Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published on Friday that he saw no objective signs that Ukraine or the West were ready for peace talks despite all their increasingly loud statements about the need for such talks.

Russia says it's withstanding the impact of sanctions. Sweden's finance minister says satellite images show a different story.

Across Russian-occupied Ukraine, Kremlin troops have shuttered places of worship since the first invasion began in 2014. Religious persecution only increased after the full-scale invasion in February 2022—proof that Putin’s conquest contains a religious component, say local Protestant leaders.

It is possible Russia could deploy its nuclear-powered submarines to the Mediterranean, but that is unlikely. The waters are a de facto NATO lake that has limited entry points and the Kremlin may not want to have the movements of the subs tracked.

Tens of thousands of people in Slovakia have gathered at squares and street across the country to voice their opposition to the pro-Russia policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico

Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing the two countries’ close ties, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president.

Russia's new strategy in Ukraine is focused on securing as many natural resources in the country as it can in order to cash in on their value.

Russia has had battlefield momentum but its recent territorial gains have been at the expense of high personnel losses.

Any conversation between the two would mark the first time a sitting U.S. president and Putin have spoken since the war in Ukraine began, although former President Joe Biden held phone calls with Putin multiple times in the leadup to Moscow's invasion to urge Putin against it.

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, has been making signs of reaching out to the West. He is all but certain to win an election on Sunday.