Russia said on Thursday it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned "unfriendly" countries, including all EU members, that they would be cut off from Russian gas unless they opened an account in roubles to pay for deliveries.

US intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by advisers about his military’s poor performance in Ukraine, according to the White House. The advisers are scared to tell him the truth, the intel says.

Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine yesterday, a day after promising to scale down operations there in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.

The Kremlin indicated on Wednesday that all of Russia's energy and commodity exports could be priced in roubles, toughening President Vladimir Putin's attempt to make the West feel the pain of the sanctions it imposed for the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine on Wednesday, a day after promising to scale down operations there in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today told parliament that Bangladesh did not vote against Russia in the United Nations as the proposal was against a single country.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told parliament today that the prolongation of ongoing Russia-Ukraine war would increase the cost of transportation and agricultural production in the country due to further rise in fuel prices in the global market.

A dozen members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged President Joe Biden's administration to push for Russia's removal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, citing its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia said it would scale down fighting around two Ukrainian cities following “meaningful” talks with Ukraine yesterday, as officials raised the prospect of a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.

Russia’s Wagner Group has deployed its mercenaries to eastern Ukraine, the UK’s ministry of defence said Monday, adding that over 1,000 would likely take part in fighting following Russian setbacks.

Russia promised at peace talks on Tuesday to scale down its military operations around Kyiv and northern Ukraine, while Ukraine proposed adopting a neutral status but with international guarantees that it would be protected from attack.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Turkey on Tuesday for the first face-to-face talks in nearly three weeks, with Ukraine seeking a ceasefire without compromising on territory or sovereignty as its forces have pushed Russians back from Kyiv.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added Russia's AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA to its list of communications equipment and service providers deemed threats to US national security.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after a meeting in Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal and the investigative outlet Bellingcat reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol since Russian forces laid siege to it, a spokesperson for the city mayor said on Monday.

New fires have broken out in the exclusion zone around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine is willing to become neutral and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbass region as part of a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, even as another top Ukrainian official accused Russia of aiming to carve the country in two.

Russia's communications watchdog told Russian media on Sunday to refrain from reporting an interview done with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said it had started a probe into the outlets which had interviewed the Ukrainian leader.

Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said yesterday, vowing “total” guerrilla warfare to prevent a carve up of the country.