By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) -Two lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany travel next week to Russia while under fire from opponents for the party's ties to the Kremlin and accusations - strongly denied - that it could be passing on sensitive military information.

Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war make no impact on the battlefield.

Bulgaria is drafting new legislation that will allow it to seize control of an important oil refinery belonging to Russia's sanctioned oil giant Lukoil.The Burgas refinery is the only one of its kind in Bulgaria and was a vital party of Lukoil's foreign business empire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine on Wednesday of fomenting trouble in neighbouring Belarus, and said Moscow saw no point in engaging with a Belarusian opposition council that has emerged amid nationwide anti-government protests.

Ukraine's military reportedly struck and damaged Russia's Volgograd oil refinery overnight on Nov. 6, Russian Telegram media channels reported, as explosions rocked several Russian energy sites.

Russia announced "next-generation" weapons in 2018, including the Poseidon torpedo, which can be fired by the new "Khabarovsk."

Russia's Chumakov Center has started phase three trials of CoviVac, Russia's third vaccine against COVID-19, the Interfax news agency cited a government minister as saying on Thursday.

In considering the many effects of the war in Ukraine on the Russian economy, few suspected that fuel shortages would be one of them. After all, Russia is an oil-rich country whose energy infrastructure is far from the frontlines;

Alexei Zhuravlev also said Russia isn't restricted from sending offensive weapons, such as the Oreshnik ballistic missile, to Venezuela.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow disagreed with Turkey's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and that a military solution was unacceptable.