month, Alexander Lavrentyev, Russia's special envoy to Syria, told Russian state news agency TASS that Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence was arming "terrorists" in Idlib and that Ukrainian specialists were present there.

Ukraine's intelligence services didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

Alexander Libman, a professor of Russian and East European politics at the Free University of Berlin, told BI that if Ukraine is confirmed to have sent drones and drone operators to Syria, it would be surprising given how "problematic" the situation is in eastern Ukraine.

"I am not sure Ukraine can gain a lot by engaging in these types of operations," Libman said. "Rather, it will simply waste resources it needs to fight the war on Ukrainian soil itself."

The collapse of Assad, however, could jeopardize Russia's military footprint in Syria, where it could lose control over the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base.

Russia has used those bases to project power in the Mediterranean and into Africa, and as a counter to NATO's southern flank.

Satellite images taken earlier this week by Maxar Technologies, obtained by BI, show Russian aircraft still present at Hmeimim, but Russian warships no longer present at Tartus.

• Igor Krasnov, Russia's prosecutor-general, says the country's bribery problem is getting worse.
• He told state media that 30,000 officials were disciplined for corruption in 2024.
• Bribes are up at least 30% since 2023, with hundreds of companies fined for offering payoffs, he said.

Russia's prosecutor-general said on Monday that detections of corruption among officials have jumped this year, with a 30% increase in bribery cases compared to 2023.

Igor Krasnov told state media that almost 30,000 Russian officials were caught and disciplined for breaking anti-graft rules in 2024.

Of that total, 500 were fired for "loss of trust," Krasnov said.

Krasnov said that at least half of all corruption cases involved bribery and that almost 19,000 such crimes were discovered in the first nine months of 2024.

That's nearly as many as the 20,300 bribery cases his office found in 2023, Krasnov added.

"This year, the number of such crimes has increased by more than 30%, exceeding 6,600 cases," he said.

According to Krasnov, about 760 billion rubles worth of funds and property have been confiscated in the last five years from officials accused of corruption. That's worth about $7.6 billion today.

About 200 companies were fined in the first half of 2024 for trying to bribe officials, the prosecutor-general also said.

Analysts from the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said systemic corruption in Russia is likely to exacerbate its economic burdens from fighting the Ukraine war.

"Russia's mounting economic pressures stemming from the war, paired with widespread corruption, labor shortages, and inefficiencies in Russia's DIB, will likely compound the cost of Russia's war and further undermine its ability to effectively sustain DIB operations while maintaining economic stability," wrote the ISW.

DIB refers to the defense industrial base, a network of companies and manufacturers that provides governments with weapons and military equipment.

The ruble has already weakened considerably since the war began and now trades at about 100 against the US dollar, compared to about 75 against the dollar before March 2022. With international sanctions hemming Russia in, the country's leader, Vladimir Putin, has pushed its economy and government spending heavily toward defense manufacturing, recruitment, and payments to families of troops.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated on Saturday that Russia has "squandered" over $200 billion on invading Ukraine.

"Russia has paid a staggering price for Putin's folly," Austin said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

He also said the war has killed or wounded at least 700,000 Russian troops.

Russia's defense ministry has historically struggled with corruption. While the extent of graft within the organization is difficult to determine, it emerges to the fore sometimes when top officials are ousted.

In June, for example, five senior figures in the Russian military, including a former deputy defense minister, were arrested on corruption charges.

The charges came just after Sergei Shoigu, the country's longtime defense minister, was replaced.

Some analysts, such as Mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the think tank Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider at the time that they believed the arrests could be connected to Shoigu's replacement.

• Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles this fall, per The Wall Street Journal.
• Ukraine has used a combination of air defense systems and electronic warfare to counter the attacks.
• To overcome these tactics, Russia is increasing its use of decoy drones against Ukraine.

Russia fired four times as many drones and missiles at Ukraine in the past three months compared to the same time a year ago, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Using data from the Ukrainian Air Force Command, the report said that Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles in the war during September, October, and November.

Ukraine has used a combination of air defense missile systems and electronic warfare technology to counter Russia's attacks.

However, Russia has used a variety of tactics to overcome Ukrainian air defenses, including hitting Ukraine with a variety of drones and missiles at the same time.

It has also been using unarmed, fake drones in swarm attacks, Kyiv's military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, wrote in a statement shared to the Telegram messaging app in November.

These drones are smaller and cheaper than the Iranian-made Shahed-136 one-way attack drone that is often used by Russia against Ukraine.

Named "Parody" by the Ukrainians, the decoy drones apparently mimic the radar signature of a Shahed to mislead Kyiv's air defenses.

Analysts believe the record drone strikes may be designed to damage Ukraine's air defenses ahead of a major attack on the country's energy infrastructure.

"The Ukrainians are going to have a difficult winter," George Barros, team lead for Russia and geospatial intelligence at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) told Sky News.

"They're very resilient and they've found ways to mitigate the effect of Russian attacks, but at the same time the Russians have also learnt — they've managed to find more effective and creative ways of penetrating Ukraine's air defense."

On Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 28 out of 74 drones launched by Russia in a night attack targeting Ukraine. A further 46 drones were "lost," the air force said.

Russia has also been stepping up its use of missiles. Late last month, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced more details of the'Oreshnik' hypersonic missile, days after it was first used to strike a munitions factory in Ukraine's Dnipro region.

He said the destructive elements of the missile reach over 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it had been used as a response to Ukraine's Western allies allowing their long-range missiles to be used against Russia.

On April 27, 2023, Diana Kulyk's father told her he was leaving the next day to start training to fight Russia. She was filled with dread but knew she needed to act. Her hands shaking, Kulyk, a 24-year-old only child, tried to type the perfect tweet that would convince her roughly 20,000 followers to donate more than $3,000 for equipment that would help keep her father alive.

"Hello, this is the most important tweet I have ever written," she began. "I'm Diana Kulyk, daughter of Ruslan Kulyk. My father is a simple man, a baker by profession, a human being full of love and care. The person who took care of me since I came into this world. He needs help." Beneath the text were two images: a selfie of Diana and Ruslan smiling under golden-hour sunlight, and a spreadsheet of equipment she'd determined her father needed for the battlefield, including steel body armor, a tactical headset, a ballistic helmet, and a sleep mat.

Diana had already raised about $30,000 over the previous year to buy protective gear for childhood friends fighting in Ukraine. Within two hours of posting about her father, she had raised enough to buy all 21 items on the spreadsheet. The donors came from all over: Ukraine, the United States, Germany, England.

Watching the donations flood in, Diana was overwhelmed. "It was a really weird moment," she says. "You are so scared, but also you see everyone coming together to help you. It gives you hope."

Diana's efforts are part of an immense crowdfunding movement helping fuel Ukraine's fight against Russia's far larger and more advanced military. The Ukrainian government has its own crowdsourcing platforms, like United24, which has raised more than $761 million to pay for things like ambulances and demining equipment and to reconstruct destroyed buildings. Individual military units are using social media to campaign for the specific gear they need on the front lines. The 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, for example, has used Instagram to gather donations for reconnaissance drones, generators, and night-vision goggles. And thousands of volunteers are raising funds to directly supply their loved ones on the battlefield with walkie-talkies, combat boots, Starlink internet satellites, medical supplies, ammunition, tanks, and phone chargers.

People have crowdfunded wars throughout history. In World War II, the Supermarine Spitfire, a British fighter aircraft, was largely financed by bake sales and fundraisers at primary schools. But never have funds been raised so easily, quickly, widely, and strategically by civilians and individual troops, says Keir Giles, a defense expert at the think tank Chatham House. "That's a big advantage," he says. With the modern tools of social media, influencer marketing tactics, crowdfunding platforms, and frontline postal services, "units can campaign for precisely the equipment and weapons they need and have them delivered."

Benjamin Jensen, a war-strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, describes this crowdfunding as a "game changer." People around the world, he says, are directly "buying commercial off-the-shelf capability to enhance combat power on the battlefield," often acting much more nimbly than the military.

Crowdfunding is also increasingly critical. While Western nations have contributed nearly $300 billion worth of aid, Ukraine's military has repeatedly suffered from shortages of key weaponry and defense equipment. Three grueling years in, several countries and leaders are weighing whether they'll continue their support — including the United States and President-elect Donald Trump, a frequent critic of US aid to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government said last year that crowdfunding accounted for 3% of the country's total military spending. To win the war, that number may need to climb. But fundraisers are struggling with fatigue among citizen donors and are getting creative to keep up funds and morale.

Before the war, Ruslan Kulyk was a pastry chef who made wedding cakes in Spain, where the family immigrated when Diana was young. When the wedding industry slowed in the winter, he visited family in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region. On February 24, 2022, he was preparing to return to Spain when Vladimir Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion. Landlocked and infuriated, he joined his nephew at the military registration office. Recruiters enlisted his nephew but turned Ruslan away. "I wasn't prepared and was 50 years old," he says.

He got a job at a local bakery. He trained hard, dropping more than 50 pounds in 14 months. By the time he went back to enlist, Ukraine was thought to have lost as many as 17,500 soldiers and badly needed more men on the front lines.

After training in Kyiv, Ruslan joined a "storm" brigade, an extremely dangerous type of counteroffensive unit that often operates on the edge of Russian strongholds. Diana and Ruslan talked frequently, but his work often required him to go dark for days on end. For Diana, the wait was terrifying. She scoured the news to see where "the hottest part" of the fighting was, figuring that's where her father would be. "You wake up every day thinking I'm going to have bad news today," she says.

Being able to crowdfund equipment for her father and his fellow soldiers has given Diana a semblance of control to counter the nauseating sense of helplessness. It has also helped save lives.

