The Russian parliament has passed a set of laws allowing Moscow not to comply with the top European human rights court’s rulings.

Ukrainian and Russian troops fought street-by-street to win control of the industrial city of Severodonetsk yesterday in the pivotal battle of the Kremlin’s eastern Ukraine offensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that Moscow will hit new targets if the West supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Russia struck Ukraine's capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday for the first time in more than a month, while Ukrainian officials said a counter-attack on the main battlefield in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk.

Ukraine yesterday said its forces were managing to push back against Russian troops in fierce fighting in Severodonetsk despite Russia “throwing all its power” into capturing the strategic eastern city.

Two Reuters journalists were injured and a driver killed on Friday after the vehicle they were in came under fire while heading to the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, the latest battle line in Russia's assault on its neighbour.

The United Nations said yesterday there would be no victor from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the conflict entered its 100th day and Moscow’s forces pressed deeper into the eastern Donbas region.

The European Union on Thursday gave its final approval to new sanctions on Russian oil and top bank Sberbank, after much wrangling with Hungary, as punishment for Russian President Vladimir Putin's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian troops fought to take complete control of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday as the United States said it will provide Ukraine with advanced rockets to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.

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.