Russian forces shelled and bombed towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, a day after Russia’s foreign minister said Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for ending the war or else suffer defeat on the battlefield.

Those demands include Ukraine recognising Russia’s conquest of a fifth of its territory. Kyiv, armed and supported by the United States and its NATO allies, has vowed to recover all occupied territory and to drive out all Russian soldiers.

Britain’s defence ministry said in its latest update of the military situation in Ukraine that fighting was particularly intense around the strategic eastern city of Bakhmut in Donetsk province and Svatove, further north in Luhansk province. Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the industrial Donbas, are both claimed, along with two southern Ukrainian regions, by Russia.

“Russia continues to initiate frequent small-scale assaults in these areas (of Bakhmut and Svatove), although little territory has changed hands,” the British ministry tweeted.

Reuters footage showed fires burning in a large residential building in Bakhmut, while debris littered the streets and most buildings had had their windows blown out.

“Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy,” TASS news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

“The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.”

In his nightly video message on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the situation along the frontline in Donbas “difficult and painful”.

After suffering a series of defeats in its “special military operation,” Russia is now seeking a battlefield victory by capturing Bakhmut, an industrial city with a pre-war population of 70,000, now reduced to about 10,000 mostly elderly residents.

Gaining control of the city could give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

“Our building is destroyed. There was a shop in our building, now it’s not there anymore,” said Oleksandr, 85, adding he was the only remaining resident there.

Nearby, 73-year-old Pilaheia said she had long got used to the “constant explosions”.

“Now you just scratch yourself, and don’t even look or listen carefully to what is happening and where. That’s how we are now. But still, I want to live a normal life,” she said, while feeding the chickens of neighbours who had fled.

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks in the areas of two settlements in Luhansk province and six in Donetsk, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday.

It also reported more Russian shelling of Kherson city, in the Zaporizhzhia region and of settlements in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine near the border with Russia.

Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst based in Kyiv, also cited heavy fighting around elevated areas near Kreminna in Luhansk region as well as around Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk.

“The arc of fire in Donetsk region continues to burn,” Zhdanov said in a social media video post.

Zelenskiy said as a result of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure nearly nine million people were currently without power – equal to about a quarter of Ukraine’s population.

Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which supplies electricity to Kyiv, said late on Monday that while the power situation has been improving in the capital, blackouts will continue.

President Vladimir Putin had planned a swift operation to subdue Ukraine when he ordered the invasion on Feb. 24, but Russia has suffered many embarrassing battlefield setbacks.

In the latest attack to expose gaps in Russia’s air defences, a drone believed to be Ukrainian penetrated hundreds of kilometres through Russian airspace on Monday, causing a deadly explosion at the main base for its strategic bombers.

Moscow said it had shot down the drone at its Engels air base, where three service members were killed. Ukraine did not comment, under its usual policy on incidents inside Russia.

A suspected drone struck the same base on Dec. 5.

The base, the main airfield for the bombers that Kyiv says Moscow has used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian frontier. The same planes are also designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles as part of Russia’s long-term strategic deterrent.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement no planes were damaged, but Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts said several had been destroyed. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

Putin repeated on Sunday that he was open to negotiations but only on Moscow’s terms, a stance Kyiv and the West have rejected. Kyiv and Western countries say Russia is engaged in a brutal, imperialist land grab.

The United States and its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and sent billions of dollars in assistance to the Ukrainian government.

Just last week, as Zelenskiy visited Washington, the United States announced another $1.85 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, including a transfer of the Patriot Air Defense System, angering Moscow.

“It is no secret to anyone that the strategic goal of the United States and its NATO allies is to defeat Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism for significantly weakening or even destroying our country,” Lavrov told TASS on Monday.

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U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday after China further relaxed its COVID-19 curbs, fuelling hopes of a recovery in the world’s second largest economy.

China said it would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting Jan. 8, a major step in reopening its borders, adding that it would also downgrade the seriousness of COVID as it has become less virulent.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms such as JD.Com Inc , Alibaba Group Holding , Pinduoduo Inc (PDD.O) climbed between 2.5% and 3% in premarket trading.

With a handful of trading sessions left this year, investors are hoping for a so-called “Santa rally” at the end of what has been a largely disappointing month for U.S. equities.

The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) have lost 5.8% and 8.5%, respectively, so far in December and are on track for their biggest yearly loss since the financial crisis of 2008 on fears that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary policy tightening could tip the U.S. economy into a recession.

Economic data so far has offered little hope that the Fed could hit the brakes on its interest rate hikes, with a report last week showing inflation has cooled further but not enough to discourage the U.S. central bank from driving rates to higher levels next year.

Money markets are pricing in 63% odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in February and see rates peaking at 4.93% in May 2023. .