In the summer of 2023, Ruslan texted his daughter, "I'm going on a mission." Four days later, he called from the hospital. He had been sent to Bakhmut, where a Russian drone had exploded 18 inches from his head, giving him and three of his comrades concussions. One was so severely injured that he had to be wrapped in a tourniquet that Diana had fundraised for. (The soldier's leg was amputated, and he's now with his family.) Diana spent a week with her father as he recovered in the hospital.

When he returned to active duty, Ruslan became a drone operator. Though he was farther from the front lines, he was arguably in even more danger. Drone operators have been very effective: Citing Ukrainian military commanders, The New York Times reported last month that Ukraine's drones accounted for at least 80% of Russian front-line losses. Several Ukrainian drone operators have told Business Insider that because of this, they are disproportionately in the enemy's crosshairs. Ruslan calls drone operators Russia's "target No. 1." This October, while in the Luhansk region, Ruslan used a surveillance drone Diana had raised funds for to spot four Russian soldiers advancing toward his unit, giving Ruslan and his comrades enough time to avert an onslaught.

Diana has raised more than $100,000 for drones, jackets, boots, helmets, medical supplies, trench-digging equipment, and thermal-vision gear. She credits part of her success to "how transparent I am with my situation, with my family." Much of her support comes from partnering with NAFO, the North Atlantic Fella Organization, an online community playing on the NATO name that challenges Russian disinformation, largely through dog memes.

Some crowdfunders encourage donations by sharing stories about themselves or their friends. Some host livestreams or ask followers to celebrate their birthday by donating to a soldier's unit. Others offer services and products: You can get a message written on ammunition to be fired at Russian targets or buy artwork made of bullets, shells, and destroyed Russian equipment and uniforms.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a 26-year-old former IT manager in Kyiv, didn't join the military at the start of the war. "I chickened out in the beginning a bit," he says, and he was taking care of his sick mother. But he knew his tech skills could allow him to help Ukraine in another way. It was obvious to him that the military wasn't getting the resources needed to win the war, so he started buying protective gear for his friends.

He posted about his efforts on X, sharing stories of his childhood friends on the front lines, like Max, who destroyed a bridge to stop a key Russian advance. His followers responded. "Many people started asking, 'How can I send you money?'" he says. By April 2022, Zhluktenko had received so many of those requests that he decided to work on fundraising full time, starting a charity organization to provide "high-tech equipment" that would increase "the efficiency of our forces." He called it Dzyga's Paw, named after his dog. Donors can get merch — like stickers, tote bags, and patches — based on how much they donate. He's raised more than $2.9 million from more than 28,000 individual donations.

Giles says that because the crowdfunding effort is so complex and unregulated, there have been "persistent allegations of fraud" against several groups. To counter that, Zhluktenko has made his organization radically transparent. On Dyzga's Paw's website, among other details about its budget, the organization keeps a daily log of its expenses. In one week in November, for example, it paid two employee salaries ($1,166.89) and bought 15 Starlink satellite receiver kits ($4,884.13), an F13-Retrik uncrewed aerial vehicle ($2,780.36), and paper clips ($0.75).

Zhluktenko is also transparent about who exactly is receiving which equipment and what they're using it for. To motivate people to donate, he constantly shares stories on social media about soldiers like Nazar, who coached a youth soccer team before the war. In a post on X in October advertising a fundraiser, Zhluktenko's organization wrote, "Nazar and his unit need essential equipment—from laptops to portable power stations and signal-boosting antennas for drones to be even more effective."

Dyzga's Paw also shares videos of frontline soldiers expressing gratitude, memes of gear en route to soldiers, and, crucially, footage of the gear donors have funded in action, often captured by drones they've also donated. Zhluktenko says these videos — often of Russian tanks being blown up or Russian soldiers surrendering — are extremely effective marketing: Donors "actually get to see the impact of the equipment they have sent" and how their donations "challenge the myth of an undefeatable Russian army."

Mats Kampshoff, a 25-year-old student in Germany, has given about $600 to Dyzga's Paw and other crowdfunding projects during the war, though he has no personal connection to Ukraine beyond the stories of soldiers he's been following. "Connecting this war effort with a daily life that I can connect to really brought home the point that I don't want this war to be around," he says. Donating feels "more like a logical decision than one based on morals," he says, adding that "it's just the small part that I can do to shape the world in the way that I envision."

In surveys of Ukrainians conducted in 2022 and 2023, almost 80% of respondents said they'd donated to some form of crowdfunding campaign during the war. Most of Zhluktenko's donors are from Europe, the US, Australia, Japan — "any countries Russia would call the collective West," he says. "There are people who have donated for 50-something weeks straight."

Hlib Fishchenko, 25, founded a volunteer organization called Vilni, which he said gets about 80% of its donations from Ukrainians. He raises money for items like excavators that help protect soldiers building trenches; the last one Vilni bought cost about $25,000, which it raised in a month. He said Ukrainian donors understand that they could donate to rebuild a school, or they could donate to help soldiers prevent Russia from destroying schools in the first place. They see their donations as preventive, he said, while some international donors are more willing to fund projects like reconstruction and medical aid.

Receiving donations for equipment is one thing. Getting the equipment to the front lines is another.

