Russia says it has obtained documents that reveal US-funded laboratories in Ukraine have been creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of the country.

Anti-war protesters have taken to the streets in downtown Hamilton, Canada, to call on the government to withdraw from NATO and stop supplying weapons to Ukraine.

“When we speak about what is happening in Ukraine – it is a war, not a hybrid one, almost a real war,” the Russian foreign minister said.

Washington knows Berlin might be a "bad ally, but at least it’s America’s bad ally", according to an article in the German-owned Politico newspaper, pointing to an intensifying standoff between the United States and Germany over the Ukraine war.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned NATO that the defeat of his country as a nuclear power in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says its forces in Ukraine implement a ceasefire in honor of Orthodox Christmas.

The Russian air forces also intercepted 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the country.