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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has emphasized the need for sustained &ldquo;confidence-building measures&rdquo; and expedited &ldquo;resumption of negotiations,&rdquo; reiterating Islamabad&rsquo;s deep concern over the ongoing war in Ukraine.&nbsp; Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the ensuing conflict resulting in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins. Speaking at the UNSC, Acting UN Permanent Representative of Pakistan Ambassador Usman Jadoon, the ambassador said, &ldquo;The conflict has persisted for over four years, resulting in widespread devastation that has severely impacted human lives and livelihoods.&rdquo; He said that Islamabad was concerned about the prolongation of the war, condemning reports of increased attacks. Such actions prolong the conflict, erode trust, and obstruct meaningful progress toward peace, he said, stressing that civilians remained the primary victims.&nbsp; The ambassador reiterated that protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and civilian infrastructure was a fundamental legal obligation under international humanitarian law, which all parties must uphold under all circumstances. Welcoming the recent ceasefire announcements, the ambassador said these measures can help build confidence and should be sustained to create an enabling environment for a complete ceasefire and lasting peace. He also urged both parties to &ldquo;prioritize diplomacy, demonstrate genuine political will, and move forward constructively toward a just and enduring solution.&rdquo;

Foreign Affairs

Acting UN Permanent Representative of Pakistan says Islamabad is concerned about the prolongation of the war, condemns reports of increased attacks.

At UN, Pakistan calls for confidence-building measures, revival of talks on Ukraine

KYIV: Russia pummeled Kyiv for hours on Thursday, firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in an attack that killed at least 16 people, including two children, and further shredded hopes of a halt to Moscow&#39;s grinding invasion. AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens wailing across the city before several hours of thunderous explosions and flashes in the sky sent Kyiv residents running to shelter in metro stations. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defense units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles. &quot;Everything was burning. People were screaming ... people were shouting,&quot; Andriy, a Kyiv resident still wearing a nightgown and with blood stains on his shirt, told AFP near a collapsed Soviet-era residential building. President Volodymyr Zelensky said 20 sites in the capital were damaged, including homes, a school, a veterinary clinic and other civilian infrastructure. &quot;Work is still ongoing in Kyiv at the site of the strike on the building &mdash; a Russian missile strike that literally levelled a residential block, from the first to the ninth floor,&quot; he said in an evening address. Sixteen people, including two children, were killed by the attacks, said Ukraine&#39;s emergency service. Seven bodies were pulled from the rubble of a single destroyed residential building &mdash; three men, three women, and a young girl, police said. Another 45 were wounded. Ballistic challenge&nbsp;Russian attacks also wounded people in the southern regions of Odesa and Kherson, and in the eastern region of Kharkiv. &quot;These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end. It is important that partners do not remain silent about this strike,&quot; Zelensky said. Ukraine said it shot down 94% of all drones and 73% of the missiles fired by Russia. &quot;The most difficult challenge is defending against ballistic missiles,&quot; he said. A slew of Ukraine&#39;s allies, including the United Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands, Moldova, and Slovakia, condemned the fatal attacks. &quot;By bombing civilians, Russia demonstrates less its strength than its weakness: it is running out of solutions on the military front and does not know how to end its war of aggression,&quot; French President Emmanuel Macron said. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the attacks on Kyiv showed that Russia &quot;openly mocks&quot; efforts to end the war. Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, said the wave of missiles and drones had targeted military-linked sites and energy facilities that support the Ukrainian army. The conflict is the worst in Europe since World War II and has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. Chaotic rescue scenes&nbsp;At daybreak, AFP journalists witnessed chaotic scenes as rescue workers dug through mounds of debris from a collapsed residential building. Emergency service workers were seen hauling from the site those wounded and killed in the strikes, and residents cried as they waited for news of loved ones and neighbors. The barrage is the latest setback for efforts to end the conflict after US President Donald Trump raised faint hopes for peace by brokering a three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow last week. Russia&#39;s leader, Vladimir Putin, also suggested the war could be winding down. But the brief truce was marred by allegations of violations, and both sides resumed attacks straight after. Russia&#39;s army fired more than 1,500 drones at Ukraine over Wednesday and Thursday, Kyiv&#39;s air force said. The Kremlin has poured cold water on the idea that vague comments from Putin last Saturday that the war was &quot;heading to an end&quot; meant Moscow would soften its position. On Wednesday, it repeated its demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region before a ceasefire and full-scale peace talks can take place. Kyiv has rejected such a move as tantamount to capitulation. Kyiv has urged Trump to discuss ending the conflict during his meetings in Beijing this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. &quot;This barbaric attack during such an important summit shows that the Russian regime poses a global threat to international security. Instead of peace and development, Moscow pursues aggression and terror,&quot; Ukraine&#39;s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said. Russian drones on Thursday also struck a UN vehicle in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of having deliberately targeted it, but adding there were no casualties.

