The Russian government has been a historic opponent of bitcoin, banning its use for domestic payments, but has recently come to see the potential benefits of virtual currencies for evading U.S. and Western sanctions.

Ukraine has announced "sanctions and other solutions" to block Russia's unwanted cryptocurrency payments. Source: Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Advisor to the president of Ukraine and Commissioner for Sanctions Policy Details: Vlasiuk recalled that Russian companies started using Bitcoin and other digital currencies for international payments after changes in legislation allowed such transactions in order to counter Western sanctions.

In a recent interview with the state-owned news channel Russia-24 on December 25, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov provided insights into Russia’s active experimentation with digital financial assets (DFAs) for international trade.

The North Korean losses amount to almost 10 percent of the country’s deployment to Russia, the Biden administration said.

By Gabriella Borter (Reuters) -North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, with a thousand of their troops killed or wounded in the last week alone in the Kursk region of Russia,

Russia launched aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector “on a massive scale” overnight into Wednesday, local authorities said, amid intensified bombardment that has left Ukraine in a precarious position as the war grinds into a third winter.

Russia launched an intensive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Wednesday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning.