Marking 25 years in office, Vladimir Putin says he has remade Russia as a sovereign power and will prevail in Ukraine, but economic and strategic setbacks complicate the picture.

Russia's New Year's Eve fireworks have been cancelled in several cities across the country due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, while a UFO was spotted in Siberia.

With soaring inflation and the ruble dropping to one of its lowest levels against the dollar since President Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine, this year Russians will have to pay more for the dish, which is traditionally served alongside caviar and tangerines, before the New Year is toasted in.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to the nation to mark the new year on Tuesday said that his country would do all it could to end the war with Moscow in 2025 and halt Russian aggression.

Illegal migrants make up an estimated seven percent of the population in Russia and form a key part of the nation's economy.

The US government said that intelligence agency units of Russia and Iran aimed to "stoke socio-political tensions and influence the US electorate during the 2024 US election".

Russian forces have left one of Armenia's border checkpoints after 30 years, signaling a shift in relations between the countries.

A senior Russian general was killed in a bomb blast in a residential neighborhood in Moscow, Russian media reported early Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building.

Russian investigators detained a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan in connection with Tuesday's assassination of a general in Moscow, an attack in a residential neighborhood for which Ukraine claimed credit.

The Treasury Department said the actions included using artificial intelligence to disseminate false information.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the 2024 US election.