Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian positions along the frontlines in eastern Donetsk region yesterday in what appeared to be early salvoes of a new offensive as Nato allies met in Brussels to plan stepped-up supplies to the Kyiv government.

Russia said yesterday its troops had pushed forward a few kilometres along the frontlines in Ukraine, while Kyiv said its forces had repelled Russian attacks in several areas.

Russian oil exports had increased 7.6 percent over 2022 compared to a year earlier

Ukraine’s forces hold defence along the frontline in Donetsk, including the besieged town of Bakhmut, with the fiercest battles raging for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Saturday.

A US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Canada on Saturday, the second such incident in North American skies since the dramatic downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon a week ago.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday said he might strip his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of France’s top honour, but is waiting for the “right moment” to do so.

EU leaders have agreed tougher rules aimed at making it easier to expel asylum-seekers whose refugee applications are denied, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday.

Three years of extreme drought may have brought about the collapse of the mighty Hittite Empire around 1200 BC, researchers have said, linking the plight of the fallen civilisation to the modern world’s climate crisis.

The Kremlin yesterday endorsed a blog post by the US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that alleges the United States was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, saying it should be taken seriously.

One in three children worldwide does not have access to clean drinking water while at school, impacting their health and ability to learn, the United Nations said yesterday.

Nurses and ambulances staff yesterday stepped up their demands for better pay to combat the UK’s cost of living crisis with their biggest round of health service strikes.

Tremors from the powerful earthquake that rocked Turkey and neighbouring Syria yesterday were felt as far away as Greenland, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland said.

A mother and her seven children aged two to 14 died after a fire broke out while they slept in their house in northern France today, police and firefighters said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky agrees that weapons supplied by the West will not be used to attack Russian territory, Germany’s leader said in an interview yesterday.

A woman and child have drowned and 41 people were rescued after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey sank off the Greek island of Leros, Greece’s coastguard said yesterday.

Italy’s coastguard recovered the bodies of eight migrants in the Mediterranean, officials said yesterday, as a debate rages over Rome’s crackdown on rescue charities in the world’s deadliest crossing.

French security forces yesterday detained a 24-year-old man who threatened to blow himself up on a high-speed train and were evaluating his psychiatric health after finding no explosives on him, police said.

Striking workers disrupted French refinery deliveries, public transport and schools today, in a second day of nationwide protests over President Emmanuel Macron's plan to make people work longer before retirement.

Russian forces claimed incremental gains in eastern Ukraine yesterday adding up to their biggest advances in months, after relentless battles that Kyiv described as human wave attacks which showed Moscow had no regard for the lives of its own men.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday dismissed a senior ally whose murky tax dealings have focussed anger at the government as a cost-of-living crisis brings misery to millions.