About 130 U.S. soldiers are returning to their bases after being deployed last week to a remote western Alaska island with mobile rocket launchers amid a spike in Russian military activity off the western reaches of the U.

Eight Russian military planes and four navy vessels, including two submarines, have come close to Alaska in the past week.

US Army soldiers were deployed to a remote island southeast of Alaska last week as part of a “force protection operation” amid an expected increase in Russian and Chinese military exercises in the region,

Russia's campaign of air strikes on Ukraine's energy grid probably violates international humanitarian law, a U.N. monitoring body said on Thursday, as Ukrainians prepare for the toughest winter since Russia's invasion.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Western governments on Thursday that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

The sum of 160 million euros from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will be allocated to meet Ukraine's urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

With 80% of thermal plants destroyed, Kyiv is facing a difficult winter – but some worry EU support means higher prices for Europeans.

A total of 400 million euros from the first tranche of revenues from frozen Russian assets, which the EU allocated for weapons for Ukraine, were used to finance Ukrainian defence companies: the production of Ukrainian howitzers Bohdana has already been paid for.