French President Emmanuel Macron says France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft to be able to defend their country against Russian aggression.

The attack on a Moscow concert hall, the bloodiest assault on the Russian soil in two decades, appears to be setting the stage for an increasingly harsh response by President Vladimir Putin after his tightly orchestrated electoral landslide last month.

Immediately after the Friday evening attack in Moscow that killed at least 137 people, Russian officials were suggesting, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine was responsible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the gunmen who raided a suburban Moscow concert hall and killed 139 people were “radical Islamists.”.

Russian state new agencies have reported that delegates from Russia's ruling party have unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin's bid for reelection at a party conference in Moscow.

Sirens wailed across Russia and TV stations interrupted regular programming to broadcast warnings as part of sweeping drills intended to test the readiness of the emergency services amid the fighting in Ukraine.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has called on U.S. lawmakers to reconsider their decision to omit financial support for Ukraine from a stop-gap budget created to halt a federal government shutdown.

After a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, Russia needs to replenish its supplies of ammunition for what could be a long war of attrition.

Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto the doorstep of NATO’s members in Central and Eastern Europe.

Poland's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador in protest after a former Russian official suggested that it would be acceptable to assassinate Poland’s ambassador to Russia.

Ukraine’s presidential office says Russian long-range strikes have killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 20 others in several areas of Ukraine.

A top Russian security official has declared that the risk of a nuclear war has risen and blasted a German minister for threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with arrest.

The head of the United Nations says Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered “the most massive violations of human rights” in the world today.

Both houses of Russia's parliament have quickly endorsed President Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States.

NATO is calling on Russia to respect the only treaty it has with the United States to keep a lid on nuclear weapons expansion.

Germany’s top diplomat says her country won't object if Poland decides to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.

The Kremlin is warning that increasing the supply of U.S. arms to Ukraine would aggravate the devastating 10-month war ignited by Russia’s invasion.

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow has postponed a round of nuclear arms control talks with the United States set for this week because of stark differences in approach and tensions over Ukraine.

The discourse was never all that civil on Twitter.

The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week are complicating Israel's balancing act between Russia and the West.

The heads of nine central and eastern European NATO members issued a joint statement backing a path to membership for Ukraine in the U.S.-led security alliance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that he won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons to ward off Ukraine’s attempt to reclaim control of Moscow-occupied areas that the Kremlin is about to annex.

Four occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine are set to start voting Friday in Kremlin-engineered referendums on whether to become part of Russia, setting the stage for Moscow to annex the areas in a sharp escalation of the nearly seven-month war.

Russia is escalating its military and political campaign to take over Ukrainian territory.

The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched.

Italy is entering five days of political and financial uncertainty after the 5-Star Movement sparked a government crisis by withholding support on a government-sponsored bill.

A top Russian official has warned the U.S. that it could face the “wrath of God” if it pursues efforts to help establish an international tribunal to investigate Russia’s action in Ukraine.

The governor of a key eastern Ukrainian city is acknowledging that Russian forces are advancing in heavy fighting.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency says Russia has so far turned over the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters killed in the battle for Mariupol.

Russia will take control of French car manufacturer Renault’s operations in the country and resurrect a Soviet-era auto brand.

Ukrainian and British officials say Russia suffered heavy losses when Ukrainian forces destroyed the pontoon bridge enemy troops were using to try to cross a river.

Final congressional approval of a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill seems certain within days.

Key decision-makers in non-aligned Finland and Sweden are set to announce their positions on NATO membership this week.

The detention of fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has been met with enthusiasm in Kyiv and irritation in Moscow.

The United States and allies are again escalating sanctions against Russia after evidence that Russian troops murdered Ukrainian civilians in a town near Kyiv.

President Joe Biden and U.S. allies in a matter of days have weaponized the global economy against Russia for invading Ukraine.

