Last month was the deadliest since Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine three and a half years ago. In July alone, 286 civilians were killed and another 1,388, according to official data.

Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky has accused Russia of "doing everything it can" to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to try to end the war. US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday "that's like oil and vinegar... they don't get along too well".

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that large-scale Russian attacks overnight in various parts of Ukraine showed Moscow was avoiding negotiations about ending the more than three-year-old war.

For the first time since sending troops to fight in Ukraine, North Korea is publicly confirming combat deaths, an abrupt reversal after months of silence and denial. State media broadcast an emotional ceremony featuring Kim Jong Un,

A week after Donald Trump applauded Vladimir Putin down the red carpet in Alaska, and days after an unprecedented summit of European leaders at the White House, the American president came crashing down to earth on Friday.

Moscow is preparing to raise taxes and cut spending as it tries to maintain high defence expenditure with Russia's economy creaking under the weight of financing the more than three-year war in Ukraine,

North Korea is "no longer content to have its nuclear weapons and be left alone," a former senior U.S. official told Newsweek.

A generation of Ukrainian men has been shaped by the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. Serhiy Hrebinyk, 25 years old and just released from a Russian prison, is one of them.