After Washington accused Putin of destroying Ukrainian infrastructure, a European proposal to confiscate Russia's assets, the Russian Foreign Ministry pledges to respond

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had destroyed a third of Ukraine's infrastructure.

While a European official called for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Moscow warned that it would take "appropriate measures" to respond.

This comes as Russian forces continue to advance in Donetsk Province (eastern) Ukraine, at a time when London imposed new sanctions on Russian officials who participated in the military mobilization.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today, Thursday, that the electricity supply was cut off from 6 million subscribers of his citizens, as a result of the Russian army targeting the energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

The US Secretary of State confirmed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is determined to provide support to Ukraine, whatever it takes, in order for Kyiv to succeed.

He added - in a press conference during the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Romania - that this support includes military, economic and humanitarian aid, and that more of it is on the way, as he put it.

In an interview with CNN, Blinken stressed that the US Department of Defense seeks to ensure the effectiveness of Ukrainian defense systems in the face of Russian missile attacks targeting infrastructure facilities.

He added that the focus now is on providing air defense systems to Ukraine as soon as possible, as he put it.

For his part, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Russia continued its war against Ukraine, and showed deliberate cruelty against civilians and Ukrainian infrastructure.

Austin added, during his meeting with the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecorno, at the Pentagon, that NATO has become more united and determined than ever before.

In turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia poses a direct threat to the security of the alliance.

At a press conference on the sidelines of NATO foreign ministers' meetings in Bucharest, Stoltenberg confirmed Ukraine's continued support and provision of additional air defense systems.

The alliance pledged to significantly intensify support for Ukraine, including repairing its energy infrastructure, after a series of Russian missile and drone attacks.

Ukrainian demands

For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that his country is discussing with Germany ways to provide Ukraine with the US Patriot missile system.

He added in a press conference on the sidelines of NATO foreign ministers' meetings in Romania that Ukraine needs these missiles to protect civilian infrastructure.

Kuleba stressed the need to start talks on Ukraine's accession to NATO, and called on the Ukrainian Foreign Minister to provide his country with Western tanks as soon as possible.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the results of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest indicate that the alliance is not interested in a political and diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine.

Zakharova accused NATO of continuing its approach to demonizing Russia and acquitting Kyiv of its crimes to justify its survival, as she put it.

Sources of Russian origins

For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen submitted a proposal to confiscate frozen Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

She added that the seized funds should be used as "full compensation to Ukraine" for the damage caused by the Russian military operation that began last February.

She said there was also a proposal to create a special UN-backed tribunal to hold Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine.

She noted that the Russian invasion has killed more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers so far.

On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Moscow will take what it described as appropriate measures, if it comes to confiscating its assets in the European Union.

"We warn again that in the event of confiscation of the property of the Russian Federation, Russian citizens, enterprises and state reserves of our country, appropriate measures will certainly be taken by the Russian side," Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a press conference in Moscow.

In turn, the Director of Nonproliferation and Arms Control at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Yermakov, said that the West is using the capabilities of civilian space infrastructure to support Ukrainian operations.

He warned that semi-civilian satellites used in Ukraine could become a legitimate target for Russian forces.

British sanctions

In London, the British government announced on Wednesday new sanctions targeting Russian figures who played a role in mobilizing reservists and prison officials who recruited criminals to fight in Ukraine.

The sanctions target 22 Russian officials, and include freezing their assets in the country and banning travel to Britain. Among those concerned is Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who is responsible - according to London - for equipping the mobilized forces.

The sanctions also target dozens of local rulers from areas where a "large number" of people have been recruited, after announcing at the end of September a "partial" mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists to fight in Ukraine, according to the British Foreign Office.

London imposed sanctions targeting 1,200 people and more than 120 entities, and froze the assets of 19 Russian banks.

The value of Russian assets frozen by Britain amounted to 18.4 billion pounds, according to figures released by the Treasury in mid-November.

Russian progress

On the ground, the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported today, Thursday, that the exchange of shelling continued between the Ukrainian forces and the Russian and pro-Russian forces in a number of fighting axes in eastern Ukraine.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its armed forces had completely taken control of the city of Andreevka, located in Donetsk Province, in southeastern Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense added that its forces "liberated" the regions of Belogorovka and Berchi Travnya in Donetsk territory, according to what Russia Today reported.

In turn, the Russian Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that areas in the Russian provinces of Bryansk and Kursk, bordering Ukraine, were bombed last night by Ukrainian forces.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Staff Command stated that 6 Russian attempts to advance in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were repulsed in the last hours.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the radar engineering forces were able to identify and track 240,000 Russian air targets since the beginning of the war 9 months ago, and that about 80% of these targets were destroyed.

In Mykolaiv (south), the local authorities confirmed that the Russian forces bombed the water stations in the Ochakov region, which feeds many areas of the southern province with water.