Russian nuclear submarines have sailed off for drills in the Barents Sea and mobile missile launchers are roaming snow forests in Siberia after President Vladimir Putin ordered his nation’s nuclear forces put on high alert.

Vladimir Putin is raising fears that he has become more reckless, more committed to restoring the USSR, perhaps more likely to set off a world-altering war.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces on high alert amid tensions with the West over his invasion of Ukraine.

As Russian troops were closing in on the Ukrainian capital, more and more Russians at home were speaking out against the invasion even as the government's official rhetoric grew increasingly harsher.

U.S. and European officials are holding one key financial sanction against Russia in reserve.

Russia has been threatening to expand military ties with allies Venezuela and Cuba amid rising tensions with the U.S. over Ukraine.

The White House says President Joe Biden warned Ukraine's president on Thursday that there is a “distinct possibility” Russia could take military action against Ukraine in February.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning that President Vladimir Putin could quickly order an invasion of Ukraine if he has a pretext for doing so.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed rumblings he will run for vice president in what critics say is an attempted end-run around the constitution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his foreign minister and his defense minister will head the candidates' list for the dominant United Russia party in September's parliamentary election.

President Joe Biden is being forced to go virtual for many of his leader-to-leader talks during the coronavirus pandemic, and the resulting Zoom meetings just aren't a natural fit for the back-slapping politician.

Russia and the United States exchanged documents Tuesday Jan. 26, 2021, to extend the New START nuclear treaty, their last remaining arms control pact, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin readout of a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they voiced satisfaction with the move. “An unconstrained nuclear competition would endanger us all.”AdThe treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits the number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons. “It’s a first step of reinvigorating ... the nuclear arms control regime.”The outgoing Trump administration made a late bid to extend the treaty, but Russia rejected its conditions. The Biden administration will also work on control measures for China's smaller but growing arsenal of nuclear warheads, Blinken said.

Russia and the United States exchanged documents Tuesday Jan. 26, 2021, to extend the New START nuclear treaty, their last remaining arms control pact, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin readout of a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they voiced satisfaction with the move. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill extending the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States a week before the pact was due to expire. Both houses of the Russian parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the New START treaty for five years. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.

The statue of the Alabai, the Central Asian shepherd dog is seen in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. Turkmenistan's autocratic leader has established a national holiday to honor the local dog breed, media reports said Tuesday. All rights reservedASHGABAT – Turkmenistan's autocratic leader has established a national holiday to honor the local dog breed, media reports said Tuesday. The Central Asian nation of 6 million prides itself in horses and dogs, honoring its centuries-old herding traditions. Last year, Berdymukhamedov inaugurated a 15-meter (nearly 50-feet) gilded statue honoring the dog in the Turkmen capital.

Russia and the United States exchanged documents Tuesday Jan 26, 2021, to extend the New START nuclear treaty, their last remaining arms control pact, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin readout of a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they voiced satisfaction with the move. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)MOSCOW – Russia and the United States traded documents Tuesday to extend their last remaining nuclear arms control treaty days before it is due to expire, the Kremlin said. “In the nearest days, the parties will complete the necessary procedures that will ensure further functioning of this important international legal nuclear arms control tool," the Kremlin said. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.

(Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)MOSCOW – The Kremlin on Friday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, which is set to expire in less than two weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia stands for extending the pact and is waiting to see the details of the U.S. proposal. The White House said Thursday that Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries. Arms control advocates have strongly called for New START’s preservation, warning that its lapse would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.

In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Months of talks between Russia and President Donald Trump's administration on the possible extension of the New START treaty have failed to narrow their differences. Biden has spoken in favor of the preservation of the New START treaty, which was negotiated during his tenure as U.S. vice president, and Russia has said it’s open for its quick and unconditional extension. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference Monday that Moscow is ready to move quickly to keep the pact alive. New START was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched by the Vladimir Monomakh nuclear submarine of the Russian navy from the Sera of Okhotsk, Russia, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. The submarine successfully test-fired four intercontinental ballistic missiles in a show of readiness of the nation's nuclear deterrent. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW – A Russian nuclear submarine on Saturday successfully test-fired four intercontinental ballistic missiles in a show of readiness of Moscow's nuclear forces amid tension with the U.S. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries still standing. Arms control advocates have warned that its expiration would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, in a blow to global stability.

