Putin not sincere about peace talks now, says top US diplomat

Meanwhile, analysts have expressed doubt that Moscow's botched partial mobilization efforts aimed at boosting dwindling troop numbers will deliver any short-term advantage to Putin.

Having failed to formulate an attractive alternative to the Euro-Atlantic vector, its proponents chose to look to the Russian authoritarian model, and hence came to be associated with Soviet nostalgia and post-Soviet corruption.

Russia attacks civilian targets in Ukraine as winter sets in

The Kremlin has rejected U.S. President Joe Biden’s condition for holding bilateral talks—namely, the full withdrawal from Ukrainian territories incorporated by Russia two months ago.