The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

Ukrainian drones struck deep inside Russia in an overnight attack targeting an oil facility serving a military airfield in the city of Engels, nearly 400 miles from the border, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

The U.S. is set to provide Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles as the Biden administration works to get Kyiv in a stronger negotiating position before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The Ukrainian military says it struck a fuel storage depot deep inside Russia. The strike caused a huge blaze at the facility that supplies an important Russian air base.

North Korea is learning valuable lessons from fighting against Ukraine, making it an increased threat to its neighbors, a US official said. In recent months, North Korea has sent around 12,000 troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine as part of a new security pact between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s war of depopulation is worsening Ukraine’s demographic crisis; the population has fallen from 52 million in 1991 to 35 million today.

Ukraine's air force command said one of its F-16 pilots took out six Russian cruise missiles during one attack in December — a record.

Joe Biden is expected to unveil new sanctions targeting Russia's economy as part of measures to bolster Kyiv's war effort before Donald Trump takes office.