Russia’s second-largest LNG producer Novatek reportedly secretly funded US company Polar LNG’s multibillion-dollar Alaska gas project, potentially violating US sanctions, The New York Times has reported.

Polar LNG’s former CEO John Riddle resigned in September after discovering the undisclosed Russian links. He said he alerted Trump administration officials and urged an investigation.

“It’s not only unlawful, but it’s not in the US interest to have Russian technology controlling the commercialisation of Arctic gas in the North Slope,” Riddle told the NYT.

Novatek was also negotiating to supply technology to Polar LNG. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner discussed the proposed deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin in September, although it remains unclear whether they knew about the secret financing.

Novatek confirmed it was seeking “minority shareholder” status in the project.

The reported deal is among several energy agreements president Donald Trump is pursuing with Moscow amid efforts to end the Ukraine war, intensified Russian attacks and reduced US support for Kyiv.

Overnight Ukrainian drone attacks killed three people in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region and damaged an industrial site in the Perm region of the Ural Mountains, officials said Sunday.

In the city of Belgorod near the Russian border with Ukraine, an attack killed two people and injured 13, said Belgorod regional governor Alexander Shuvayev.

“The attack has damaged 30 blocks of flats, 35 cars, four houses, three administrative buildings, eight commercial premises and three social facilities,” he said.

Another person was killed and one was injured in a village near the town of Shebekino, authorities said.

Ukraine’s military has regained full use of Starlink satellite links for its drones and other fast-moving equipment, the defense minister said Saturday, ending speed restrictions that Ukrainian officials said had disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.

The restoration comes as U.S. envoys launched a new push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

A Russian drone strike hit a residential building in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Saturday, killing three civilians and injuring 12, including an 11-year-old girl, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said.

The attack sparked a fire on the apartment building’s fourth floor and damaged nearby vehicles and a shop.

Five injured people were hospitalised, including three in serious condition who were undergoing surgery.

The strike comes as Russia intensifies aerial attacks across Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter, with thousands of homes in the region losing power after an attack on 21 October.

A drone attack on Russia’s Perm ⁠region has allegedly damaged an industrial facility, ⁠injuring ​five of ⁠its workers, regional ⁠governor Dmitry ​Makhonin claimed this morning.

Emergency services were at the ‌scene and ‌the injured people ⁠received the necessary medical help, he added on the state-backed MAX messaging ‌app ​without providing ‌further ⁠detail on the ⁠nature of ‌the ​damage.

Ukraine has yet to comment on the attack.

A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region overnight on Sunday reportedly killed one civilian and injured 10 others, local authorities claimed.

The drones reportedly targeted the MegaGRINN shopping complex, the city’s largest retail and entertainment centre, which was closed and empty at the time, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Officials confirmed a “massive UAV attack” but did not identify specific targets.

Reports of explosions, fires and air defence operations circulated on social media, but The Kyiv Independent said it could not independently verify them.

The attack came a day after Ukraine said its Starshield system had been restored to full speed. The military satellite network, which had operated at sharply reduced speeds since 14 October, is used by Ukrainian forces to coordinate drone strikes and other military operations.

Elon Musk has accused Ukraine of violating Starlink’s terms of service by using the satellite network for “offensive drone strikes to kill people”, amid tensions between Washington and Kyiv over disruptions to the service.

“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Saturday, adding that the loophole had been closed the previous week.

The SpaceX-owned Starlink network has been crucial to Ukrainian military operations, making disruptions to the service a source of concern for Kyiv amid its war with Russia.

Russia’s second-largest LNG producer Novatek reportedly secretly funded US company Polar LNG’s multibillion-dollar Alaska gas project, potentially violating US sanctions, The New York Times has reported.

Polar LNG’s former CEO John Riddle resigned in September after discovering the undisclosed Russian links. He said he alerted Trump administration officials and urged an investigation.

“It’s not only unlawful, but it’s not in the US interest to have Russian technology controlling the commercialisation of Arctic gas in the North Slope,” Riddle told the NYT.

Novatek was also negotiating to supply technology to Polar LNG. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner discussed the proposed deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin in September, although it remains unclear whether they knew about the secret financing.

Novatek confirmed it was seeking “minority shareholder” status in the project.

The reported deal is among several energy agreements president Donald Trump is pursuing with Moscow amid efforts to end the Ukraine war, intensified Russian attacks and reduced US support for Kyiv.

Ukrainian forces ceased their attacks on Russian refineries for a day or two, but as Vladimir Putin’s missiles and drones kept coming, the Ukrainians resumed their strikes.

It seems that President Trump had made up the ceasefire. “It was entirely in his head, which is where so many of his great diplomatic triumphs appear to occur,” as Sir Lawrence Freedman, the distinguished military analyst, observed.

Since then, the Russian assault on Ukraine, including the deliberate targeting of civilians, has intensified. As Sam Kiley, our world affairs editor, reports, “this murder and maiming of ordinary people in the deeply personal ‘hunting drone’ killings was once confined to frontline cities such as Kherson, where Russian pilots use headsets to guide small airborne weapons onto women, the elderly and anyone caught in the open”. Now several other Ukrainian cities have been added to the target list.