Conflict

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed progress towards joining the EU as Russian forces pound Kharkiv and the eastern Donbas region.

Ukraine has acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east as Russian forces step up pressure and make major advances on two cities in Luhansk.

Nato is warning the war in Ukraine could last for years, as the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.

Britain will host talks on rebuilding key infrastructure in Kyiv on Friday, after the leaders of Germany, France and Italy visited Ukraine and offered it the hope of EU membership.

China's leader Xi Jinping's approval comes just weeks after Beijing signed a security pact with Solomon Islands.

More than 300 Sri Lankans have tried to get to Australia in the past few weeks as the country's economic crisis has worsened.

Russian shelling has caused a huge fire at a chemical plant in Ukraine's Severodonetsk city where "non-stop" fighting rages, the regional head says.

Analysis - After a two-year hiatus, Asia's most important defence summit returns this weekend. Professor David Capie in Singapore gives a preview of what to expect.

The forces are successfully holding out against the assault in Sievierodonetsk, the armed forces general staff say.

Ukrainian forces still holding out in the eastern city of Severodonetsk are outnumbered by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The UK is sending its first long-range missiles to Ukraine, the defence secretary has said, despite a threat from Russia to the West.

Mass shootings in Pennsylvania and Tennessee have killed at least six people and wounded more than 25.

Russia will expand the list of targets it will attack in Ukraine if Western countries send them long-range weapons, President Vladimir Putin says.

A number of explosions have hit parts of Kyiv in the first assault on Ukraine's capital for weeks.

Ukraine says it has recaptured a swathe of the battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk in a rare counter-offensive against Russia's main assault force that had been steadily advancing in the east.

Thousands of people marched through a drizzly central Auckland to honour victims of the Ukraine War.

Russia's moves against Gazprom Germania could cost German taxpayers and gas users an extra 5 billion euros ($8.2b) a year to pay for replacement gas.

Finland and Sweden joining Nato would put Russia in a difficult military position in the Baltic Sea, top US General Mark Milley says.