#RUSSIA

Calls from the Kremlin for direct Russian flights to the U.S. to be restored as a condition for a ceasefire in Ukraine are facing opposition from the EU, Politico reported on Friday.

The Kremlin said on Friday that some progress had already been made in talks about a possible peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine but that contacts were “quite complicated” with the United States.

A drone attack also killed one person in Sumy.

The meeting involved France, Germany and the UK with U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

This is the first time Zelenskyy has openly accused China of aiding Russia in the war.

A former high-ranking Russian general has been sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security prison after being found guilty of taking bribes worth some €390,000.

The German parliament has kept the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus off its guest list for a special sitting on May 8 marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe, a spokesperson for the legislature said on Thursday.

The country has received its first increased supplies from the West.

Russian authorities in occupied Mariupol are systematically seizing thousands of homes belonging to Ukrainians, an investigation by the BBC has found.

British Typhoon fighters based in Poland and Portuguese F-16s from Estonia were scrambled for the ‘first time’ in response to abnormal behavior by a Russian aircraft, NATO’s Allied Air Command reported.

Finland will keep all border crossings with Russia closed for the foreseeable future due to ongoing security concerns, the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night.

Russia stands ready to do everything in its power to help settle differences between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program, the Kremlin’s spokesman has said.

‘Nobody can order me where to go or not to go,’ said Robert Fico.

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service says it has detained nine local residents, some of them as young as 14, recruited by Russia via the Telegram messaging app to carry out terrorist and sabotage attacks on key infrastructure.

Poland’s Commission for the Study of Russian and Belarusian Influence has submitted a list of 25 people suspected of spreading Kremlin propaganda online to the country’s Internal Security Agency, a commission member has confirmed.

Ukraine’s parliament has extended martial law until August, lawmakers said, delaying the timing of new elections that the United States and Russia have been pushing for.

Only 195,400 children were born in Russia during January and February 2025.

The U.K. has sent Ukraine a second payment of nearly $1 billion funded by profits from frozen Russian assets.

Critics have said the trial was intended to intimidate the media.