Trading volumes remain thin as investors return from a long weekend, while the economic data schedule is also light this week with some home sales and jobs reports on tap.

At 6:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 208 points, or 0.62%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 25 points, or 0.65%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 62.5 points, or 0.56%.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA.O) fell 2.0% premarket after Reuters reported the electric vehicle maker plans to run a reduced production schedule at its Shanghai plant in January.

Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) dipped 3% after facing flight cancellations and delays a day after Christmas.

Chinese people, cut off from the rest of the world for three years by stringent COVID-19 curbs, flocked to travel sites on Tuesday ahead of borders reopening next month, even as rising infections strained the health system and roiled the economy.

Zero-COVID measures in place since early 2020 – from shuttered borders to frequent lockdowns – last month fuelled the Chinese mainland’s biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

His subsequent abrupt U-turn on the curbs, which have battered the $17-trillion economy, the world’s second-largest, means the virus is now spreading largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.

Official statistics, however, showed only one COVID death in the seven days to Monday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government’s data. The numbers are inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.

Doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed with five-to-six-times more patients than usual, most of them elderly. International health experts estimate millions of daily infections and predict at least one million COVID deaths in China next year.

Nevertheless, Chinese authorities are determined to dismantle the last vestiges of their zero-COVID policies.

In a major step towards freer travel – cheered by global stock markets on Tuesday – China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, the National Health Commission (NHC) said late on Monday.

“It finally feels as if China has turned the corner,” AmCham China Chairman Colm Rafferty said of the imminent lifting of the quarantine rule.

There are no official restrictions on Chinese people going abroad but the new rule will make it much easier for them to return home.

Data from travel platform Ctrip showed that within half an hour of the news, searches for popular cross-border destinations had increased 10-fold. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea were the most sought-after, Ctrip said.

Data from Trip.com showed outbound flights bookings were up 254% early on Tuesday from the day before.

China’s National Immigration Administration said on Tuesday that it would resume processing passport applications of Chinese nationals seeking to travel abroad and approving visits of mainland residents to Hong Kong.

China will also resume the implementation of a policy allowing visa-free transit of up to 144 hours for travellers. The extension or renewal of foreigners’ visas will also be restored, the immigration administration added.

Nevertheless, ordinary Chinese and travel agencies suggested that a return to anything like normal would take some months yet, given worries about COVID and more careful spending because of the impact of the pandemic.

Separately, once the border with Hong Kong reopens next month, mainland Chinese will be able to take BioNTech-made mRNA vaccines, seen as more effective than the domestically-developed options available on the mainland.

China’s classification of COVID will also be downgraded to the less strict Category B from the current top-level Category A from Jan. 8, the health authority said, meaning authorities will no longer be compelled to quarantine patients and close contacts and impose lockdowns.

But for all the excitement of a gradual return to a pre-COVID way of life, there was mounting pressure on the healthcare system, with doctors saying many hospitals are overwhelmed while funeral parlours report a surge in demand for their services.

Nurses and doctors have been asked to work while sick and retired medical workers in rural communities were being rehired to help, state media reported. Some cities have been struggling to secure supplies of anti-fever drugs.

“Some places are facing great pressure at hospital emergency wards and intensive care units,” NHC official Jiao Yahui told reporters.

While the Chinese economy is expected to see a sharp rebound later next year, it is in for a rough ride in the coming weeks and months as workers increasingly fall ill.

Many shops in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere have closed in recent days with staff unable to come to work, while some factories have already sent many of their workers on leave for the late January Lunar New Year holidays.

“The concern of a temporary supply chain distortion remains as the labour force is impacted by infections,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note, adding that their tracking of subway traffic in 29 cities showed that many people were restricting their movements as the virus spreads.

Data on Tuesday showed industrial profits fell 3.6% in January-November from a year earlier, versus a 3.0% drop for January-October, reflecting the toll of the anti-virus curbs in place last month, including in major manufacturing regions.

Authorities said they would step up financial support to small and private businesses in the hard-hit catering and tourism sectors.

The lifting of travel restrictions is positive for the economy, but strong caveats apply.

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country would require a negative COVID test for travellers from mainland China. The government would also limit airlines increasing flights to China, he said.

“International travel … will likely surge, yet it may take many more months before volumes return to the pre-pandemic level,” said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank China.

“COVID is still spreading in most parts of China, greatly disrupting the normal work schedule. Loss in productivity is significant.”

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Despite massive attacks on its energy infrastructure, SCM is working hard to bolster Ukrainian resilience whilst fighting for justice in the European Courts.

DALLAS (NewsNation) — The Trump-era policy that allows border officials to turn away migrants at the southern border, known as Title 42, is expected to expire Tuesday after months of legal back and forth that began when the Biden administration sought to end the policy in the spring of 2022.

