Russia now controls more than two-thirds of Ukraine’s Donetsk region — the main theater of the ground war. Russian forces have carved out a 10-mile-deep pocket around the Ukrainian troops defending the crucial city of Kostiantynivka, partly surrounding them from the east, south and west.

US President Donald Trump’s 50-day pause ahead of possible secondary sanctions on Russia gifts the Kremlin a window to exploit the incremental gains of recent weeks in Ukraine’s east.

Fresh off securing a plan to receive more U.S. weaponry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister – the key negotiator of his country’s deal with the U.S. to partner on the development of minerals.

At least three people have died following another widespread air bombardment by Russia. Two people were killed in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the regional governor, Sergiy Lysak, said, while a woman died of her injuries after being rescued from a burning apartment in Odesa, according to emergency services.

Ukraine's parliament appointed the country's first new prime minister in five years on Thursday, part of a major cabinet overhaul aimed at revitalising wartime management as prospects for peace with Russia grow dim.

Three days earlier, the war had spilled across the breadth of Russia as the Ukrainians smuggled a fleet of cheap drones across the border and used them to attack several military airfields, damaging or destroying Russian warplanes worth billions of dollars.

More than a dozen war veterans from Ukraine will be on hand when Oleksandr Usyk faces Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night in the pair’s fight to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion.

Australia has sent the first batch of decommissioned tanks as part of its support for Ukraine's fight against Russia.