Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has been a thorn in the side of Ukraine – and Europe – for more than a decade.

It is the day when President Putin becomes Primetime Putin. For a marathon four-and-a-half hours, his annual end-of-year TV address was given uninterrupted coverage on all of Russia's main channels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday issued a sharp warning to Washington, saying any US decision to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would mark a dangerous escalation in their ...