Europe

Ukrainian air force says Russia launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defense units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles; journalists in the capital hear air raid sirens wailing across the city before several hours of thunderous explosions, flashes in the sky.

Russia pummels Kyiv, killing at least 16 and denting peace hopes

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the war in Ukraine was winding down, slamming Western support for Kyiv, as the first day of a US-brokered ceasefire was marked by mutual accusations of violations.&nbsp;The Russian leader has made the memory of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II a central narrative of his 25-year rule and repeatedly invoked it to justify his Ukraine offensive.&nbsp;Russian authorities typically mark the Victory Day parade with pomp and grandeur. But a spate of Ukrainian long-range attacks in recent weeks prompted the Kremlin to ramp up security measures and downsize this year&#39;s celebrations.&nbsp;When asked after the parade whether the Western military aid to Ukraine had gone too far, Putin said: &quot;They started ratcheting up the confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day.&nbsp;&quot;I think it (the conflict) is heading to an end but it&#39;s still a serious matter.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;They spent months waiting for Russia to suffer a crushing defeat, for its statehood to collapse. It didn&#39;t work out.&nbsp;&quot;And then they got stuck in that groove and now they can&#39;t get out of it,&quot; Putin said, referring to the Western countries.&nbsp;Putin added he was ready to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a third country only once all conditions for a potential peace agreement were settled.&nbsp;&quot;This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,&quot; he said.&nbsp;Ceasefire violationsAfter two failed attempts at truces this week by both Russia and Ukraine, US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a three-day ceasefire between both sides would come into effect from Saturday.&nbsp;Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of violations, but no major strikes were reported, despite continued drone activity and civilian casualties on both sides.&nbsp;&quot;Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,&quot; Trump posted on his Truth Social network, adding the ceasefire would be accompanied by a prisoner exchange.&nbsp;The Kremlin said that as of now there were no plans to prolong the truce.&nbsp;The warring sides also agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners each during the truce. But Putin said Saturday that Russia had not yet received any proposals from Ukraine on the exchange.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Ukraine war was nearing an end while criticizing Western support for Kyiv, as Russia and Ukraine exchanged ceasefire violation accusations despite a US-brokered three-day truce and planned prisoner swap.

Putin says Ukraine war is 'heading to an end'

MOSCOW: Russia said Friday it intercepted drones bound for Moscow after warning of a potential retaliatory strike on Kyiv despite a two-day unilateral ceasefire it declared around its World War II victory holiday.&nbsp;Ukraine had blasted Russia&#39;s temporary truce as a propaganda measure to protect the victory parade on May 9, one of the most important patriotic events for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.&nbsp;Hours before Russia&#39;s ceasefire began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned allies of Russia against attending the parade.&nbsp;&quot;We have also received messages from some states close to Russia, saying that their representatives plan to be in Moscow... A strange desire... in these days. We do not recommend it,&quot; Zelensky said.&nbsp;&quot;They want from Ukraine a permit to hold their parade so that they can go out onto the square safely for one hour once a year, and then go on killing,&quot; the Ukrainian leader added.&nbsp;Zelensky had earlier proposed a counter-truce from May 6 that has gone unheeded.&nbsp;With Moscow doubling down on its attacks on Ukraine in the last days, Kyiv has struck back.&nbsp;Russia&#39;s defense ministry said on Thursday that its forces had destroyed almost 350 Ukrainian drones overnight.&nbsp;Another 20 were intercepted in the two hours after Moscow&#39;s truce began, according to a series of updates by city mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Russian social media Max.&nbsp;The Russian defense ministry had, in turn, urged residents and diplomats to leave Kyiv, threatening a potential retaliatory strike in case of a Ukrainian attack during its ceasefire.&nbsp;&quot;We remind the civilian population of Kyiv and staff at foreign diplomatic missions once again of the need to leave the city in good time,&quot; the defense ministry said in a statement.&nbsp;That followed a similar warning by the foreign ministry issued late on Wednesday, calling on diplomats to evacuate.&nbsp;Britain&#39;s foreign office said Moscow&#39;s threats were &quot;unwarranted, irresponsible and completely unjustified&quot;, adding that any attack on a diplomatic mission would be a further escalation in the war.&nbsp;German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Bloomberg TV that Berlin will not pull its embassy staff out from Kyiv.&nbsp;Zelensky will also stay &quot;in Kyiv&quot; over the weekend, a senior source close to the Ukrainian president told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Russia says it intercepts Ukrainian drones despite the two-day unilateral ceasefire, warns of strikes on Kyiv, while Ukraine blasts the ceasefire as propaganda and urges allies to avoid Moscow parade.