The controversial policy allows border officials to turn away some asylum seekers because of public health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Supreme Court last Monday temporarily stopped Title 42’s expiration, citing those same public health concerns. Indications were the policy would be lifted Tuesday, likely meaning an increase in migrant releases, according to NewsNation’s partner Border Report.

The Biden administration has yet to lay out any systemic changes to manage an expected surge of migrants if the restrictions end. And a bipartisan immigration bill in Congress has been buried just as Republicans are set to take control of the House.

The administration says once Title 42 ends, it instead will rely on Title 8, which expels migrants who do not show a legal basis to remain in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning immigrants that the administration is continuing to enforce Title 42, after the Supreme Court temporarily halted the Trump-era policy’s expiration.

The DHS on Saturday said regardless of an immigrant’s nationality, “Anyone attempting to enter without authorization is subject to expulsion under Title 42.”

“Those who cannot be expelled pursuant to Title 42 may be placed in expedited removal and anyone ordered removed subject to a bar on entry for 5 years under Title 8,” the agency added.

The restrictions have been used more than 2.5 million times to expel migrants who crossed into the U.S. and to turn away many of those requesting asylum at the border.

In El Paso, Texas, record numbers either crossed undetected or were apprehended and released in recent weeks.

In response, the Texas National Guard was deployed last week at the border downtown and was expected to stay through Christmas. The city’s shelters are already packed beyond capacity and many migrants were forced to camp out in the streets in below-freezing weather.

El Paso is extending its state of emergency for 30 more days, as officials work to build up more shelter space. There are more than 1,800 migrants in Border Patrol custody and thousands more have been released to the streets.

DHS said 23,000 agents and officers are “working to secure” the Southwest border, adding that the U.S. government “continues to work closely with our partners in Mexico to reinforce coordinated enforcement operations to target human smuggling organizations and bring them to justice.”

“That collaboration includes migration checkpoints, additional resources and personnel, joint targeting of human smuggling organizations, and expanded information sharing related to transit nodes, hotels, stash houses, and staging locations,” the agency said.

Anyone who comes to the U.S. has the right to ask for asylum, but laws are narrow on who actually gets it. Under Biden, migrants arriving at the border are often let into the country and allowed to work while their cases progress. That process takes years because of a 2-million-case backlog in the immigration court system.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Southwest blamed its operational meltdown on the bitter winter storm that’s battering the US.

Eugene Garcia/AP Photo

• Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan described Monday’s operational meltdown as “a tough day.”
• The debacle saw thousands of flights canceled and left travelers and crew stranded across the US.
• Southwest attributed the debacle to busy holiday travel and the winter storm battering the country.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan described Monday’s operational meltdown as “a tough day” as he warned that Tuesday could be equally painful.

Southwest continued canceling flights Tuesday after Monday’s debacle left travelers and crew stranded across the US.

“We had a tough day today,” Jordan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal late Monday. “In all likelihood we’ll have another tough day tomorrow as we work our way out of this.”

He added: “This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen.”

Southwest canceled 71% of its schedule, or 2,909 flights, on Monday, according to data from flight-tracking service FlightAware. By 6 a.m. ET Tuesday, the airline had canceled 2,503 flights for the day and 2,474 for Wednesday.

Southwest said Monday it would operate about one-third of its schedule “for the next several days” for safety reasons. It said it’s contacting affected customers to alert them to their options.

The company attributed the meltdown to a combination of busy holiday travel and the bitter winter storm that’s battered the US. The Dallas-based airline said it had been “fully staffed and prepared” for the holiday weekend before the storm “forced daily changes to our flight schedule.”

It added: “We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”

The Department of Transport said Monday it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” adding: “The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”

TWU Local 556, which represents Southwest flight attendants, said the disruptions had left “thousands” of crew members stranded, with some having to sleep on cots in airports or in hotels without power or water, and many working long hours “well past acceptable duty days.” Attendants calling the airline were left on hold for hours while they attempted to find accommodation and their next routes, the union said.

Southwest said it’s offering a system-wide waiver, allowing customers booked on flights between December 25 and January 2 to rebook the same route on new dates within two weeks of their original departure time at no extra charge.

One passenger told The Journal that he and his family drove around 19 hours from Kansas City, Missouri to Phoenix, Arizona after their Southwest flights from two different airports were both canceled, including one after passengers had already boarded.

A Southwest spokesperson told The Journal that some flights were canceled after boarding because flight crews ran out of allowable work time.

Southwest didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, made outside of regular working hours.

Southwest said it was experiencing “extremely high call volumes” because of customers calling about the disruptions, with hold times averaging more than two hours and as high as four hours.