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The Kremlin said in remarks published on Tuesday that the next round of Russia-U.S. talks on ending the war in Ukraine is unlikely to happen before the embassies of both countries resume normal operations. "Unlikely," Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of President Vladimir Putin, told RIA state news agency in response to a question whether the negotiations could start before the two countries' embassies fully reopen. Operations have been curtailed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. -snip- Last week, Russia said it was sending a new ambassador to Washington, the latest sign of a thaw between the two countries, but...

Feb 24 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told his country's people on Monday that he was proud of their 'absolute heroism' in fighting and living in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion exactly three years ago. "Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians. I am proud of Ukraine!" Zelenskiy said in a post with a video showing the life of ordinary Ukrainians on the frontlines and in daily activities during the war.

-snip- A Ukrainian military spokesperson told Reuters that Russia was also moving trained assault groups to forward positions in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and they were preparing to attack. -snip- "(The assaults) could begin in the near future, we're not even talking about weeks, we're expecting it to happen any day," said Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for the southern military sector. Although it was not clear if they would involve a single offensive push or separate assaults, intelligence assessed that Moscow's troops planned to use armoured vehicles and a considerable number of drones, he said. "They are preparing both armoured groups...

A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of a nearby town, war bloggers and some media reported. Unverified video and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame blasting high into the night sky and multiple detonations thundering across a lake about 380 km (240 miles) west of Moscow. NASA satellites picked up intense heat sources emanating from an area of about 14 square kilometres (5 square miles) at the site in the early hours and earthquake monitoring stations picked up...

Russia's air defence units destroyed at least seven Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow, while 59 of the air weapons were downed over the Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday. "According to preliminary information, there is no damage or injuries at the site of the fall of the debris," Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The drones were destroyed in the Lyubertsy and Ramenskoye districts of the Moscow region, as well as in the Podolsk city district, Sobyanin said. Podolsk is some 38 km (24 miles) south of the...

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Russia on Monday evacuated civilians from parts of a second region next to Ukraine after Kyiv increased military activity near the border just days after its biggest incursion into sovereign Russian territory since the start of the 2022 war. Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border last Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the U.S. election. Apparently caught by surprise, Russia by Sunday had stabilised the front in the Kursk region, though Ukraine had carved...

Ukraine launched several drones at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, sparking a brief fire at the site and resulting in one person dying of a heart attack, local officials said on Sunday. "The drones were neutralised, but a fire broke out as a result of the fall of one of the devices," the operational headquarters of the region in southern Russia said on the Telegram messaging app. The fire was extinguished and there were no casualties as a result of the fire itself, the administration said. Preliminary information indicated, however, one person had died of a heart...

SUMMARIES: • Ukraine launches mass drone attack • Fire at NORSI refinery, drone downed near Kirishi • NORSI is badly damaged - sources • Russia says it repels cross-border attack by Ukrainian proxies

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a stalemate on the frontlines of their war and the two sides need to sit down and negotiate an end to the conflict, Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of Belarus and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said over the weekend. "There are enough problems on both sides and in general the situation is now seriously stalemate: no one can do anything and substantively strengthen or advance their position," Lukashenko said. "They're there head-to-head, to the death, entrenched. People are dying." -snip- "We need to sit down at the negotiating table and come...

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that Russian forces blew up a major dam in southern Ukraine, while Moscow-installed official in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Russian-controlled parts of the Kherson region denied it. "The Kakhovka (reservoir) was blown up by the Russian occupying forces," the South command of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page. "The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified." Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Ukrainian statement. Earlier, Russian state news agency quoted the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova...

Ukrainian forces continued to shell Russia's border region of Belgorod overnight into Sunday after two people were killed the previous night and hundreds of children were evacuated away from the border, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. "Overnight, it was quite restless," Gladkov said on the Telegram channel, adding that the Shebekino and Volokonovsky districts had suffered "lots" of damage from the latest shelling. Gladkov later wrote that fires had broken out in the town of Shebekino after Ukrainian forces shelled a market area in the centre, adding that nobody had been injured. Shebekino is about 7 km (4 miles) from the...

Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut, a military spokesperson said on Saturday, as the head of Russia's mercenary Wagner Group threatened to withdraw some of his troops from the eastern city if Moscow did not send more ammunition. Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000. Kyiv has pledged to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to attacking other cities. "For several weeks, the Russians have been talking about seizing the 'road of life,' as well...

"If Wagner retreats from Bakhmut now, the whole front will collapse," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published over the weekend. "The situation will not be sweet for all military formations protecting Russian interests."...the ammunition that his forces were promised by Moscow in February had not yet been shipped. "For now, we are trying to figure out the reason: is it just ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal," Prigozhin said on his usual press service Telegram channel.