Bulk carrier hit by Russian mine in Black Sea; Zelenskiy thanks US for latest weapons package amid uncertainty over future aid

Artyom Kamardin, 33, got seven years after attending anti-Ukraine war protest and Yegor Shtovba, 23, was given five and a half

A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced two men to years in prison for taking part in the recital of verses against the Ukraine campaign during an anti-mobilisation protest last year.

Artyom Kamardin, 33, received a seven-year sentence for reciting a poem, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, was sentenced to five and a half years for attending the protest. The two were seen behind a glass partition in a heavily guarded courtroom.

The party has triggered outrage from conservative politicians and supporters of the war in Ukraine

A raunchy celebrity-studded party in Moscow has prompted outrage among Russian politicians and law enforcement agencies, in one of the starkest examples to date of how Vladimir Putin is moving the country in a conservative and anti-liberal direction.

The party, which took place on 20 December, was a dress-up ball held at a Moscow nightclub with the theme “almost naked”, and was organised by the popular Instagram influencer Anastasia Ivleeva and attended by a number of household celebrity names who have stayed in the country since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Head of Ukraine’s armed forces calls for ‘different war’ in 2024; stop Putin or all of Europe at risk, says Moldova president

The US government has announced the release of what it said was its last available package of weapons available for Ukraine, with Congress needing to decide on future support. According to the state department, it is worth up to $250m and includes air defence munitions and components, Himars ammunition, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, anti-armour munitions, and over 15m rounds of ammunition.

The war in 2024 “must be different from 2023”, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces has said. “Otherwise we will face what I wrote about in the article [the Economist]”, said Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi. “Unfortunately, I must state that the enemy is not far behind us. In recent days, we have had a powerful confrontation applying modern technologies. But we do not spare efforts. My main mistake was that I thought that the amount of losses we inflicted on the enemy would stop anyone. But not the Russian Federation.”

Zaluzhnyi, giving a press conference, said Ukrainian troops remained on a defensive line in the northern part of Maryinka. “But I can say that this settlement no longer exists. The [Russian] method is the same as it was in Bakhmut. Street by street, block by block are destroyed. The fact that we have now moved to the outskirts of Maryinka, and in some places equipped positions beyond Maryinka, seems to me to be nothing that can cause a public outcry.”

“As for the conduct of hostilities around Avdiivka,” he continued, “there is no need to dwell on it and make a show of it. The conduct of hostilities is subject to the laws of war, and they are not subject to what politicians or journalists want. The enemy now has the opportunity to concentrate forces; they can do to the city in two or three months what they have done to Bakhmut.”

Two people were killed in Russian drone attacks on Odesa, according to figures from the Odesa oblast governor, Oleh Kiper. A 17-year-old was among the wounded and remained in hospital.

Russian shelling left 70% of Kherson without electricity, said the Kherson oblast governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. Shelling by Russian forces on Tuesday had “badly damaged” the infrastructure of the city, he said, adding that it was “difficult” to say when repairs would be completed. A railway station was attacked as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one police officer and injuring four people.

A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine has been denied the chance to run for president. Russia’s central election commission refused to accept the former regional legislator Yekaterina Duntsova’s initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the paperwork, including spelling. After losing Wednesday’s appeal against the commission’s decision, Duntsova said she would start working on the creation of her own political party that would stand for “peace, freedom and democracy”.

Poland is getting closer to ending the truck driver blockades of several border crossings with Ukraine, says the country’s prime minister, Donald Tusk. Polish drivers have been blocking several crossings with Ukraine since 6 November, demanding the EU reinstate a system whereby Ukrainian companies need permits and the same for European truckers to enter Ukraine.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held talks in Moscow with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and said progress had been made on plans for Russia and India to jointly produce military equipment. Jaishankar added that he expected Vladimir Putin and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to meet next year.

Russia says its newest howitzers will be deployed “soon” against Ukrainian forces. The head of the state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, told the RIA news agency that testing of the new self-propelled artillery units, named Coalition-SV, had been completed and mass production had started, with the pilot batch to be delivered by the end of this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be stopped in his war against Ukraine or all of Europe will pay a much higher price, Moldova’s pro-European president, Maia Sandu, said in an interview published on Wednesday.