Russia

Russia has "shown goodwill several times, made concessions" and extended the agreement, but what was promised to Moscow as part of the deal still hasn't been fulfilled, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Izvestia newspaper, RT reported.

Putin made the remarks during his speech at St Petersburg International Economic Forum. He told the forum that they (tactical nuclear weapons) would only be used if Russian territory or state was threatened, the BBC reported. The US government says there is no indication that the Kremlin plans to use nuclear weapons to.

"Positive macroeconomic trends are gaining momentum and becoming increasingly apparent," Putin was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying on Friday. Russia's GDP could achieve a growth rate of about 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent this year, which will enable the country to retain its place among the world's leading economies, he said.

"As a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev, was killed," prominent pro-war blogger Voenkor said in a Telegram post, The Guardian reported. Goryachev, a decorated commander, previously led Russian troops in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria.

On the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Islamabad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a video statement expressing his country's desire to expand cooperation with the South Asian nation, The Express Tribune reported. Pakistan and Russia have remained bitter cold-war rivals but their bilateral ties have taken a positive turn in recent years with both sides willing to bury the past and adjust to the new realities.

In a post on Telegram, Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region military administration, said that air defences shot down three cruise missiles over the central city but there were also "incomings", reports CNN. "Civilian facilities were damaged," he said, adding that 19 of the wounded were hospitaliaed.

The German-led drill brings together 25 NATO nations with Germany's leadership. The maneouver had been in the planning since 2018. Some 10,000 soldiers and 250 aircraft, including 70 from Germany and more than 100 from the US, take part in the maneouver until June 23, Xinhua news agency reported.

President Putin said that particularly heavy fighting has been ongoing for five days, with Russian troops managing to hold their positions, while the Ukrainian military has suffered far heavier casualties than the "classic" three-to-one ratio often expected during an offensive.

Shortly after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it seized most of the region, home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant. Ukraine however, continues to control the regional capital city also known as Zaporizhzhia. Several Russian pro-Kremlin military bloggers reported late on Thursday that Ukraine had.

In a social media post on Wednesday, the President said: "The whole world knows about this Russian war crime, the crime of ecocide -- the deliberate destruction of the dam and other structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant by the Russian occupiers. "In fact, Russian terrorists have detonated an environmental bomb.