Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralized by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.

Travelers flying to or from the U.K. are facing further disruptions as thick fog and low visibility restrict air traffic on one of the year’s busiest weekends.

The United States is expected to announce that it will send $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on Jan. 20.

The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party, which has steered the country away from a pro-Western stance and towards Russia, U.S. officials said Friday.

With a more concerted effort by Moscow to push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, Kyiv’s forces may only be able to hold the land until spring before they are forced to retreat, anonymous U.S. officials told Bloomberg. Such a loss could potentially deprive Kyiv of leverage in ceasefire talks.

Russian air defense systems may have brought down an Azerbaijani airliner this week, a U.S. official said Friday after an Azerbaijani minister also suggested the plane was hit by a weapon, citing expert analysis and survivor accounts.

Montenegro has approved the extradition of a South Korean mogul known as “the cryptocurrency king” to the United States, the Balkan country’s Justice Ministry said on Friday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, saying it was the only way to give the country a stable government capable of tackling its problems.

Russia’s aviation chief said Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack was underway in the Russian region that an airliner was destined for before it diverted and crashed earlier this week.