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Financial institutions that support the Russian military industrial complex are to be blacklisted in the US after president Joe Biden signed an executive order yesterday to deny banks under sanctions access to the American financial system.

“This announcement makes clear that those financing and facilitating the transactions of goods that end up on the battlefield will face severe consequences,” deputy US treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote in a Financial Times op-ed.

What we’re trying to do is go after materials that are key to Russia’s ability to build weapons of war. In order for them to get those materials, they need to use the financial system, which makes the financial system a potential choke point and this is a tool that’s targeted at that choke point.

Our overall goal here is to put sand in the gears of Russia’s supply chain, which we think is one of the most effective ways to slow Russia down. But in order for the Ukrainians to speed up frankly and go faster, they need our support and that’s going to require Congress to act.

Russia’s recent advances near Avdiivka, as well as around other cities such as Kupiansk, Bakhmut and Marinka, are also further evidence that Russia has firmly seized the initiative on much of the battlefield.

“Currently, the situation on the front line is difficult and is gradually deteriorating,” Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said in an interview. “Without American ammunition, we are beginning to lose territory that was hard won this summer.”

Zelenskiy confirms exchange after call with Dutch PM; Russian defence ministry claims five Ukrainian downed south of the capital

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 667

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a call by a Russian politician to annex the former Soviet republic, it said late on Thursday.

The Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who is co-chair of the A Just Russia – For Truth party, said this week he believed Russia should annex Uzbekistan and other countries whose citizens travelled en masse to Russia for work.

Ukraine president seeks to boost morale after difficult year as Russian opponent claims to hold initiative

The leaders of Ukraine and Russia have struck a defiant tone and vowed to reach their military goals as the war heads toward its third year.

Speaking in Kyiv during his end-of-year press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to boost the domestic mood and maintain western support that has been stuttering in recent weeks.

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Russia is increasing its efforts to capture Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, transporting battalion reserves to the area, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army has said.

Kupiansk was liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022 by the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and has been a target since then, as it serves as an important logistics centre for the Russian invasion’s progression to the south and west. It was captured by Russia in February 2022.

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Russian police have put the prominent Russian American journalist and author Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.

The independent Russian news outlet Mediazona was the first to report on Friday that Gessen’s profile has appeared on the online wanted list of Russia’s interior ministry, and the Associated Press was able to confirm that it was. It was not clear from the profile when exactly Gessen was added to the list.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainians on Wednesday that Kyiv would defeat Russia and win a fair peace “against all odds” as the future of vital US military and financial aid hung in the balance.

Zelenskiy delivered his defiant message in an unusual early-morning video that showed him walking through Kyiv on his way to pay his respects to fallen soldiers on what Ukraine marks as Armed Forces Day, Reuters reported.

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Associated Press have provided a little more detail of the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s earlier comments in which he said Moscow saw no signs that Kyiv was ready to move towards a political resolution.

Speaking at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in North Macedonia, Lavrov also said Russia was not prepared to “review its goals” in Ukraine.

Russian authorities are attempting to quell dissent from the wives of soldiers deployed in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. The MoD said in its daily intelligence briefing that some were being paid off while others have been discredited online.

Ukraine has become progressively stronger over the past year and will soon be able to reopen Kyiv’s international airport, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said.

Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by nearly 170,000, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its 22nd month.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine needs to improve its mobilisation system, with the issue of recruitment under public discussion for some time. Questions of corruption in the military, particularly in procurement and recruiting, have periodically seized public attention as Ukraine tries to press on with a counteroffensive that has so far produced only incremental gains.

UN says expects real toll to be significantly higher than official tally; Germany to send IRIS-T air defence unit, defence minister Boris Pistorius says. This live blog is closed

• What we know on day 636 of the invasion

Russia cannot coexist with the current “regime” in Kyiv but Moscow can resist the might of Nato for as long as it needs to fully demilitarise Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

“The current regime [in Kyiv] is absolutely toxic, we do not see any options for coexistence with it at the moment,” Russian ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik told reporters in Moscow.