Apart from disagreements about peace efforts in Ukraine, Witkoff has been at loggerheads with Rubio and State Department officials about the way he handles security.

Russia has ordered a winter troop surge to break the stalemate in Ukraine, but Ukrainian drone attacks on logistics and resupply channels will undermine this offensive.

Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

Ukrainian forces say they have hit an oil terminal, a pipeline, two parked jet fighters, and two ships in a series of strikes on Russian soil

Russia "does not have the capability to conquer and occupy Ukraine," let alone invade Europe, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said, accusing "deep state warmongers" and sections

A Russian general was killed by a car bomb in Moscow on Monday, the latest in a growing list of military officials and other pro-war figures to be assassinated since the start of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for a number of the attacks.

Two NATO-nation intelligence services suspect Russia is developing a new anti-satellite weapon to target Elon Musk's Starlink constellation with destructive orbiting clouds of shrapnel, with the aim of reining in Western space superiority that has helped Ukraine on the battlefield.