A senior Kremlin official said Friday that Russian police and national guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine's Donbas and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official said Friday that Russian police and National Guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

The European Union has decided to indefinitely freeze €210bn worth of Russia ’s assets, so that Hungary and Slovakia, two countries with friendly relations with Moscow, cannot prevent billions of euros from being used to support Ukraine.

Deadly shelling across Ukraine from December 9 to December 11 killed 14 civilians and wounded 78 others in the northern Sumy, eastern Donetsk, southern Kherson and eastern Kharkiv regions. Zelenskiy visits Kupiansk as Ukraine retakes parts of the frontline town.

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,

Ukraine struck an oil tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Black Sea on Wednesday, according to an official in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Warehouses supplying the vast majority of Ukraine's pharmacies have been destroyed in a series of Russian attacks over recent months. Medical supplies worth about $200m (£145m) were destroyed in just two strikes in December and October.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called on Thursday for Britain to disclose what a British soldier killed in Ukraine was doing there, and accused London of directly helping Kyiv to carry out attacks which it said were "acts of terrorism" on Russia.