Moscow’s battlefield edge is waning, experts say. But President Donald Trump seems disinclined to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.

Russia, using missiles and drones, launched one of the biggest assaults on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, since the beginning of the war more than three years ago and hours after a prisoner exchange began.

Hundreds more Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home on Saturday on the second day of a major exchange with Russia. Each side released 307 servicemen, a day after the first 390 were freed by both countries,

The European Union is considering cutting more than 20 banks from SWIFT, the international payments system, as well as lowering a price cap on Russian oil and banning the Nord Stream gas pipelines as part of a new sanctions package that aims to increase pressure on Moscow to end its war against Ukraine.

The announcement was made ahead of an expected prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia on Friday – an outcome of last week’s face-to-face talks in Turkey, the first time the two countries have held direct talks at any level in three years.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian troops have captured the settlements of Stupochki, Otradne and Loknia in Ukraine's Donetsk and Sumy regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.

Almost one third of Russia's total expenditures is classified and the word "secret" appears 39 times in the budget when it was adopted last December, the Russian news outlet RuNews24.ru reported.

Major Russian exporters including Rusal and Gazpromneft have cut the planned volume of commodities like metal and oil products they send by rail, a Russian Railways document seen by Reuters showed, the latest sign of subdued demand as the country's war economy slows.