The United States has announced additional military assistance to help Ukraine defend itself, including from "the Kremlin's relentless attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure."
Russian poet Artyom Kamardin, who was beaten and reportedly raped during his arrest in September on a charge of inciting hatred over a presentation of his verses critical of the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, has been sent for a psychiatric checkup.
Russian lawmakers approved on November 23 the second of three readings of a series of amendments to the country's controversial "gay propaganda" law, an expansion of the legislation that rights activists say has put LGBT people at risk and led to increased discrimination and violence against them.
A series of Russian missile strikes on military infrastructure in Lviv on April 18 killed at least six people in the western Ukrainian city that has so far been spared fierce fighting in almost two months of war.