Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties have won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, amid a war in their region that is the worst conflict in Europe since World War Two.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has brought the world closer to “Armageddon” than at any time since the Cold-War Cuban Missile Crisis, US President Joe Biden has said.

A Russian missile demolished an apartment block in a Ukrainian region that Moscow says it has annexed, killing at least three people, as discontent mounted inside Russia about the handling of the war by the top brass.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that he expected the situation to “stabilise” in Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin after Moscow suffered military setbacks and lost several key towns to Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia, a move that finalizes the annexation carried out in defiance of international law.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to finalise his plan to annex four Ukrainian regions yesterday, even as his forces are being pushed back by Ukraine on two separate battlefield fronts, shrinking the amount of seized territory he controls.

Ukrainian forces achieved their biggest breakthrough in the south of the country since the war began, bursting through the front and advancing rapidly along the Dnipro River yesterday, threatening supply lines for thousands of Russian troops.

Ukraine yesterday claimed full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv’s most significant battlefield gain in weeks, providing a potential staging post for further attacks to the east while heaping further pressure on the Kremlin.

Fighting escalated in Ukraine yesterday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed four territories of the country, earning condemnations from both friends and allies.

India abstained from voting on a UN Security Council resolution that would have declared Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian territories as invalid.

NATO accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday of provoking "the most serious escalation" of the war in Ukraine since it began, but said he would not succeed in deterring the alliance from supporting Kyiv.

A defiant Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony yesterday, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation” against Kyiv even as some of his troops faced potential defeat.

An attack on a frontline civilian convoy killed at least 25 people in southern Ukraine yesterday, just hours before Moscow was due to annex four occupied Ukrainian regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday directly accused the United States and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

The United States condemns Russia’s fraudulent attempt today to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory. Russia is violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to annex parts of Ukraine in defiance of international law, vowing to protect the newly incorporated regions by “all available means” in another escalation of his seven-month invasion of the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday presided over a ceremony to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces, escalating his seven-month war and taking it into an unpredictable new phase.

Dozens of civilians were killed or wounded in what Kyiv said was a cynical Russian missile strike on a convoy of civilian cars in southern Ukraine on Friday, leaving bodies strewn across the ground.

President Vladimir Putin will sign documents today proclaiming Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, as Moscow rushes to lock in territorial claims that the Ukrainian army is threatening to reverse on the battlefield.

Moscow was poised to annex a swath of Ukraine yesterday, releasing what it called vote tallies showing support in four partially occupied provinces to join Russia, after what Kyiv and the West denounced as illegal sham referendums held at gunpoint.