Russia says intercepted drones as its unilateral truce begins

KYIV: Russian attacks killed 21 people in cities across Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow&#39;s &quot;utter cynicism&quot; for launching deadly strikes while seeking a truce to stage its May 9 patriotic parade. The attacks on Tuesday &mdash; hitting the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kramatorsk, and Dnipro &mdash; came hours before a Ukrainian-suggested ceasefire. In Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine&#39;s southern city close to the frontline, 12 people were killed in an attack Zelensky described as having &quot;absolutely no military justification.&quot; Early Wednesday, the head of the Crimea region, which Russia annexed in 2014 from Ukraine, said Ukrainian drone strikes had killed five civilians. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to the State Department. The two, who spoke at Lavrov&#39;s request, &quot;discussed the US-Russia relationship, the Russia-Ukraine war, and Iran,&quot; State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said, without giving details. Russia has demanded that Kyiv agree to a ceasefire for its May 9 World War II Victory Day commemorations. &quot;We need silence from such strikes and all others like them every single day, not just for a few hours somewhere out there for &#39;celebrations,&#39;&quot; Zelensky said, calling on allies to condemn the attacks. Kyiv has instead said it will halt fire over May 6. But Russia attacked the city of Dnipro late on Tuesday, nearing Kyiv&#39;s deadline. &quot;With mere hours until Ukraine&#39;s ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities. On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror,&quot; Ukraine&#39;s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga said on X. Zelensky said four civilians were killed in Dnipro. Five others, he said, were killed when Russia attacked the center of the eastern city of Kramatorsk &mdash; the last hub under Kyiv&#39;s control in the embattled Donetsk region. &quot;The attack hit right in the city center, targeting civilians,&quot; he said, warning the death toll could rise. The attacks came after several people were killed overnight, and as Russia geared up for its patriotic May 9 event this weekend. At least 70 people were also wounded in Tuesday&#39;s strikes, according to numbers released by officials. The attacks were the deadliest in weeks. Intensifying strikes&nbsp;Russia&#39;s May 9 parade is typically a bombastic display of military strength, which, since 2022, has sought to link Soviet victory over Nazi Germany with the invasion of Ukraine. But the Kremlin ordered a scaled-back version this year &mdash; with no military hardware to be on display &mdash; over the fear it could be targeted by Ukraine. Moscow also cut mobile internet throughout the Russian capital on Tuesday morning ahead of the parade, with operators reporting restrictions would last until Saturday. Kyiv has intensified its retaliatory long-range strikes in recent weeks, hitting a spate of Russian oil facilities and a luxury high-rise building in Moscow. It calls the strikes fair retaliation for Russia&#39;s nightly bombing of its cities with drones and missiles. Short-term ceasefires are not infrequent, with the two sides having suspended long-range attacks over Orthodox Easter last month. There is no sign that the four-year war is close to being resolved at the negotiating table. Moscow is demanding that Kyiv fully withdraw troops from the eastern Donbas area and renounce Western military support &mdash; ultimatums seen as tantamount to capitulation in Kyiv, which has rejected them.

Russia has demanded that Kyiv agree to a ceasefire for its May 9 World War II Victory Day commemorations; Kyiv has instead said it will halt fire over May 6.