Zhluktenko's team goes on a frontline expedition about once a month. Their motto is "Just don't be stupid." In July they were driving toward Kharkiv when they learned of an imminent Russian glide-bomb attack nearby and changed their route.

Organizations and crowdfunders, including Dyzga's Paw and Diana Kulyk, often work with Nova Post, a major Ukrainian delivery company that delivers close to the front lines. Nova Post told BI that it delivers to residents and the military and that it stops only when the military "says that it is dangerous to work and forbids us to open branches." The company said that branches have indoor and outdoor shelters designed so that employees and clients can reach them within 30 seconds and that frontline branches have reinforced doors and windows.

The company's operations have only grown: It told BI it had opened 2,242 branches and two sorting offices and installed 1,853 parcel lockers since February 2022 and that it shipped 30% more parcels in 2023 than it did in 2022.

Experts say the crowdfunding of Ukraine's fight could offer a glimpse into the future of warfare. Major Western militaries are unlikely to start relying on crowdfunding anytime soon, given their extensive resources and stringent procurement policies. But Jensen, the war-strategy expert, predicts that crowdfunding via social media will be vital in "future insurgencies against authoritarian regimes." Giles says he's already seeing "more explicit calls on soldiers to equip themselves," with soldiers in countries like Latvia and Finland, which he says "may be facing Russian aggression next," buying more military equipment themselves.

Giles says this war might be unique in that it has dragged on long enough for these campaigns to develop. But it's also dragged on long enough for some support to wane. Several fundraising groups said they'd seen donations dry up in recent months; fatigue is setting in as the war concludes its third year. In November, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that the donations he'd received that month through YouTube livestreams had plummeted by two-thirds compared with what he raised in March. The advisor also said he feared that Donald Trump's return to the presidency would further hinder donations. "Floating talks about Trump's promise to end the war quickly and possibly bring peace reduce willingness of people to donate," he said.

One thousand and sixteen days into the war, fighting rages throughout Ukraine's east. Russia controls nearly 20% of the country. While there are no confirmed death tolls and estimates vary wildly, many tens of thousands of soldiers are believed to have been killed on both sides.

Zhluktenko got married in July and then signed a military contract. "Ukraine needs people fighting," he says. "It's impossible to win a war for your freedom without fighting for your freedom." On October 23, his birthday, he posted on X: "My birthday wish this year is survival. I don't need any gifts this year except something that will help me be effective in my military role and to survive." While he's on duty, his wife has taken over Dyzga's Paw.

Diana Kulyk completed another campaign several months ago, raising $48,000 to buy her father's brigade two pickup trucks with night-vision cameras and all-terrain tires. But she says that regardless or whether her dad needs anything, she spends much of her mental energy trying to prepare herself for the possibility of her father's death. She's lost friends in the war. She lost her cousin — Ruslan's nephew, who went to the registration office with him. And she's watched her father lose comrades.

"There is a high chance of it eventually happening, so I have been working on that," she says. "I have a phrase I came up with to tell myself: 'Better to be a man of honor than to live scared.'"

Sinéad Baker is a News Correspondent based in Business Insider's London bureau, writing about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• Russia is firing 1.5x more shells than Ukraine, Western officials said, down from 10x earlier this year.
• While its artillery advantage is shrinking, glide bombs are compensating, officials told Sky News.
• Russian advances on the front lines have come at a terrible cost, they said.

Russia's artillery advantage over Ukraine is shrinking fast.

Russia's advantage is now down to 1.5 rounds for every shell Ukraine fires back, Sky News reported, citing Western officials. Previous Ukrainian estimates put its artillery advantage at 10 to 1 earlier this year, and as high as 15 to 1 in the early months of its full-scale invasion in 2022.

The unnamed Western officials said a "wide variety of factors " were behind the drop, including constraints on Russia's production lines, challenges transferring rounds to the frontline via rail, drone strikes against major Russian and North Korean ammunition depots, and Western ammunition supplies to Ukraine.

But they told the outlet that Russia seems to be compensating by dropping huge amounts of glide bombs on the front lines.

One official said Russia's "massive" increase in glide bomb use was having a "devastating effect."

Since the start of the war, Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine with glide bombs — cheap but highly destructive weapons that are notoriously difficult to intercept.

Warfare and airpower analysts have said that Ukraine's ability to counter these threats is limited, as moving its best air-defense systems closer to the front lines makes them vulnerable to attack.

Until last month, Ukraine was not given permission to use Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike bases inside Russia, from which many of the attacks originate.

Ukraine has responded by making its own glide bombs, using Western-provided bombs and fitting them to its F-16 fighter jets. It dropped some inside Kursk during its surprise cross-border raid into the region in August.

Ukrainian forces have also targeted Russian aircraft capable of dropping glide bombs, and have used drones to strike military bases storing the weapons.

But the glide bombs have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's infrastructure.

Russia dropped more than 900 glide bombs on Ukraine in just a single week at the end of October and early November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the time.

Russia also continues its incremental advance in Ukraine.

