Ukraine

The package includes measures aimed at countering the circumvention of sanctions, and adds 87 new entities to the list of those "directly supporting Russia's military and industrial complex". It imposes a full ban on trucks with Russian trailers and semi-trailers from transporting goods to the EU, and extends the ban.

The standing ovation that followed showed members of the Congress had wanted to hear that assurance from the Prime Minister as many among them, including stanch and steady friends of the bilateral relationship had expressed concern with India's refusal to condemn Russia and said the time had come for India to choose which.

Speaking to the BBC, the President said: "Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It's not. What's at stake is people's lives." According to authorities in Kiev, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed eight villages so far in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk to the east.

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.

The treaty originally stipulated that the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait were internal waters of Russia and Ukraine. Vessels from both sides were allowed to navigate the Kerch Strait freely. The agreement, signed on December 24, 2003, in Kerch, entered into force in April 2004, Xinhua news agency reported.

"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.

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.

"Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place," Zelensky said on Saturday, BBC reported. But he added that he would not talk in detail about which stage or state the counter-offensive was in. The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and speculation about progress of the widely anticipated push, BBC reported.

"First, it can be stated with absolute certainty that this offensive has begun. The use of strategic reserves of the Ukrainian forces proves it. Second, in no areas of combat the Ukrainian troops have achieved their tasks. This is an absolutely obvious thing," Putin told reporters in Russia's Sochi on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Up to 1 million people may face drinking water problems," Oleksii Kushch, an economist at "United Ukraine" think-tank, told Xinhua in an interview. The breaching of the dam and the subsequent destruction of a hydro-electric power plant in the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka region in the early hours of Tuesday.