Russian strikes kill 21 in Ukraine

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reaffirmed Pyongyang&#39;s support for Russia&#39;s invasion of Ukraine, vowing to help Moscow achieve victory in its &quot;sacred&quot; war, state media reported on Monday. Pyongyang has sent missiles, munitions, and thousands of troops to assist Russia in Ukraine, and analysts say Moscow is sending financial aid, military technology, food, and energy to the diplomatically isolated country in return. A string of high-level Russian officials have visited North Korea in recent days, with Defence Minister Andrey Belousov meeting Kim on Sunday, according to official statements. North Korea &quot;will as ever fully support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests&quot;, Kim told Belousov, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim expressed &quot;belief that the Russian army and people would surely win a victory in the just sacred war&quot;, KCNA reported. Both sides said their delegations had discussed deeper military ties, with Belousov saying Moscow was ready to sign a cooperation plan covering the period from 2027 to 2031. Kim, Belousov, and Russian parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also attended the opening ceremony of a memorial complex honouring North Korean soldiers killed in Ukraine. The ceremony included a concert, a fireworks display, and an air force flyover, KCNA reported. The audience was moved by portrayals of &quot;life-and-death bloody battles&quot; and &quot;death-defying hand-to-hand fights and heroic suicidal explosions the young soldiers chose without hesitation&quot;, it said. North Korea and Russia signed a military treaty in 2024, obligating both states to provide military assistance &quot;without delay&quot; in the event of an attack on the other. The opening of the memorial coincides with what Moscow describes as the first anniversary of its recovery of parts of Kursk, a region in Russia where Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive starting in mid-2024. North Korean soldiers were deployed in the area to help beat back the Ukrainian advance. In his meeting with Belousov, Kim hailed the &quot;brilliant war results in liberating Kursk&quot;, according to KCNA. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the &quot;extraordinary bravery and genuine devotion&quot; of North Korean troops in a letter to Kim, published by KCNA. Seoul estimates that about 2,000 North Koreans have been killed in the Ukraine war. North Korean soldiers are said to have been instructed to kill themselves rather than be captured in battle. Only two North Korean troops have been taken alive and are currently in the custody of Ukrainian authorities.

Asia

Pyongyang has sent missiles, munitions and thousands of troops to assist Russia in Ukraine, and analysts say Moscow is sending financial aid, military technology, food and energy to the diplomatically isolated country in return.

North Korea's Kim reaffirms support for Russia's 'sacred' Ukraine war

KYIV: Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six cooperation agreements on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he pushes to share Kyiv&#39;s drone expertise amid the Middle East war. &quot;We have signed six documents today,&quot; said Zelensky in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, without specifying which fields. &quot;Today, the number one area is security. This concerns the defense-industrial complex,&quot; he said. &quot;We have shared our experience in countering the aggressor today&quot;. Speaking alongside Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Zelensky said Ukrainian drone experts were already working in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea that borders southern Russia. The Ukrainian president also said he was ready to hold trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia in Azerbaijan, if Moscow showed a willingness to do so. &quot;We shared with the president of Azerbaijan that we are ready for trilateral talks,&quot; said Zelensky. Azerbaijan repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine&#39;s territorial integrity and sent humanitarian aid after the Russian invasion in 2022. Ties between Moscow and Baku have cooled over the past year, after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was mistakenly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2024, causing a crash that killed 38.

Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six agreements, mainly on security and drones. The Ukrainian president says he is ready to hold trilateral talks with Russia in Azerbaijan if Moscow is willing, while tensions in the region continue.

Ukraine signs pacts with Azerbaijan in drone push

BRUSSELS: The EU on Thursday gave final approval to a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan for Ukraine and a new round of sanctions on Russia, in a boost for Kyiv after a prolonged row. The measures were signed off when Hungary and Slovakia dropped objections after Ukraine restarted oil flows following repairs to the damaged Druzhba pipeline. &quot;Deadlock over,&quot; EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted online. &quot;Russia&#39;s war economy is under growing strain, while Ukraine is getting a major boost.&quot; The row has held up EU support for Ukraine at a time when the United States has largely cut Kyiv off and eased sanctions on Russian oil amid the Iran war. Hungary&#39;s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orb&aacute;n&mdash;who suffered a crushing election defeat this month&mdash;stalled the loan as leverage to get Ukraine to fix the pipeline carrying Russian oil to his landlocked country. The green light means that Brussels should be able to start paying out the funds in the coming months that Kyiv badly needs to plug budget blackholes four years into Russia&#39;s invasion. At the same time, the EU&#39;s 27 countries also signed off on a new package of sanctions against Moscow that had been held up by both Hungary and Slovakia over the same row. The new round of economic punishment for the Kremlin&mdash;the 20th by the EU since the war started&mdash;targets Russia&#39;s energy, banking, and trade sectors. The measures included clamping down further on the so-called &quot;shadow fleet&quot; of aging tankers that Moscow uses to skirt oil export restrictions and curbs on Russian cryptocurrency traders. But the EU stopped short of imposing a full maritime service ban for vessels carrying Russian crude, saying it hoped to get G7 partners to go ahead together on it at a later date. The bloc also announced it was stopping sales of certain machinery to the Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan to prevent the products from going to Russia. That marks the first time the US has used a mechanism to halt entire categories of exports to a specific country to avoid sanctions dodging.

