Russia is willing to work with Donald Trump's incoming administration to improve relations if the U.S. has serious intentions to do so but it is up to Washington to make the first move, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

Russia is willing to work with Donald Trump's incoming administration to improve relations if the US has serious intentions to do so but it is up to Washington to make the first move, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

Eugene Spector was already serving a sentence for a bribery conviction when he was charged with spying, for which a court ordered him to serve an additional 13 years.

Russia has warned its citizens to not visit the US since relations with Washington are confrontational, claiming that they could risk being "hunted" by American authorities.

Russia now views arms control over the vast nuclear arsenals that were built up during the Cold War to be a thing of the past due to the lack of trust between Moscow and the West, Russia's top general said on Wednesday.

Russia is keen to disrupt, weaken or even divide NATO and one way of encouraging that might be to convince the U.S. that war is coming with the alliance in Europe and to ask America if it wants to be dragged into it. This especially matters as Trump's incoming administration forms its policies toward NATO and Russia.

Eugene Spector, who was already serving a 3½-year sentence in Russia for bribery, received the additional sentence after being charged with espionage last year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Monday more than 3,000 troops from North Korea have been killed so far fighting next to Russian forces.

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, tensions between the military alliance, which supports Kyiv in its defense efforts, and the Kremlin have continued.

Leaders of Finland, Latvia and Estonia tell The Independent that Ukraine’s victory over Russia is vital to the defence of a poorly armed Europe

It provoked outrage from outgoing US President Joe Biden who vowed to deliver more weapons to Ukraine after sending hundreds of air defence missiles in recent months. “The Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace and safety,” he said. Weapons such as surface-to-air missiles can cost many times more than the drones they are trying to shoot down