Switzerland adopted the latest EU sanctions package on Russia and Belarus, the government said on Monday. The move came one week after the European Union targeted Moscow's vessels and Chinese entities found to have traded with the Russian military.

"It's about our democracy, it's about influencing our public opinion, it's about what happens in Africa, it's about raw materials, it's about the instrumentalization of migration. We need to know it's a very wide idea of security,

There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said. “We will have tangible responses to this.”

Russia's natural-gas transit deal with Ukraine is set to expire soon, which would cut billions in revenue.

Illegal immigration is a security threat for the European Union and the bloc must protect its borders from the threat posed in this respect by Russia and criminal organisations, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday.

On December 16, the tanker Mercury lost propulsion due to a failure of its main engine, around 30 miles northeast of Simushir island in the Russia's fareastern Sakhalin region. A day earlier, the tanker Volgoneft 109 sent out a distress signal following a reported leakage in a cargo tank while near the port of Kavkaz in the Krasnodar region.

The European Union intends to adopt the next package of sanctions against Russia on 24 February, the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Source: German newspaper Welt am Sonntag,

Twenty percent or 448.5 Bcf of natural gas imported into the EU in the third quarter came from Russia, up two percentage points from the previous quarter and five percentage points against the third quarter of 2023.

The European Union has adopted a 15th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, including tougher measures against Chinese entities and more vessels from Moscow's so-called shadow fleet,

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in the Kremlin on Sunday with Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to Moscow by an EU leader since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2022.

Giorgia Meloni made her remarks at a conference in Lapland in northern Finland to discuss Nordic region and Mediterranean security as well as migration challenges.