Late last month, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces were advancing at their fastest rate in Ukraine's east since the early months of the conflict.

But this has come at a terrible cost, the Western officials told Sky News, with one comparing Russia's front-line losses to those seen at the Battle of the Somme, one of the largest and bloodiest battles of World War I.

November saw Russia experience a new record for the average number of dead and wounded per day in the war, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, which said in an intelligence update this week that the losses were "likely reflective of the higher tempo of Russian operations" against Ukraine.

It was the third month in a row that Russia suffered record-breaking daily losses, it said.

• Latvia's airBaltic has been heavily impacted by the war in Ukraine, its CEO Martin Gauss said.
• He told Business Insider it plans to be the first airline back into Ukraine when the conflict ends.
• Gauss led airBaltic out of bankruptcy and has spearheaded plans for an IPO next year.

AirBaltic plans to be the first airline to restart flights to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement, CEO Martin Gauss told Business Insider.

The Latvian flag carrier also has bases in Estonia and Lithuania. All three countries border Russia and are NATO and the European Union members.

"What I think is an upside now is a potential peace because that's not priced in for us," Gauss said in a Monday interview in London.

"That would be a huge upside as we were the last airline out of Ukraine and would be the first one in," he added.

Gauss told BI that the start of the war impacted airBaltic "very heavily" due to missing passenger flows from Ukraine and Russia.

However, he added that tourism to the Baltic countries was no longer suffering as fears had eased about them being invaded by Russia, too.

AirBaltic has still been hampered by airspace restrictions.

"The overflying restrictions are still there and everything which goes southeast is, for us, a detour — circumnavigating the airspace," Gauss said.

The airline has more than 70 destinations — including Cyprus, Turkey, and Dubai — where the fastest route from Latvia would involve flying over Ukraine.

Finding alternative routes isn't simple. Gauss explained how flying south from the Baltics, there's only a "small corridor" between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"Once that is too busy, we need to fly over Sweden into the south," Gauss added. "So there's an impact on the cost side."

AirBaltic's turnaround

Gauss started his career as a pilot in 1992 with Deutsche BA, then a low-cost subsidiary of British Airways. He then entered management training with the airline and worked his way up.

After developing a reputation for turning around airlines, he was headhunted for airBaltic in 2011. The airline had gone bankrupt, but the Latvian government agreed to invest more capital.

"I had to come up, in a couple of weeks, with suggestions of what you could do with a technically bankrupt airline," Gauss told BI.

"What makes it so special was that in 2012 […] we had to make a decision for the future aircraft fleet," he added. "And we took a decision to go for an aircraft type which didn't exist at the time — an A220."

In 2016, AirBaltic became the launch operator of the Airbus A220. It's a smaller jet with a capacity of 150, but it can still fly farther than the regional aircraft it competes with, such as the Embraer E195.

Today, airBaltic is the largest operator of the type with 48 A220s — with plans to double that by 2030. Based on order books, Gauss said, "We are the only airline which can double in size in Europe in the next five years."

Gauss has also promoted new technologies in his time at the helm. AirBaltic accepted bitcoin as payment back in 2014 and has minted NFTs that generate airline loyalty points.

It's also set to be the first airline in Europe to use Elon Musk's Starlink internet as soon as it's certified by the continent's aviation regulators.

Gauss is pleased with the success of his business model, with preparations underway for an IPO.

"It was intended to do it earliest in the second half of this year, which we canceled because of the market situation, so we said, first opportunity is first half of 2025 for an IPO."

• Ukrainian units desperate for drones to hold Russia back are crowdfunding many of their weapons.
• Civilians and veterans have been sponsoring deadly strikes for under $1,000.
• Researchers say it's opened a new era of civilians directly sponsoring war en masse.

With $1 million, Oleksandr Chernyavskiy says he can change the war for him and his comrades.

The enlisted soldier is assigned to a drone prototyping unit with Ukraine's 241st Territorial Defense Brigade — a battle-hardened formation of reservists deployed along the eastern and northern fronts. His unit supplies 11 battalions with new drone designs, mostly cobbled together from commercial parts and Soviet arms. It also makes other weapons, too.

For $80,000, he says his team can completely build a 17-inch drone armed with a rifle — essentially a flying AK-47 or M4. Another prototype, a modified Soviet ZU-23-2 antiaircraft gun, needs $70,000 worth of parts to be fully automated to strike down Russian drones.

Chernyavskiy estimates roughly $1 million in funding would allow his unit to develop home-grown AI-controlled drone swarm tech, primarily using the money to pay software engineers and buy parts.

Much of this work, he said, depends on how much his unit can crowdfund. He ran an NGO before the war and is partly responsible for coordinating and advocating for that money.

"For drones, most funding is from volunteer help, by donors," Chernyavskiy told Business Insider. "When we have government or defense ministry funds, we try to buy regular things like mortars, shells, all connected to ammunition."

