S&P cuts Russia's foreign currency rating to 'selective default.'

As Ukraine negotiates a peace agreement with the U.S., soldiers on the ground face a different reality: holding the line with shrinking infantry numbers and almost no rotation. For nearly six months, two Ukrainian soldiers, Oleksandr Tishaiev and Oleksandr Aliksieienko, were trapped in the same battered position on the Zaporizhzhia front, unable to rotate as Russian drones monitored every path in and out.

Thirteen children were illegally sent abroad and placed with foreign families for adoption, while law enforcemented intercepted the transfer of another 12.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Hooley died after a "tragic accident" away from the frontline.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained Russia's "shadow fleet" ship, which illegally transported agricultural products from the Russian-occupied Crimea, SBU said on Dec. 10.

Ukrainian troops in Myrnohrad are using a narrow “gray zone” corridor for rotations and supplies as frontline accounts of near-encirclement clash with official assurances.

Ukraine has recaptured 13 square kilometers (5 square miles) of territory in Pokrovsk after previously having no troops left in the city, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said during a Dec. 9 press briefing.

Russia's Syzran oil refinery halted operations on Dec. 5 after sustaining damage in a Ukrainian drone attack, Reuters reported on Dec. 9, citing industry sources.

The three texts cover a framework peace agreement, security guarantees, and Ukraine's reconstruction, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine's largest bank, the state-owned Privatbank, extended a Hr 5 billion loan ($118.6 million) to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas giant, for emergency natural gas purchases, Naftogaz wrote in a press release on Dec. 9.