Ukrainian strikes disrupt power and heating to 2 major cities in Russia

Belgorod had a population of some 340,000 people at the last census in 2021, and is the administrative center of a region of the same name. “Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russia’s Ria state agency, weeks after efforts to organize a summit between the Russian and U.S. leaders were put on ice. The U.S. and Russian presidents last met in Alaska in August, but the encounter did not advance Trump’s stalled attempts to end a war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.