Russia's military

Ukraine's Western allies will launch an "artillery coalition" at a Paris ceremony Thursday, aiming to strengthen Kiev's armed forces against Russia's military.

Led by France and the United States, the 23-nation effort is part of the so-called Ramstein contact group, which gathers more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine.

Finland on Monday has signed an agreement to enhance military cooperation with the United States, saying it saw a long-term threat from Russia, a day after its giant neighbor issued a warning over Helsinki's recent entrance into NATO.

Russia's military conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill Wednesday overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country's ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

A chocolate museum in St. Petersburg. A gold mine in the Central African Republic. Oil and gas ventures off the Syrian coast.

The economic ventures of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog seller turned Wagner group warlord who staged a brief mutiny against Russia's military last month, stretch far beyond the thousands of mercenaries he deployed in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East.

The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kiev's 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers.

By the time the Russians situated along the front line realized they were under attack, it was too late.

European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to an 11th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at stopping other countries and companies from circumventing existing measures.

The new package, tweeted by Sweden as EU president, forbids transit via Russia of an expanded list of goods and technology which might aid Russia's military or security sector.

Russia's military said Tuesday it quashed what appeared to be one of the most serious cross-border attacks from Ukraine since the war began, claiming to have killed more than 70 attackers in a battle that lasted around 24 hours.

The United States on Tuesday announced charges in five cases involving alleged efforts to steal technology to benefit China, Russia and Iran including a former Apple Inc engineer accused of targeting the company's technology on autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed Russia's military would be victorious in Ukraine and blamed Western countries for the conflict, comparing the fighting to World War II during a military parade on Red Square.

Russia's advance seems to have stalled in Moscow's campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war.