Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would take more land in Ukraine by force if Ukrainian and European politicians, whom he cast as "young pigs", did not engage over US proposals for a peace settlement.
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Ukrainian and European leaders, on proposals for ending the war in Ukraine but no deal has been reached.
Ukraine and its European allies are concerned by demands for Ukrainian territorial concessions and Ukraine wants stronger security guarantees.
At an annual Defence Ministry meeting, Mr Putin said Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, was advancing on all fronts and would achieve its aims by force or through diplomacy.
"If the opposing side and their foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means," Mr Putin said.
Russia says it controls about 19% of Ukraine, including the Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014, as well as most of the eastern Donbas region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and slivers of four other regions.
Russia says Crimea, Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are now parts of Russia.
Ukraine says it will never accept that, and almost all countries consider the regions to be part of Ukraine.
Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said a task for 2026 was to increase the pace of Russia's offensive.
A slide shown during a speech he delivered said Russia was spending 5.1% of gross domestic product on the war in 2025.
European leaders say they stand with Ukraine and that Russia should not be rewarded for the war in Ukraine, which followed several years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region.
Mr Putin said former US President Joe Biden's administration had sought to destroy Russia and that European politicians had also been pursuing the same objective, a charge denied by European leaders.
He accused European politicians, whom he described as "shoats, or "young pigs", of whipping up hysteria about a potential war with Russia by warning that Moscow could one day attack a country in the NATO military alliance.
"I have repeatedly stated: this is a lie, nonsense, pure nonsense about some imaginary Russian threat to European countries. But this is being done quite deliberately," Mr Putin said.
Some European leaders have accused Russia of having no real intention of engaging in peace talks.
Directing similar criticism at Europe, Mr Belousov said European powers were trying to scuttle attempts to end the war and talking of a war between Russia and NATO within a few years.
"Such a policy creates real prerequisites for the continuation of military operations next year, 2026," he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said Russia is preparing for a new year of war.
The Ukrainian leader called on Ukraine's allies to secure support for Kyiv and show Russia that continuing its war is "pointless," ahead of a crucial European Union summit on Moscow's frozen assets.
"The outcome of these meetings - the outcome for Europe - must be such that Russia feels that its desire to continue fighting next year will be pointless, because Ukraine will have support," Mr Zelensky said in his evening address.
Russian glide bomb attack injures 26 in Zaporizhzhia
Mr Putin's comments came after Russian glide bomb attacks on apartment blocks in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region wounded 26 people, including a child, according to regional Governor Ivan Fedorov.
Mr Fedorov wrote on Telegram that three strikes hit the regional capital and its outskirts, and two apartment blocks had been badly damaged.
"Once again, civilian areas - homes, schools and everyday spaces - have been deliberately targeted," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry wrote, warning that the number of casualties could rise further.
Residents, some covered in dust from the blast, stood and watched rescuers battle to extinguish the fire and clear rubble.
"All the walls collapsed," said 70-year-old Valentyna Sumachova, describing how everything was suddenly enveloped in smoke and rescuers had to help her and her husband out of their apartment.
The city of Zaporizhzhia, whose southern edge is less than 25km from the frontline, has been bombed regularly by Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Next days 'crucial' for keeping Ukraine funded - EU
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU must take a decision on financing Ukraine at a crunch summit this week, with leaders under pressure to agree a plan to use frozen Russian assets.
"There is no more important act of European defence than supporting Ukraine's defence. The next days will be a crucial step for securing this, it is up to us to choose how we fund Ukraine's fight," Ms von der Leyen told MEPs.
Finding a legal way to use frozen Russian assets to helpfinance Ukraine remains "far from easy", Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said , ahead of the summit.
Addressing parliament, Ms Meloni said Italy backed efforts to make Moscow bear the costs of its invasion of Ukraine, but warned that any mechanism must rest on firm legal foundations.
She stressed that it must avoid exposing countries to open-ended liabilities.
Meanwhile, Britain said it was giving Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich a final chance to pay £2.5 billion pounds (€2.8bn) from the sale of Chelsea Football Club to Ukraine, otherwise it would be ready to take him to court.
The UK sanctioned Mr Abramovich in a crackdown on Russian oligarchs after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, triggering a rushed sale of the Premier League club and freezing of the proceeds.
It wants the funds spent only in Ukraine in line with a wider European push for Moscow to foot the bill for the deaths and destruction triggered by its invasion.
Mr Abramovich has previously sought more flexibility and wants the money to go to all victims.
Should the Russian businessman fail to free the funds quickly, the government said in a statement that it was "fully prepared to take him to court if necessary to enforce the agreement reached with him in 2022".
"It's unacceptable that more than £2.5 billion pounds of money owed to the Ukrainian people can be allowed to remain frozen in a UK bank account," finance minister Rachel Reeves said in the statement.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would issue a licence to release the funds.
He said: "My message to Abramovich is this: the clock is ticking.
"Honour the commitment you made and pay up now, and if you don't, we are prepared to go to court so every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war."
