Kiev

"Russia is open to dialogue on ensuring strategic stability, preserving non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and improving the situation in the field of arms control," the Russian president told participants in the 10th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.
He assessed that the actions of the Kiev regime in Donbas can only be described as a crime against humanity.

Ukraine plans to ban many books in Russian as part of a wartime battle against propaganda, but the new law has divided both literature fans and booksellers alike.

"We must not confuse Russian fascism with Russian culture," said Olexander Drobin, a bookseller at the massive Petrivka book market in the capital, Kiev.

The Group of Seven economic powers are set to commit themselves to supporting Ukraine in the long haul, with the U.S. preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kiev, as leaders meet in the German Alps and confer by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Sunday morning, striking at least two residential buildings, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, as elsewhere Russian troops consolidated their gains in the east.

Associated Press journalists in Kiev saw rescue services battling flames and rescuing civilians. Klitschko said two people were hospitalized with injuries.

Ukrainian forces are facing "massive" and relentless artillery attacks in a battleground eastern city, Kiev warned, as Russian troops gained ground throughout the Donbas region.

Moscow's troops have been pummelling eastern Ukraine for weeks and are slowly advancing, despite fierce resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian military.

Ukraine on June 17 condemned the European Broadcasting Union's decision to strip it of the right to host next year's Eurovision song contest on security grounds after Russia's invasion.

The war in Ukraine could last "for years", NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned in an interview published Sunday by German daily newspaper Bild, while reiterating calls for Western countries to provide long-term support to Kiev.

US President Joe Biden announced $1 billion worth of new arms for Ukraine Wednesday as Pentagon officials defended the pace and quality of supplies as meeting Kiev's battlefield needs.

"Washington does not need peace in Ukraine, and therefore the United States has suspended negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv", a member of the negotiating group with Kyiv and the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said.

The European Commission will provide a clear signal next week on Ukraine's EU candidate status bid, its chief Ursula von der Leyen has said, as fighting rages in the east and south of the country.