New Delhi, Dec. 20 -- As civilian deaths mount in southern Ukraine, Moscow hardens its negotiating stance, Brussels locks in long-term funding, and fragile diplomacy struggles to keep pace with an expanding war.

Russia's leadership entered day 1,395 of the Russia Ukraine war insisting that its territorial gains are irreversible, even as Ukrainian and Western sources reported fresh Russian strikes on Odesa and the Dnipro region and renewed fighting around Kupiansk. For Moscow, the conflict remains a long confrontation with NATO-backed Ukraine, while for Kyiv and its partners it is a fight to reverse the Russian special military operation in Ukraine that began in 2022.Coverage across the Russo-Ukrainian war today has increasingly focused o...