Donald Trump emerged from political exile Saturday to blast President Joe Biden and NATO over the Ukraine crisis and reprise his false claims of a stolen 2020 election in a speech to grassroots Republicans.

After Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected a Russian offer for talks in Belarus, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba today invited “foreigners willing to defend Ukraine” to contact the country’s foreign diplomatic missions.

Russian troops were seen on the streets of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday as airfields and fuel facilities suffered huge attacks in what appeared to be the next phase of an invasion.

Russian missiles have hit the Ukrainian town of Vasylkiv southwest of the capital, Kyiv, setting an oil terminal ablaze, the town's mayor said in a video posted online.

Western allies announced sweeping new sanctions against Moscow on Saturday, including kicking key Russian banks off the main global payments system, as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were repelling Russian troops advancing on Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that he asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to strip Russia of its vote at the UN Security Council as punishment for invading Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces yesterday repulsed an attack on Kyiv, officials said yesterday, as Russian forces kept pounding Ukrainian cities with artillery and cruise missiles for a third day running.

Iurii Melnyk, an associate professor of journalism at the Ivan Franko National University of Ukraine’s Lviv, is keeping the world posted after Russia began its invasion on February 24. The Daily Star’s Diplomatic Correspondent Porimol Palma caught up with him on Friday for on-the-ground information.

About 150 Bangladeshis have entered Poland from Ukraine over the last two days, fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24.

Ukrainian soldiers beat back a Russian attack in the capital Kyiv only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warns Moscow would attempt to take the city before dawn.

Snactions against Russia

Refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to pour across its western borders yesterday, with around 100,000 reaching Poland in two days and some finding temporary sanctuary in sports halls and others in churches.

Germany has approved the deliveries of 400 anti-tank rocket launchers to Ukraine, a government source said Saturday, in a U-turn from its longstanding policy of banning weapon exports to conflict zones.

All Russian units in Ukraine were on Saturday given the order to resume their offensive from all directions after a pause on Friday, the RIA news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying.

Clutching a mobile phone number of a woman she had never met, Nataliya Ableyeva crossed the border from Ukraine into Hungary on Saturday, entrusted with a precious cargo. A stranger's children.

The United States is providing Ukraine with US$350 million (S$473.71 million) in additional military equipment to fight off Russia's "brutal and unprovoked assault". Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Saturday (February 26).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue.

Nearly 120,000 people have so far fled Ukraine into Poland and other neighboring countries in the wake of Russian invasion, the UN refugee agency said on Saturday.

A Ukrainian soldier blew himself up to destroy a bridge in the southern province of Kherson to stop invading Russian tanks from marching ahead. His sacrifice to stop a column of Russian tanks is now being praised by the Ukrainian military, who has described Vitaly Skakun Volodymyrovych as a hero, NDTV reports.

At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Health Ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying on Saturday.