Ukraine

Poland's prime minister said on Monday his government would ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine - and planned to send them whether or not Berlin agreed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday there was "no alternative" but for the West to give Ukraine heavy tanks.

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday announced plans to increase France's defence budget by a third for the next seven years, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year rattled Europe.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday urged allies to double down on sending military equipment to support Ukraine and speed up an end to the war with Russia.

Ukraine needs a "significant increase" in weapons at a pivotal moment in Russia's invasion and such support is the only way to a negotiated peaceful solution, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Saturday that his government would provide 14 Challenger 2 tanks, leading Russia to charge that Britain was worsening the conflict.

The Kremlin said on Monday that tanks Britain plans to send to Ukraine "will burn", warning the West that supplying a new round of more advanced weapons to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev slammed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the latter's "subservience" to the United States.

Ukraine's European allies have sent Kyiv more than 300 modernised Soviet tanks since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine said on Thursday its troops were holding out despite heavy fighting on a battlefield littered with bodies in a salt mining town in eastern Ukraine, where Russian mercenaries have claimed Moscow's first significant gain in half a year.

The two leaders will also discuss Japan's current presidency of the G7 and "the need to maintain our collective support for Ukraine"

Two British nationals who were helping evacuate civilians in Ukraine have been missing since January 6.

The French astrologer Nostradamus made several predictions about the future of the human race, and some of them even came true.

An auto garage in Kyiv is giving beat-up cars a second life as battle-ready vehicles for Ukraine's military, trying to plug a supply gap as the war with Russia grinds on.

Russia's defence ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly.

A Russian missile attack destroyed an ice arena in the town of Druzhkivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Monday, Ukraine's ice hockey federation said, following earlier reports of a missile hitting the town and injuring two people.

Russia continued intense attacks on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early on New Year's Day, following a barrage of missiles fired on Saturday, with air raid sirens wailing for hours overnight.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were urged to head to air raid shelters early on Friday as sirens wailed across the city, a day after Russia carried out the biggest aerial assault since it started the war in February.

A fresh barrage of Russian missiles battered Ukraine on Thursday, wounding at least five people including a teenager and cutting electricity in the west.

Russia retaliated on Tuesday against a price cap on its oil imposed by Western countries, while its forces were involved in heavy fighting around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Russian lawmaker and philanthropist Pavel Antov was found dead in a hotel in the Indian state of Odisha.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave Ukraine an ultimatum on Monday to fulfil Moscow's proposals, including surrendering territory Russia controls, or its army would decide the issue, a day after President Vladimir Putin said he was open to talks.

Moscow said on Monday its forces had shot down a Ukrainian drone close to a long-range bomber base deep inside Russia, while Ukraine said the Russians had unleashed heavy artillery barrages on its cities in the past 24 hours.

The Ukrainian army counted 71 strikes on the partly recaptured Kherson region on Saturday, including 41 on the city.

The pope has called for peace in Ukraine ever since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, condemning the war but seeking to maintain a delicate dialogue with Moscow.

A day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin has started speaking of wanting to end the war.

The Ukrainian military has been able to intercept calls between Russian soldiers and their families back home in Russia.

Biden said he is confident that the Western alliance in support of Ukraine would remain united.

The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled new curbs on technology exports to Russia's Wagner military group, in a bid to further choke off supplies to the contractor over its role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the Russian army must learn from and fix the problems it had suffered in Ukraine, promising to give the military whatever it needed to prosecute a war nearing the end of its 10th month.