Klaus Meine, the lead singer of popular German hard rock band Scorpions, revealed that they changed the lyrics of its famous song “Wind of Change” as he no longer wanted to romanticise Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, The Guardian reported.

Russian forces have seized control of half of eastern Ukraine’s key city of Severodonetsk, a senior official said yesterday, hours after EU leaders struck a watered-down deal to ban more than two-thirds of Moscow’s oil imports.

A Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11 and a half years in jail on Tuesday for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the start of Russia's invasion in February.

Russia widened its gas cuts to Europe on Tuesday with Gazprom (GAZP.MM) turning off supply to top Dutch trader GasTerra escalating the economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and pushing up European gas prices.

In underground vaults near Ukraine's battlefields, the genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops is in danger of being permanently destroyed.

A 32-year-old French journalist was killed Monday in eastern Ukraine, fatally hit by shell shrapnel while covering a Ukrainian evacuation operation, according to the French news broadcaster that he worked for.

US President Joe Biden said yesterday he would not send rocket systems to Ukraine that could hit targets well inside Russian territory, despite urgent requests from Kyiv for long-range weapons.

Ukrainian forces endured heavy artillery barrages yesterday as they held off Russian attempts to capture Severodonetsk, the largest city Kyiv still controls in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday told the leaders of France and Germany in a phone call that Russia was willing to discuss ways to make it possible for Ukraine to resume shipments of grain from Black Sea ports, the Kremlin said.

Russian forces were assaulting the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk yesterday after saying they had captured the nearby rail hub of Lyman as Moscow pressed its offensive in the eastern Donbas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused Western countries of waging a “total war” on Russia and its people and culture as Moscow pushes on with its military operation in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed yesterday that Vladimir Putin will neither win the Ukraine war nor dictate the terms for peace, as Russian troops made fresh attempts to take a key eastern city.

Russia is advancing a new law allowing it to take control of the local businesses of western companies that decide to leave in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, raising the stakes for multinationals trying to exit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the West remained divided over the extent of its support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s months-long invasion.

Russia is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying on Wednesday.

Russia's parliament on Wednesday passed a law scrapping an upper age limit for people signing up to join the army, in a sign Moscow may be looking to recruit more troops for its military campaign in Ukraine.

Russia's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus in Moscow if a Western country has been "unfriendly" to Russian media, following the closure of some Russian state news outlets in the West.

Russian forces were launching an all-out assault to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine yesterday, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow’s main campaign in the east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used the Davos summit to appeal for more weapons and “maximum” sanctions against Russia, lamenting that tens of thousands of lives would have been saved had countries acted faster.

A Ukrainian court sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison Monday for killing a Ukrainian civilian, sealing the first guilty conviction for war crimes since Moscow’s invasion three months ago.