Vladimir Putin

"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.

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.

"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.

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.

A series of blasts caused the critical Nova Kahkovka dam, which lies along the Dnieper river in Russian-held territory, to partially collapse and led to 'catastrophic' floods, the Daily Mail reported. Around 24 towns were overrun by the deluge with shocking footage from the region showing how entire villages were submerged and houses swept away, Daily Mail reported.

Several buildings were damaged in the wealthy suburbs of Moscow, including the elite district of Rublyovka to the south-west of the capital, Daily Mail reported. One drone exploded into a mushroom cloud near the village of Usovo, which is just down the road from Putin's official Novo-Ogaryovo residence, the report said.

On May 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a draft law on the denunciation of the CFE Treaty to the lower house of the parliament. The chamber adopted a law on the denunciation of the treaty at a session on May 16, Xinhua news agency reported. The CFE Treaty was originally signed in 1990 by the then-NATO members.

The Quad leaders, who held their third in-person summit in Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G-7 summit, also condemned Putin's threat - without naming him - to use nuclear weapons as "serious and inadmissible", amplifying India's own outrage over the threats that had made it cancel an annual bilateral summit with Russia.

"Deputies of the State Duma, guided by the interests of our citizens, decided to denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to ensure the security of the Russian Federation," said Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially submitted a bill to the state.

In his address to the nation from Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the erstwhile Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War, Putin said Russia was defending its sovereignty, reports the BBC. He likened Ukraine's democratically elected government to the Nazis that were defeated in World War Two, accusing the West of forgetting who defeated the Nazis.