More than 100 Bangladeshis have been recruited into Russia’s war against Ukraine, and dozens have been killed on the front lines, according to rights groups that say many of the men were misled, exploited, or financially trapped before ending up in combat.

Ukrainian missiles struck the Russian town of Belgorod near the border, inflicting serious damage on energy installations and disrupting power, water and heating, the regional governor said early yesterday.

Global consequences of a continental war

As the conflict reaches its four-year mark, AFP looks at the state of the conflict and some of the consequences for both countries

Ukraine's air force downs most projectiles, 13 targets hit

Ukraine’s NABU anti-corruption force said yesterday it arrested the country’s former energy minister German Galushchenko -- who resigned last year during a massive corruption scandal -- as he tried to cross Ukraine’s border.

A Ukrainian missile attack yesterday killed two people and injured three in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Six people died in Russian strikes across Ukraine overnight that targeted the southern port city of Odesa and energy infrastructure, officials announced yesterday.

Russia pounded Ukraine with drones and ballistic missiles overnight yesterday, further battering its energy system and leaving tens of thousands in the capital Kyiv and the cities of Dnipro and Odesa without heat, power and water, officials said.

The United States wants Ukraine and Russia to end their nearly four-year war by June, and has offered to host talks between the two sides in Florida next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s power grid experienced mass outages yesterday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said.

Ukraine is ready to reciprocate if Russia halts its attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure that has plunged the capital Kyiv into cold, President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday, adding there was no formal truce between the two countries.

Ukraine yesterday accused Russia of undermining negotiations to end their almost four-year war by launching fresh deadly strikes, as officials from both countries and the United States met for a second day of direct talks in Abu Dhabi.

Ukrainian negotiators have arrived in the United States for talks with the Trump administration on ending almost four years of war with Russia, a member of the delegation said yesterday.

Ukraine has fuel reserves for more than 20 days, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal told parliament yesterday, describing the overall energy situation in the country as very difficult following a series of Russian drone and missile attacks on power infrastructure.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 residents were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike.

Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile at Ukraine near the EU border overnight, in what Kyiv called a new threat to European security that demanded a global response.

Ukraine is hosting security advisers for crunch talks yesterday as Kyiv insists negotiations are zeroing in on a deal, while Russia claims a deadly New Year strike torpedoed the efforts.

The Ukrainian army said yesterday it only hit “military targets”, a day after Russia accused Kyiv of firing drones at a hotel and cafe in Ukraine’s occupied south, killing 27 people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was in no hurry for peace and if it did not want to resolve their conflict peacefully, Moscow would accomplish all its goals by force.