Europe

KYIV, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine's domestic spy agency has detonated explosives on a Russian railway line deep in Siberia, the second attack this week on military supply routes in the area, a Ukrainian source told Reuters on Friday.

The incidents appear to show Kyiv's readiness and ability to conduct sabotage attacks deep inside Russia and disrupt Russian logistics far from the front lines of Moscow's 21-month-old war in Ukraine.

THE HAGUE/CARACAS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Judges at the World Court on Friday ordered Venezuela to refrain from taking any action that would alter the situation on the ground in a potentially oil-rich territory that is the subject of a border dispute with Guyana, which controls the area.

The court did not expressly forbid Venezuela from going ahead with a referendum on Sunday over its rights to the region around the Esequibo river, as Guyana has requested.

LONDON (AP) — Saudi Arabia will extend a cut in the amount of oil it sends to the world after a series of previous reductions by members of the OPEC+ alliance of major producing countries failed to prop up prices.

That’s been a good thing for U.S. drivers, who have been able to fill their gas tanks for less money in recent months. But it’s bad news for OPEC+ countries whose oil income bolsters their economies and who have faced setbacks in pushing prices higher despite initial fears that the Israel-Hamas war could affect oil flows.

MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/: Russian troops liberated the community of Artyomovskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"In the Donetsk direction, units of the southern battlegroup supported by aircraft and artillery fire improved their forward edge positions and liberated the settlement of Artyomovskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said in a statement.

LONDON, November 29. /TASS/: NATO member states do not pressure Ukraine regarding the beginning of peace talks with Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview for BBC.

When asked if any NATO member state pushes Ukraine towards negotiations, Stoltenberg answered in a negative.

Stoltenberg called the military aid to Ukraine a "path towards peace," opining that the stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the stronger it will be at a negotiation table.

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (NNN-TASS) – Any new United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members should come from developing countries, Russian media reported, citing Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, at the Primakov Readings International Forum in Moscow.

“It is important to redress the historical injustices that emerged, following the end of the decolonisation process and since the emergence of many dozens of young sovereign states,” Lavrov said, noting that, the composition of the UNSC should reflect the current reality.

PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - France intends to complete a bilateral security guarantee accord with Ukraine by the start 2024, its foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

G7 countries in June unveiled an international framework for the long-term security of Ukraine to boost its finances and defences against Russia with a view to deterring Moscow from future aggression, officials said.

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Russia's interior ministry has prepared draft legislation that would force foreigners to sign a "loyalty agreement" forbidding them from criticising official policy, discrediting Soviet military history, or contravening traditional family values.

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has introduced a slew of tough laws that outlaw discrediting the military, and courts have handed down long jail sentences to opposition activists.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Former U.S. marine Paul Whelan has been attacked by another inmate in a Russian prison while serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges, Russia's prison service said on Wednesday, after Whelan's brother publicised the incident.

Whelan, who denies spying on Russia, was punched in the face and forced to defend himself at a sewing workshop in a high security penal colony in Russia's Mordovia region southeast of Moscow, his brother Dave Whelan said in a statement.

MOSCOW/HELSINKI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Any decision by Finland to allow a "concentration" of troops on its border with Russia would be viewed by Moscow as a threat, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Poland offered to send military advisers to help Helsinki police the frontier.

The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said in a post on social media X late on Tuesday that Poland would send military advisers to its NATO ally Finland, in response to "an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border".