The country’s energy minister has warned that the “next few days will be difficult” Multiple critical infrastructure facilities across Ukraine came under attack on Saturday, local officials and media outlets have reported. The strike has prompted emergency power outages in several regions of the country, Energy Minister German Galuschenko has said.

The country’s holdings surged by more than $14 billion in December, according to the Central Bank Russia continues to grow its foreign currency reserves, which surpassed $580 billion in December, the Bank of Russia announced this week.

The EU’s race to replace Russian pipeline gas lies behind the unprecedented surge, according to Refinitiv Imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) by global consumers in 2022 totaled 409 million tons, compared to 379.6 million tons in the previous year, according to data from Refinitiv, as cited by Reuters.