The EU on Thursday gave final approval to a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan for Ukraine and a new round of sanctions on Russia, in a boost for Kyiv after a prolonged row

EU signs off on Ukraine loan, new Russia sanctions

KYIV: Ukraine&#39;s military command on Saturday reported nearly 470 Russian violations of a truce agreed to mark the Orthodox Easter.&nbsp;&quot;After 4:00 pm, 469 ceasefire violations were recorded, namely: 22 enemy assault actions, 153 shelling attacks, 19 strikes by attack drones... &nbsp;and 275 strikes by FPV drones,&quot; it said on Facebook.&nbsp;&quot;Today in total, the enemy carried out 57 air strikes and dropped 182 guided aerial bombs. In addition, it deployed 3,928 kamikaze drones and conducted 2,454 shelling attacks on populated areas and positions of our troops&quot;.

Ukraine’s military reported 469 Russian violations of an Easter truce, including assaults, shelling, and drone strikes. It said Russia also launched dozens of air strikes, dropped bombs, and carried out thousands of attacks on troops and populated areas, showing the ceasefire was largely ignored.

Ukraine reports 469 Easter truce violations

KYIV: A temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine entered into force on Saturday, with Kyiv warning it would respond &quot;immediately&quot; if Russia violated it. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the ceasefire on Thursday to coincide with Orthodox Easter, more than a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky first made the proposal. Both sides have agreed to observe it. The ceasefire is due to last for 32 hours, from 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Saturday until the end of the day on Sunday, according to the Kremlin. &quot;Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind. The absence of Russian strikes in the air, on land, and at sea will mean no response from our side,&quot; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X. The Ukrainian army said it was ready to &quot;immediately&quot; respond if Russia violated it. Hours before the truce was due to start, Russia launched at least 160 drones at Ukraine, killing four people in the country&#39;s east and south and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian authorities said. The southern Odesa region was among the hardest hit, with authorities reporting two dead and damage to civilian infrastructure. A wave of Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an oil depot and damaged apartment buildings in Russia&#39;s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said. Four people died in Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine&#39;s eastern Donetsk and Kherson regions, according to Russian-installed officials. Ukrainians have expressed scepticism about whether the truce will hold. The two sides held a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter last year, but both accused the other of hundreds of violations. Despite tensions over the truce, the warring sides exchanged 175 prisoners of war each on Saturday, according to officials. The United Arab Emirates helped mediate the exchange, the Russian defence ministry said. Prisoner of war exchanges are one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring sides. Stalled diplomacyUS-led talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks because of the war in the Middle East. Even before the Iran war, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, due to differences over the issue of territory. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines. But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants Ukraine to give up all the territory in the Donetsk region that it currently controls -- a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable. Several rounds of US-led talks have failed to bring the warring sides closer to an agreement. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia had discussed the ceasefire with Ukraine or the United States in advance and said it was not linked to negotiations to end the war. The war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee their homes, making it Europe&#39;s deadliest conflict since World War II. After four years, fighting on the front has come to a near standstill. Russia has made small territorial gains at a high cost. But Kyiv recently managed to push back in the southeast and Russian advances have been slowing since late 2025, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Apart from Ukrainian counter-attacks, analysts attributed the slowdown to Russia being banned from using SpaceX&#39;s Starlink satellites and Moscow&#39;s own efforts to block the Telegram messaging app. But the situation is unfavourable for Ukraine in the Donetsk region, near the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, according to the ISW. Moscow occupies just over 19 percent of Ukraine, most of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.

A temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine entered into force with Kyiv warning it would respond "immediately" if Russia violated it

Articles tagged with "Russia Ukraine War"

At UN, Pakistan calls for confidence-building measures, revival of talks on Ukraine

Russia pummels Kyiv, killing at least 16 and denting peace hopes

Putin says Ukraine war is 'heading to an end'

Russia says intercepted drones as its unilateral truce begins

Russian strikes kill 21 in Ukraine

North Korea's Kim reaffirms support for Russia's 'sacred' Ukraine war

Ukraine signs pacts with Azerbaijan in drone push

EU signs off on Ukraine loan, new Russia sanctions

Ukraine reports 469 Easter truce violations

Easter truce between Russia and Ukraine begins

At UN, Pakistan calls for confidence-building measures, revival of talks on Ukraine