MOSCOW – The United States and Russia inched closer Tuesday to a deal to extend their last remaining arms control pact, after U.S. threats to allow the deal to expire early next year. “We appreciate the Russian Federation’s willingness to make progress on the issue of nuclear arms control,” department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. The pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, New START was the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that Russia couldn't agree to the U.S. proposal to limit tactical nuclear weapons alongside nuclear warheads that arm strategic missiles and bombers until Washington agreed to withdraw its nuclear warheads from Europe.

The cap would cover warheads not limited by the New START treaty. Trump's lead arms control negotiator, Marshall Billingslea, blamed the Russians for missing what he called an historic opportunity. "I can’t see any rationale for it.”The arms control effort is hampered in part by deteriorating trust between Washington and Moscow. "The United States is serious about arms control that will keep the entire world safe. Russia previously offered the pact’s extension for five years without any conditions, while the U.S. administration pushed for a new arms control agreement that would also include China.

In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW – Russia's top diplomat voiced doubt Wednesday that Moscow and Washington could negotiate an extension of their last arms control pact still standing, even as the United States offered a more optimistic view. “I personally don't see the prospect,” Lavrov snapped when asked if the extension is possible before the pact expires in February. The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Lavrov specified Wednesday that Russia can’t accept the U.S. proposal to limit battlefield nuclear weapons alongside nuclear warheads that arm strategic missiles and bombers until the U.S. agrees to withdraw its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe.

The Defenders of the Fatherland Day, celebrated in Russia on Feb. 23, honors the nation's military and is a nationwide holiday. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)MOSCOW Russia's security chief described the arrest of 33 Russian security contractors in Belarus as a presidential campaign stunt and warned Wednesday that it would have grave consequences for the ties between two neighbors and allies. Russia has demanded the release of the contractors for a private firm, saying they only were in Belarus because they missed a connecting flight to another country. Lukashenko denounced Moscow's position as part of Russia's alleged efforts to deprive Belarus of its independence. He warned Moscow against trying to fuel tensions in his country, saying that the instability could spread to Russia.

If they categorically refuse, we will not try to persuade them.The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, the New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries. Russia has offered its extension without any conditions, while the Trump administration has pushed for a new arms control agreement that would also include China. Lavrov dismissed the U.S. suggestions that Russia help convince Beijing to join nuclear arms cuts, saying that Moscow respects the Chinese position and considers it undiplomatic" to push it on the issue. He reaffirmed that Russia would welcome other nuclear powers, including Britain, France and China to join nuclear arms cuts, but emphasized that it should be their own decision.

Former president of the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) Lamine Diack, center, arrives at the Paris courthouse, Monday, June 8, 2020. Lamine Diack jetted the world and rubbed shoulders with VIPs. The most conspicuous absentee was his son, Papa Massata Diack, who lives in Senegal and didn't travel to Paris for the trial. He conducted himself like a thug," Lamine Diack said in court. Prosecutors asked the court for a 4-year prison term and a fine of 500,000 euros ($562,000 ) for Lamine Diack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin via teleconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday endorsed Russia's nuclear deterrent policy which allows him to use atomic weapons in response to a conventional strike targeting the nation's critical government and military infrastructure. By including a non-nuclear attack as a possible trigger for Russian nuclear retaliation, the document appears to send a warning signal to the U.S. In line with Russian military doctrine, the new document reaffirms that the country could use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack or an aggression involving conventional weapons that threatens the very existence of the state.But the policy document now also offers a detailed description of situations that could trigger the use of nuclear weapons. They include the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies and an enemy attack with conventional weapons that threatens the country's existence.