Crowdfunding has long been a pillar of Ukraine's war effort, with civilians pitching in for years to send aid supplies, clothing, and cash to the front lines. Low-cost drones, proven to be effective on the modern battlefield, have become one of the hottest commodities among units battling Russian assaults.

A commonly crowdfunded drone, a seven-inch commercial unit that carries a small payload, costs less than $1,000 to build and arm. A typical 155mm artillery shell, meanwhile, costs between $2,500 and $4,000 for Western factories to produce.

Chernyavskiy said that drones can't replace artillery, which can suppress enemy forces, serve as fire support, and hammer front-line positions at range. But drones have their place in this war, as the world has repeatedly seen. With these systems, for around an average of $15,000, his men can take out a Russian tank worth significantly more.

Ukrainian fundraisers like him have formed a robust network that pulls in millions of dollars weekly for drones, working with a mix of local manufacturing lines to turn the cash into precision strike munitions. To keep donors abreast of their work, they report daily with first-person videos of exploding drones slamming into enemy positions and vehicles.

Chernyavskiy said that Russian forces typically can't advance when harassed by drones. "If you can have 100 explosions in one day, it means no Ukrainian will be killed this day," he said. Swarming the air with recon drones also gives Moscow little chance to launch surprise attacks.

Civilian war support at an 'astonishing' scale

But due to availability, there are days when his unit can only deploy five, maybe 10 drones, reducing resistance and allowing Russian troops to get close to Ukrainian trenches and overwhelm them.

Chernyavskiy said the flow of cash from civilian supporters is keeping his men alive.

"I think it's certainly unprecedented," Federico Borsari, a resident fellow who studies technology and drone warfare at the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank, said of the current crowdfunding movement.

Borsari said that drones, easy to build and deadly, have changed how civilians can support a war effort en masse. With Ukraine, an individual civilian can now remotely yet directly pay for a hit on an enemy soldier or tank, he said.

"Really, the scale of the rapport is astonishing," Borsari said. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands of drones provided to the Ukrainian military."

Oleksandr Skarlat, a volunteer who has been running a fundraising Telegram channel since the war began, said most of his donors paying for drones are regular civilians sending part of their salaries.

Others are small businesses with cash to spare, he said. Skarlat, a professional swimmer, works as a member of a Telegram network of five fundraising volunteers led by Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko. Skarlat told BI he's helped raise $2.5 million for 100,000 drones.

"We started using drones because of the lack of ammunition. It was from a need of striking positions and priority targets in the most effective and cheapest way," he said. Throughout the war, Ukraine has repeatedly struggled with insufficient amounts of ammunition, such as much-need 155mm artillery shells.

In Kyiv, restaurants, cafés, and barber shops often display QR codes for customers to throw in a few dollars for drone production, said Mark J. Lindquist, a former US Air Force analyst now living in Ukraine to crowdfund for local units.

"It has to be in the millions, if not tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, because it's the most effective way for an average citizen to put together a small amount of money and make a huge difference on the battlefield," Lindquist told BI.

Lindquist, who worked as a motivational speaker before leaving for Ukraine in 2022, now flies back to the US regularly to raise money at public events for front-line units.

He estimates that he and his fundraising partners have brought in about $13 million in aid, and he now asks Americans to donate toward civilian vehicles and commercial drones that can be turned into weapons like loitering munitions.

Yet Lindquist is frustrated with donors in the US, whom he says frequently balk at paying for something that can kill.

"Largely, Americans have shied away from things that would drop these bombs you see on Instagram," he said.

Drones aren't always used for deadly ends, though. Chernyavskiy hopes to raise $50,000 to complete a land evacuation drone that can navigate deep forest terrain and retrieve lone Ukrainians guarding trenches.

With the 241st Territorial Brigade low on manpower and guns, Chernyavskiy said soldiers sometimes find themselves stationed alone on the front lines for abnormally long rotations. He said many fear it is a one-way ticket to the trenches.

"If you are injured, no one will help you; you have no chance," he said. "People usually spend one or two days in the trenches. Now they spend half a month. You can go crazy."

A drone that fetches the wounded, or even corpses, raises morale among troops who know that their bodies can still be returned to be honored, Chernyavskiy said.

US and European veterans fueling the crowdfunding effort

Chernyavskiy's unit also receives cash from Americans, often from military veterans willing to chip in anything from lunch money to $15,000 each. He said he's brought about two dozen veterans to the front lines to see his unit's work.

"After they see what is going on, they help much faster," he said with a laugh.

It's a broad effort. Daniel Viksund, a Norwegian veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan as a combat engineer and tank driver, has been coordinating donations to Ukraine, primarily from Scandinavia, since 2022.

He told BI that many of his donors are current and former military members who, after seeing videos of drones in action, sought to send more of them to Ukraine.

"Our main focus is drones. Everybody was doing cars and medical stuff. Army veterans like us, we like to do things and make it happen," Viksund said.

His 20-man nonprofit, Veteran Aid Ukraine, has sent some 500 drones to Kyiv's forces and paid for about 2,500 more. Viksund said videos sent to him from Ukrainian units show those drones have destroyed at least 60 main battle tanks and over 100 armored vehicles.

