Russian attacks intensify as Crimea bridge attackers jailed & Türkiye offers post conflict help

• Russian assault units have advanced in the northern part of the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and have taken a village to the south of the Ukrainian town of Siversk, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday. READ MORE BELOW

• Russian air defences shot down 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 52 over the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, citing the Defense Ministry.

• Russia on Thursday ordered Poland to close its consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Warsaw's decision to close the last Russian consulate in Poland after a railway explosion that was blamed on Moscow.

• Italy will extradite to Germany a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022. READ MORE BELOW

• Finland's border guard said  it had apprehended a man suspected of illegally crossing Finland's eastern border from Russia, which has been closed for two years.

• A Russian court sentenced eight people to life in prison over huge 2022 explosions that partially destroyed the Crimean bridge, an attack both Kyiv and Moscow said was organised by Ukraine's secret services. READ MORE BELOW

• Türkiye on Thursday says it is ready to participate in a "reassurance force" to be deployed in Ukraine after any eventual peace deal with Russia. READ MORE BELOW

• The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it reached a staff-level agreement on a new four-year, $8.2 billion program for Ukraine as the country faces mounting  fiscal pressures.

• Several congressional Republicans are harshly criticizing President Donald Trump's White House over its handling of a proposed Ukraine peace plan they say favors Russia, a sharp departure for a party that has adhered closely to almost all of Trump's initiatives.

• Russian athletes are free to compete "under their national flag", the International Judo Federation (IJF) said on Thursday lifting the neutral status that had been imposed following the conflict of Ukraine in February, 2022.

Russia advance

Russian assault units have advanced in the northern part of the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and have taken a village to the south of the Ukrainian town of Siversk, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

The Ukrainian military said it had thwarted 57 Russian assaults on the Pokrovsk front in the past day and was destroying Russian units inside the city.

Russian forces are pushing forward at several points along the front line, especially in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as the United States discusses a possible peace plan to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two.

Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, would give it a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

It said Russian forces had also taken the village of Vasiukivka, to the south east of the town of Siversk, around which Russian forces are also trying to execute a pincer movement.

Russia sentences eight to life for Crimean bridge blast

A Russian court on Thursday sentenced eight people to life in prison over huge 2022 explosions that partially destroyed the Crimean bridge, an attack both Kyiv and Moscow said was organized by Ukraine's secret services.

Five people were killed when the 19-kilometer (12-mile) Kerch road and rail bridge was hit by a truck bomb blast on October 8, 2022, eight months after Moscow launched its all-out military campaign on Ukraine.

Kyiv later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was aimed at hampering Moscow's logistics.

"The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment," Russia's southern military court in the city of Rostov-on-Don said on Telegram.

The attack set ablaze seven oil tankers being transported by train and collapsed two sections of the highway, Russia said.

The men were tried in a closed-door hearing at a military court.

Ukrainian extradited to Germany over Nord Stream attack

A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 will be flown to Germany on Thursday after Italy's top court approved his extradition last week, a spokesperson for Germany's federal prosecutors said.

Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, explosions in the Baltic Sea three years ago largely severed Russian gas transit to Europe, squeezing energy supplies on the continent, although Russia had already largely stopped deliveries.

Investigators spent years piecing together the mystery of who was behind them.

The suspect, identified as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, denies any role in the attacks. His lawyer Nicola Canestrini has said he is confident that his client will be acquitted after a trial in Germany.

German prosecutors accuse him of belonging to a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic.

He faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.

The suspect was detained on a European arrest warrant in the Italian town of Rimini in August but fought attempts to transfer him to Germany.

Türkiye offers help

Türkiye on Thursday said it was ready to participate in a "reassurance force" to be deployed in Ukraine after any eventual peace deal with Russia.  

"The Turkish Armed Forces are prepared to contribute to any initiative aimed at ensuring security and stability in our region," the defence ministry said.

"First and foremost, a ceasefire must be established between Russia and Ukraine. Then, a mission framework, with a clear definition of objectives, as well as the contribution of each country, must be determined," it added.

Türkiye with the second-largest army in NATO, had previously said it was prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission "if deemed necessary."