MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Sunday that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's remarks about preparing for war with Russia were irresponsible and showed that he did not really understand the devastation wrought by World War Two.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says peace proposals for U.S. officials to present to Russia could be finalized within days

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Kremlin foreign policy ‌aide ​Yury Ushakov said on ‌Friday that a ceasefire in Ukraine is only possible ​after Kyiv's forces withdraw from the entire Donbas region, with the area they ‍currently control taken over ​by Russian National Guard, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

Ushakov says postwar Donbass may see no Russian or Ukrainian troops, but National Guard and police maintaining order there.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday in a meeting that dragged on for nearly five hours.

When asked about the Journal report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry ​Peskov ‌said that Russia has always ‍been and ⁠remains open to foreign investment but that Moscow would not engage in megaphone diplomacy.

Once again there is an impasse in the attempts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. A five-hour meeting in the Kremlin between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the US team led by Donald Trump’s envoys, businessmen Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, has failed to make any significant progress.

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russian anti-Kremlin feminist punk band and art collective 'Pussy Riot' was designated an extremist organisation by a Moscow court on Monday, banning its activities inside Russia as part of a wider crackdown on dissenting voices.

More than 150,000 Russian troops thrown into battle over key Donetsk region as Kremlin chiefs lie about war gains and disguise their dead or missing by listing them as being deserters