He's proud of his organization's work in Chasiv Yar, where they sent 200 drones to units defending the embattled city in late spring as US congressional infighting locked up billions in vital aid.

Viksund said Veteran Aid Ukraine alone can't provide nearly enough drones for Kyiv's remote operators. He estimates that they expend 4,000 drones on average a month.

"But when all the small rivers come together, you make a big river," he said.

Russian organizations have also been donating drones for Moscow's units, but not on such a scale.

"You don't necessarily see the same level of grassroots efforts in Russia because they have the state capacity and state resources to marshal the economy toward the war in a different way," said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at the think tank Defense Priorities.

Kavanagh said the crowdfunding effort has been meaningful in filling gaps in Western aid, though it's dwarfed by the sheer might of the traditional arsenals sent to Kyiv.

The US and Europe have collectively sent about $90 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including powerful F-16 fighter jets, long-range missile platforms, and millions of ammunition rounds.

Return on investment in war

Some Western donors and volunteers say that lower-tech drones can make a significant difference for just a fraction of that cost.

One such donor is a wealthy software engineer in the US Mountain West who said that he had spent about $105,000 sending 142 drones to Ukraine, including eight Chinese-made Mavics that cost around $1,700 each and are popular for recon missions.

With six kids at home, he told BI that he's cut back on purchases like upgrading their 2011 GMC Savannah and fixing his couch.

"I just think that if I spend a little less, someone will survive. Someone will have a husband and father," said the software engineer, who asked not to be named out of concern that Russian intelligence services would target him. BI knows his identity and has verified his donations to a Ukrainian platform.

One of his favorite items is a 10-inch drone made from DJI parts that can be converted into a bomber with a six-pound payload.

He said each of these $1,600 drones has a typical lifespan of 50 missions and that, with a minimum hit rate of 33%, delivers at least 16 strikes on Russian targets.

"If you give these guys $100 million, they can win the war for you," he said. A common hope among drone warfare enthusiasts is that with more drones and jammers, Ukraine can effectively slow the Russian advance while exhausting its manpower and equipment.

Chernyavskiy holds on to the dream that when those resources run dry, Ukraine will have an opening to strike back and reclaim territory. Yet he cautioned against thinking that only deploying low-cost drones will win the war.

"For example, if you have fog weather, you can't fly these drones because you can see nothing," Chernyavskiy said. "But artillery does not care about the fog. If they have coordinates, they will fire and destroy whatever is alive in this sector, no problem."

Western donors wish they had more to give

Questions loom for Ukraine's future in this fight. The country continues to face shortages of troops and matériel, persistent Russian advances, and the possibility that the incoming US administration will restrict or cut the critical aid it relies on. But private citizens retain the ability to make a difference, fundraisers say.

Lindquist, the former US Air Force analyst turned fundraiser, said Americans haven't realized how far their money can go if they help fund drones in Ukraine.

"The Ukrainians have come up with a solution to be able to strap a bomb to a $500 drone and take out a $2 million tank," he said.

"If people were to understand that power of drones, we could do what our grandparents did in World War II," he added.

The software engineer in the Mountain West said he's been trying to get his friends to donate, too, but to no avail.

"They'll say they don't want to kill people. Then I ask if they want to buy a tourniquet," he said. "They think it's cool that I'm doing it, but they want me to be the one doing it."

In Ukraine, Chernyavskiy is frustrated, too. But as he says, "feelings change nothing."

"Lack of money, lack of resources. This is the nature of war," Chernyavskiy said.

Yet he stressed his brigade is stretched thin, and that if they run out of drones, the fighting turns to rifle combat. Outnumbered in the trenches, it's a battle the Ukrainians almost always lose, he said.

Last week, he said, a commander who ran one of the drone development projects with him was killed by Russian fire.

"If we have a lack of donors' help, our friends are killed, and then we are killed," he said. "If we can't pay for drones, if we don't have ammunition, we pay for it with lives."

Translation by Sofiia Meleshenko.

• Russia has been trying to get its big social media accounts to register with the government.
• But Kremlin-affiliated and pro-war accounts aren't playing ball, independent Russian media reported.
• A new analysis found that only 10 of the top 82 political pro-government Telegram channels had registered.

Nearly 90% of Russia's top pro-war Telegram channels have been ignoring a government directive to identify themselves in an official registry, per an analysis by independent media outlet Vertska.

The findings come four months after Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a decree on August 8 for all owners of social media channels with 10,000 or more subscribers to disclose their data to the federal telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor.

Should they fail to do so by January 1, 2025, the law says these channels will be blocked from advertising or raising funds from subscribers. The decree came into effect on November 1.

Vertska reported on Monday that it analyzed the top 100 Russian political channels on Telegram and found 82 of them that were pro-government.

According to Vertska, of those 82 pro-government channels, 72 had not registered with Roskomnadzor less than a month before the deadline.

These include the Kremlin-affiliated blogger Rybar, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and Operation Z, a group of war correspondents and bloggers.

