Russia's war on Ukraine latest news: U.S. to help Ukraine restore electricity

The United States and NATO allies promised more arms for Kyiv and equipment to help restore Ukrainian power and heat knocked out by Russian missile and drone strikes, as air raid sirens blared across Ukraine for the first time this week.

The United States and NATO allies promised more arms for Kyiv and equipment to help restore Ukrainian power and heat knocked out by Russian missile and drone strikes, as air raid sirens blared across Ukraine for the first time this week. DIPLOMACY

* Moscow said it had "no other choice" but to cancel talks with the United States over inspections under the "New START" nuclear weapons control treaty, Russian state-run news agencies reported. * A communications line created between the militaries of the United States and Russia at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine has been used only once, a U.S. official told Reuters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States initiated a call through the "deconfliction" line to communicate its concerns about Russian military operations near critical infrastructure in Ukraine.

* Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said before a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest that NATO was not running low on tanks it could send to Ukraine. * Russia is trying to make the United States understand that increasing U.S. involvement in the Ukraine conflict carries growing risks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday. Moscow has repeatedly complained that Western military support for Ukraine is dragging out the conflict.

POWER SUPPLY * NATO allies said they would help Ukraine repair energy infrastructure heavily damaged by Moscow's shelling, in what the alliance's chief said was Russia using the cold weather as "a weapon of war". The United States announced $53 million to support the purchase of power grid equipment for Ukraine.

* Ukraine was still struggling to restore full power nearly a week after a wave of Russian missile strikes that damaged energy facilities across the country. * Kyiv plans to put up Christmas trees, without lights, throughout the battered capital in a defiant display of holiday spirit as the area's millions of residents suffer through blackouts, officials said.

BATTLEFIELD * Russian forces shelled 30 settlements in Ukraine's southern Kherson region 258 times in the past week, Zelenskiy said.

* In an evening update on Monday, Ukraine's military said Russia kept up heavy shelling of key targets Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk province, and to the north bombarded Kupiansk and Lyman, both recaptured recently by Kyiv. * The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is still under Russian control and will remain so, the Kremlin said, after a Ukrainian official suggested Russian forces were preparing to leave.

* Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports. * The Pentagon is considering a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with cheap, small precision bombs fitted onto abundantly available rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines as the West struggles to meet demand for more arms. (Compiled by Simon Cameron-Moore, Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)