RUSSIA

Matrosov was a former rocket engine factory worker and was facing 15 years in prison if he had been charged with murder.

Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, a claim that London said was false and designed to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine.

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), in a scathing statement, has called for the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner.

A senior Ukrainian official predicted "the heaviest of battles" to come for the partially Russian occupied strategic southern province of Kherson and said Moscow's military is digging in to face advancing Ukrainian forces.

Oil rose in early Asian trade on Monday as expectations of tighter supplies globally ahead of European Union sanctions on Russian oil underpinned prices.

Germany's interior ministry fired the country's cybersecurity chief on Tuesday and launched an investigation into his conduct after media allegations that he may have come into contact with Russian security circles through a consultancy he co-founded.

More than 100 Ukrainian women are testifying to their government regarding their traumatic experience with the Russian soldiers.

Intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces was taking place around two towns in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Bakhmut and Soledar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

A pro-Russia, anti-gay politician was elected speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament on Friday, a day after a nationalist lawmaker who collects fascist memorabilia became speaker of the Senate.

The first group of such volunteer recruits arrived in July and more than 5,700 have already taken the course.

A 47-year-old underworld criminal who was released by the Russian government so he could go and fight in Ukraine was shot dead after he tried to escape the war.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Ukraine's financing needs in 2023 will range between $3 billion and $4 billion a month.

Tens of thousands of Russians have fled since Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February and then announced a nationwide military call-up in September.

The United Nations General Assembly voted on Monday to reject Russia's call for the 193-member body to hold a secret ballot later this week on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.

The UN secretary-general, as the leading defender of the world body's values, bluntly denounced the annexations.

Victoriia Maslova abandoned her herbal cosmetics factory in the Ukrainian town of Bucha on the first day of Russia's invasion of the country, fleeing to Poland with her mother and three younger brothers when rockets began hitting a nearby airport.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia on Thursday of "nuclear blackmail" over its seizure of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine.

Russians opposed to the war in Ukraine or fearful of being sent to fight there have fled to Kazakhstan in their hundreds of thousands, but many are finding new problems on arrival.

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine poured scorn on Moscow's generals on Thursday and suggested its defence minister should shoot himself because of failures in the Ukraine conflict, in a highly rare public rebuke of the Kremlin's top brass.

A crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Europe has strengthened suspicions of "gross sabotage" involving detonations, Sweden's Security Service said on Thursday.

Ukraine says recaptured vast tracts of key Kherson region