Politicians such as Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council, and Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor, were also among the top 100 political channels but have not registered, per Vertska.

Notably, the Russian Defense Ministry's channel is also not registered, per Vertska.

In an analysis published on Monday, the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War wrote that these pro-war channels may have failed to register "possibly because they are already Kremlin-aligned and do not threaten the Kremlin's deserved control over public discourse in Russia."

But the move was originally unpopular with pro-Kremlin military bloggers, who often maintain anonymity and sometimes post analyses and criticism of Russian war leaders.

Some top voices said the decision would dull Russian analyses on Telegram, while others complained of "draconian" censorship and a possible decrease in war news shared via the platform.

"Russian Telegram will become censored and uninteresting," wrote Two Majors, a popular channel with nearly 1.2 million subscribers.

Still, Vertska reported that several popular bloggers have registered with Roskomnadzor, including Boris Rozhin, who runs the channel "Colonel Cassad," and Dmitry Nikotin.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia's State Duma, runs the most popular registered channel. He is the country's eighth-most popular channel that discusses politics.

Another Vertska analysis of the 32 top Telegram channels posting solely about the Ukraine war found that only eight, or a quarter of the total, were registered.

Roskomnadzor did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Putin's decree on popular channels, which applies to platforms like VKontakte, Telegram, and TikTok, comes as Moscow has sought to exercise more control over mass communications channels since the onset of the Ukraine war.

Russia has already blocked Western platforms like Facebook and X and has repeatedly been reported to have throttled connectivity to YouTube.

In October, it also blocked the messaging and call platform Discord, sparking outcry from commentators who said the gaming comms tool was used by Russian units to coordinate drone operations in Ukraine.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing this week for NATO to invite Ukraine to join its alliance.
• He said on Sunday that NATO's self-defense pact wouldn't have to apply to Ukraine's occupied territory.
• His proposals come amid anticipation that Trump's incoming team will stall Ukraine's NATO accession.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country could join NATO without the alliance's collective self-defense agreement applying to its territory occupied by Russia.

That suggestion means that Article 5, which states that an attack on one member state is an attack on all, wouldn't automatically drag the rest of the alliance into war with Moscow if Ukraine joins.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said that any invitation for Ukraine to join NATO still has to recognize all of its territory as Ukrainian, including areas occupied by Russia.

He said his reason was that NATO/the alliance couldn't extend an invitation to only a "part of the territory of Ukraine," per Ukrainian media.

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine "would never accept" an accession plan that says otherwise.

"But we understand that Article 5, when you're a member of NATO, cannot apply to the entire territory of Ukraine during wartime, as countries are against the risks of being drawn into the war," he said.

Such a proposal could essentially split Ukraine into two regions as far as NATO is concerned. The region that includes all of Ukraine's current territory, like Kyiv and Kharkiv, would have to be defended. There would be no obligation for the rest, which is the Ukrainian territory seized by Russia in the east.

Ukraine launched a campaign this week to pressure NATO into extending an invitation to Kyiv, a move the alliance already promised in 2008 would eventually happen. NATO has not provided a specific timeline for when that invitation might be extended.

On Friday, Zelenskyy told Sky News that he would be willing to freeze the front lines if whatever territory Ukraine still holds is placed under the "NATO umbrella."

"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," he said at the time.

This indicates that Ukraine would cede its occupied land, at least temporarily, in exchange for a cease-fire with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

It's a concept that Zelenskyy has adamantly rejected before.

In April, he called a land swap for peace a "very primitive idea." Discussion of such a plan emerged that month because of reports that President-elect Donald Trump was thinking of championing it. He was still running for president at the time.

Now, the Ukrainian president is recalibrating his conditions for NATO membership. This reconsideration comes as US support for Ukraine sits on the cusp of extreme change. His renewed effort to join the alliance comes amid anticipation that Trump and his advisors would pressure Kyiv into negotiating a quick end to the fighting while withholding membership indefinitely.

There are, however, fears that Russia may renege on a cease-fire — as Putin has done several times in the past — or that such a deal could create a split of Ukraine reminiscent of Cold-War Germany.

Many who want an immediate resolution to the fighting in Ukraine hope that it will relieve the economic strain the war has brought to the globe.

Ukraine is a major supplier of corn and wheat, and while a US-led corridor has allowed it to start selling much of its accumulated stock, its exports are estimated to take several years to hit pre-war levels.

Meanwhile, European reliance on Russian energy has led to a complicated situation, where Ukraine is still allowing Russian gas to transit through its borders to Western customers despite the war.

That arrangement, agreed upon in 2019, is set to expire at the end of the year. Both Moscow and Kyiv have said they're not ready to renew the contract, though there is talk from Ukraine of extending it.

Several European countries, including Slovakia and Hungary, expressed concern that their energy markets could be skewered by a nonrenewal, though many are starting to replace their gas by buying from the US and Canada instead. Hungary, in particular, hopes a pipeline through Turkey will help to sustain its supply of Russian gas.