Ukraine attacked a number of villages in Russia’s Belgorod border region and the occupied eastern city of Lysychansk yesterday, killing two people, authorities and Russian media said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an exclusive interview with AFP on Friday he expects Russia to step up its offensive in the northeast and warned Kyiv only has a quarter of the air defences it needs to hold the front line

President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russian forces advancing in Ukraine’s northeast were carving out a buffer zone to protect Russia from attacks and said the West was “sick in the head” if it thought it could dictate terms to Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Thursday with counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing as he seeks greater support from China for his war effort in Ukraine and his isolated economy

Russia has launched a cross-border ground offensive into Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region and fighting there is ongoing, the Ukrainian defence ministry and a high-ranking military source said yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday fired the head of the department responsible for his personal protection after two of its officers were detained this week over an alleged assassination plot

Ukraine said yesterday it had unravelled a Russian plot to assassinate senior Ukrainian political and military figures, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to hold nuclear weapons drills involving the navy and troops based near Ukraine, the defence ministry said today

Russia said yesterday its armed forces had seized the village of Ocheretyne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a string of small territorial gains for Moscow.

Ukraine said yesterday it had foiled 55 Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, a day after it admitted to a worsening situation on the front line.

Ukraine and Russia both accused each other of deadly strikes on civilians yesterday, as US lawmakers prepared to vote on a $61 billion aid package Kyiv hopes will boost its flagging war effort.

The US House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.

A Ukrainian attack on a military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea on Wednesday seriously damaged four missile launchers, three radar stations and other equipment, Ukraine’s military spy agency said yesterday.

A Russian missile attack killed at least 16 residents and damaged hospital and municipal infrastructure in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv yesterday, local officials said.

A lack of air defence missiles prevented Ukraine from thwarting a Russian missile attack last week that destroyed the biggest power plant in the region around the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Russia launched more than two dozen attack drones on Ukraine, hitting critical infrastructure in the central Zhytomyr region and damaging logistics facilities in the south, officials said yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that Kyiv will lose the war against Russia if the US Congress does not approve military aid to battle Moscow’s invasion.

Ukraine said yesterday it had destroyed at least six Russian military planes at an airbase in the southern Rostov region in a barrage of overnight drone attacks.

France's defence minister said Paris would deliver "hundreds" of armoured personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles as part a new aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders

Ukraine yesterday said that Russian shelling overnight and in the morning killed two elderly people in the eastern town of Krasnogorivka, and urged civilians still living there to evacuate.