Ankur Desai

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Ankur Desai and at 16 GMT on Thursday the 4th of December, these are our main stories.

President Putin has insisted Russia will take all of Ukraine's Donbass region by force if necessary, as he starts a visit designed to shore up his close relationship with India.

The New York Times is suing the Pentagon over its attempts to make journalists sign a pledge to only report authorised information.

Also in this podcast, a study has found that the number of preventable child deaths is due to rise this year for the first time this century.

And the latest from the US, as immigration officials have begun an operation in New Orleans to arrest undocumented immigrants.

The latest city to be targeted by President Trump's crackdown.

And the tech giant Meta says it has begun to remove the accounts of under-16s from its platforms in Australia, ahead of the country's social media ban for children.

As many of the world's leaders call for a solution to peace in the war in Ukraine, the Russian president remains steadfast in his position.

Vladimir Putin is starting a two-day visit to India, his first since his country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On his way there, President Putin said Russia wanted control of all of Ukraine's Donbass region and that if negotiations failed, they would take it by force.

He also insisted that the Europeans should stop hindering the peace process.

Well, the war in Ukraine is expected to loom large over his discussions with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India is a major buyer of Russian oil, revenues that help sustain Moscow amid the costs of the war and Western sanctions.

At the same time, Delhi is coming under increased U.S.

pressure to end that trade.

And back in August, Washington imposed 50% sanctions on Indian exports.

I asked the BBC's Arunadhe Mukherjee in Delhi how Prime Minister Modi will manage this difficult balancing act.

Now, India does have longstanding ties with Moscow, though.

So what are we expecting to come from this visit?