Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 10 prisoners of war each in Belarus, Moscow's Human Rights Commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has reaffirmed France's long-term commitment to Ukraine during talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The two discussed Russia's ongoing attacks on Ukrainian cities, critical infrastructure and civilians, as well as efforts to increase pressure on Moscow.
Barrot reiterated France's support through bilateral aid, European initiatives and its G7 role, while both sides also looked ahead to the upcoming UN General Assembly.
Paris said it would continue working with partners to support Ukraine until a "just and lasting peace" is achieved.
Russian forces have struck an industrial facility in Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles, injuring two people, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's defence council.
Vilkul said the attack targeted the central Ukrainian city, which is a major steel and mining hub.
Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday, according to a Reuters witness.
There was no immediate information on casualties or damage
Russian forces have attacked an industrial facility in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, according to local authorities.
Officials said emergency services were responding to the strike, while the extent of the damage and any casualties were not immediately clear.
Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been a frequent target of Russian missile and drone attacks throughout the war.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said he expects a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill to clear the House of Representatives next month, describing the proposed legislation as a "sledgehammer" aimed at cutting off funding for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The bill would target senior Russian officials and allow President Donald Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
Speaking during a visit to Kyiv, Blumenthal said the measure has strong support and argued that increased economic pressure is needed to influence President Vladimir Putin's actions.
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that Russian forces had struck a cargo vessel used to supply Ukraine's military at the port of Izmail.
The ministry said the drone attack also hit fuel storage facilities and port infrastructure.
Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving to escalate the war in Ukraine as peace talks have reached a dead end.
The report comes as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict face growing obstacles, with no clear breakthrough in negotiations.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has halted its service to Russia's Black Sea ports due to drone attacks, the company said.
The decision comes amid heightened security concerns in the region following a series of drone attacks.
The U.S. has extended a Russia-related general licence allowing transactions linked to imports of certain diamonds for another year, despite its sanctions on Moscow.
The licence, which was due to expire on 1 September, has been extended until 1 September 2027.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow on Tuesday may bear fruit, U.S. President Donald Trump has said in a radio interview.
"Now something may come... out of it. We're working very hard to get that war ended," Trump told the Glenn Beck Program, referring to the war in Ukraine.
Asked whether the CIA chief went to Moscow to discuss potential Russian action to test the NATO military alliance or to discuss Iran sanctions, Trump added, "None of the above. He's there, you know, very sort of semi-routine."
The last known visit by a CIA Director to the Russian capital took place when Ratcliffe's predecessor William Burns held talks with Putin in November 2021, three months before the war in Ukraine began.
A Ukrainian drone strike completely destroyed a warehouse used by Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in the Tambov Oblast, central Russia, the region's Governor has said.
The logistics centre was "completely destroyed by fire," Evgeniy Pervshov said. Two people were injured in the overnight strike, he added.
Ukraine has been hitting Wildberries facilities since mid-July and broadened its strategy in recent days to include the retailer's main rival, Ozon.
More than 20 Wildberries and Ozon warehouses have been attacked with at least 1.9 million square metres of warehouse space severely damaged by fire, according to Reuters analysis of satellite imagery.
Nine people were killed when a Ukrainian strike hit a bus in the Russian-controlled part of Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, the region's Russian-installed Governor Leonid Pasechnik said.
Pasechnik said the bus was travelling from the city of Lysychansk to the city of Kadiivka at the time of the strike.
Two of the suspects arrested on Tuesday over a plot to set fire to a drone factory in eastern Slovakia are Latvian, while the third is Ukrainian, the Slovak prosecution has said.
Earlier, The Kyiv Independent reported that the factory targeted was one owned by Ukrainian firm Skyeton in the city of Prešov, citing a representative from the company speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Ukraine will strengthen the eastern Donetsk front, a key area of Russian pressure, with two units led by well-known commanders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
Azov Corps commander Denys Prokopenko and Andriy Biletsky, who commands the Third Army Corps, will lead the newly created units, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Prokopenko, 35, a Brigadier General, joined Ukraine's armed forces in 2014 as a civilian volunteer. He rose to fame after leading the defence of the port city of Mariupol in 2022. He surrendered to the Russian military on 20 May 2022 and was held in captivity in Russia.
In September 2022, Prokopenko was released in a prisoner swap and moved to Türkiye, as part of a deal. He returned to Ukraine in July 2023.
The Kremlin has accused Prokopenko and the Azov Brigade, which he served in, of holding neo-Nazi beliefs. Prokopenko has denied the claims.
Three foreign nationals arrested on Tuesday over a plot to attack a drone factory in the east of Slovakia targeted the Ukrainian-owned Skyeton facility in the city of Prešov, a representative of the firm has confirmed to Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent.
"The Russians regularly attempt to attack both our production facilities in Ukraine and our reputation," the representative, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, told the newspaper.
Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyeton invested $3.5 million into the factory in Prešov in 2024 to launch production of long-range combat drones.
Up to 70 vessels are waiting near the Danube's Sulina Canal for access to Ukrainian ports to load grain for export, traders and analysts said on Wednesday, with a shortage of pilots and priority given to other cargoes creating long delays.
After Russian attacks effectively blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports, which had handled 90 per cent of the country's grain exports, some shipments were rerouted through Danube river ports, which have much lower capacity.
Grain cargoes are competing for access with higher-priority shipments such as fuel, slowing exports. Frequent air raid alerts, which force the suspension of all port operations, have added to the disruption.
Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain exporters and disruptions to its shipments can drive up global prices.
Armenia won't prevent Russians escaping potential mobilisation from entering the country, Alen Simonyan, the country's Security Council Secretary has said.
During an interview with Russian TV channel, Dozhd, Simonyan was asked whether Armenia would be prepared to accept Russians seeking to avoid being sent to the front line.
"Nobody at the border is going to ask anyone why they have come here," Simonyan replied.
"Armenia will in no way obstruct [their arrival], and if necessary, we will help," he added.
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has been given one of Ukraine's top state honours, the Order of Freedom, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Kyiv's armed forces have relied on Musk's Starlink satellite internet for battlefield communication and piloting drones since the onset of the conflict in 2022.
The decision to bestow trillionaire Musk with the honour comes as Ukraine seeks to expand its use of Musk's Starlink internet service.
A presidential decree published online on Wednesday praised Musk for his "outstanding personal contributions to protecting human life and freedom, and for developing relations between the peoples of Ukraine and the United States of America."
Musk switched on the Starlink satellite internet service over Ukraine shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
At the behest of former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, Musk agreed to turn off thousands of Russian "grey-market" Starlinks in Ukraine this year, causing problems for Moscow's forces.
Hungary’s new government has formally designated Russia as a threat to the country, Europe and the global order.
The move marks a clear break with the more Moscow-friendly foreign policy pursued under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Ukraine is definitely losing the war with Russia, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said, in response to remarks made by Kyiv's ousted Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov warning that the country appeared to be slowly losing its battle with Russia.
"I think that there's now a turning point which will determine our future trajectory, but it looks as though we're gradually, slowly losing," Fedorov said on Tuesday, in a marked departure from Kyiv's official rhetoric.
The Kremlin added that it was too early to say if a deep crisis in U.S.-Russia relations could be overcome.
Kyiv's military struck Lukoil's NORSI oil refinery in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region overnight, the Ukrainian General Staff has said. The strike caused a fire at the site and the extent of the damage was being assessed, the General Staff said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged ten prisoners of war each, Yana Lantratova, Moscow's Human Rights Commissioner has said.
She told Russia's Zvezda TV station that the exchange took place in Belarus, adding that the Russian prisoners of war would arrive home later on Wednesday.
Thousands of prisoners have been exchanged between Moscow and Kyiv since the start of the conflict in February 2022.
A Russian guided aerial bomb attack has seriously damaged a combined heat and power plant in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson, the plant's owner, Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz, has said.
Repairs to NKHP's grain terminal at Russia's port of Novorossiysk could take between one and four months, the company said on Wednesday in a financial report.
Operations have been halted at the facility since 12 August when it suffered damage during an overnight drone strike.
Executives at the last major Russian bank operating in Europe could have made more than $10.5 million (€9 million) by buying up cut-price Gazprom bonds stuck in Europe due to sanctions and exchanging them for full-value equivalents in Russia, the Financial Times has reported.
The four senior bankers at Gazprombank's Luxembourg outpost received millions of euros in personal loans from their employer to fund more than 50 transactions, according to documents seen by the newspaper.
Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't meet CIA Director John Ratcliffe during the latter's visit to Moscow on Tuesday, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told Russia's state-owned TASS news agency.
"No meetings with Putin were planned," Peskov said.
Peskov separately told the Washington Post that Ratcliffe's visit involved "contacts between security services," but didn't provide additional details.
Ukraine's General Staff has shared an update on what it says are the combat losses suffered by Russia since the beginning of the conflict up to Wednesday.
Ukraine shot down or neutralised 134 drones overnight, the country's General Staff said in a post on X, adding that it was attacked with 162 drones in total.
Russia downed 426 drones overnight, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying. The figure includes Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the comments after Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Ukraine on its Independence Day, which marked 35 years since the country declared independence from the Soviet Union.
“I thank Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his congratulations to Ukraine on our most important national holiday,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that Kyiv valued its relations with Beijing, which he said had been built over more than 35 years on mutual respect and recognition of the values of both peoples.
A Wildberries warehouse in Russia’s Tambov region caught fire after a drone attack, regional Governor Evgeniy Pervyshov said. One person was injured in the incident.
Russia and Ukraine are discussing a new 'quite big' swap of prisoners of war, Russian news agency TASS cited Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova as saying on Wednesday.
Thousands of prisoners have been exchanged since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
An agreement in May to swap a further 1,000 captives each, was one of the main tangible results of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
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Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the weekend BRICS summit, amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, joining a host of foreign dignitaries.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
A Russian strike on a gas station in Kyiv has killed two people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement on Telegram. In Russia, online marketplace Ozon has suspended operations in Saratov, southwestern Russia, following a drone strike on a warehouse in the region.
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks drew the U.S. into Afghanistan, the Taliban is seeking a new relationship with Washington built on diplomacy, investment and trade, despite deep divisions between the former enemies.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck two cargo vessels overnight in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia has temporarily shut down its 1,200-kilometre East-West oil pipeline after it was hit by a drone attack, with Riyadh and Baghdad saying the strike originated from Iraq.
U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Dublin on Saturday to meet Ireland’s leaders. He will also attend a golf tournament at one of his resorts, taking a brief detour from his focus on the Iran war and his party’s efforts to retain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Dubai’s property market has spent years climbing. Now, for the first time since 2021, prices are moving in the opposite direction.
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella has formally ended all government peace negotiations with illegal armed groups, marking a dramatic shift in the country's security strategy and delivering on a central pledge from his election campaign.
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