"We hope the situation will deescalate soon," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.

The final gong of the year will be announced at 11:45 am (0945 GMT) on Monday.

"There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure," Putin said on Sunday in a video on the Kremlin's Telegram channel. 

Saturday's explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no claim of responsibility. Russia did not immediately assign blame.

The federal police are investigating the incident, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, adding the motive for it was unclear.

The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to human rights champions Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Russia's Memorial group and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties for their work to document war crimes and rights abuses.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's forces were swiftly recapturing more territory especially in the south of the country as Putin's seven-month invasion unravels.

With Russian forces retreating from front lines in the south and east, Zelenskiy said in a late-night video address on Wednesday that Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka to the northeast of Kherson city had been "liberated".

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the comments made by Laura Cooper, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, were "extremely dangerous" and are "evidence of direct US involvement in the conflict".

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany on the bed of the Baltic Sea, were ruptured last month in what Moscow said was an act of "international terrorism".

Some brought champagne to celebrate, while one man protested with a Soviet flag as the bronze bust of the leader, in a pensive pose with his chin in his hand, was lifted off its pedestal and driven away on a lorry.

"Which @elonmusk do you like more?," Zelensky tweeted, offering two responses: one who supports Ukraine, one who supports Russia. 

On the battlefield, Putin suffered a stinging setback on Sunday with Ukrainian forces claiming full control of Russia's eastern logistics hub of Lyman, their most significant gain in weeks. 

Britain's new monarch, who took the throne when his mother Queen Elizabeth II died last month, had intended to deliver a speech at the November 6-18 gathering, the Sunday Times reported.

Putin was defiant during his address to Russia's political elite, telling the West that the internationally condemned maneuver was irreversible and urging Ukraine's emboldened army to negotiate a surrender.

The 96-year-old monarch died at her Balmoral Castle estate in the Scottish Highlands.

The Vatican acknowledgement came in response to reporters' questions following an article this week in Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer.

The Russian leader is expected to deliver a major speech at the event, following referendums held last week in which four Ukrainian regions voted in a landslide to join Russia, but which were dismissed as a sham by the West.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a pro-Kremlin broadcast that Washington had "full control" over the waters around Denmark and Sweden where four leaks have been detected on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which cross the floor of the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany.

Dutch weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer published an investigative report that Belo had sexually abused some boys at his residence in Dili and other places in the 1980s and 1990s.

"On February 7, 2022, Joe Biden said that Nord Stream would be finished if Russia invaded Ukraine," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on social media, posting a video of Biden saying "we will bring an end" to Nord Stream 2 if Russian tanks cross Ukraine's border.

Europe has been investigating what Germany, Denmark and Sweden have said were attacks which caused major leaks into the Baltic Sea from the two Russian gas pipelines at the centre of an energy standoff. The countries have not said who could be behind the attack. 

But it remained far from clear who might be behind the leaks that were first reported on Monday or any foul play, if proven, on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building.

"Russia's recognition of the pseudo-referendums as 'normal', implementation of the so-called Crimean scenario, and yet another attempt to annex Ukrainian territory means that there is nothing to talk about with (the) current Russian president," he said in a video message.

"Italy of course is a cause for concern. Parties in this coalition have said and done things that should make us vigilant. This relates to Russia, and to financial and economic issues," Rutte said in an interview on Dutch TV.

Votes were staged for a third day in four eastern Ukrainian regions, aimed at annexing territory Russia has taken by force. The Russian parliament could move to formalise the annexation within days.

Voting began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will continue until 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) when exit polls will be published.

After a week of pressure at the United Nations General Assembly, Russia's foreign minister took the General Assembly rostrum to deliver a fiery rebuke to Western nations for what he termed a "grotesque" campaign against Russians.

Putin announced the call-up of 300,000 reservists -- more than the nearly 200,000 mustered to invade Ukraine in February -- after his troops have lost significant parts of territory seized early in the war.

"I consider it necessary to support the proposal of the Defence Ministry and of the General Staff to conduct partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation," Putin said during a televised address to the nation.