Ukrainian forces fighting around Velyka Novosilka claim its Russian takeover will amount to nothing more than a flag-raising exercise

A new school textbook that likens Russia's war in Ukraine to the Soviet struggle against the Nazis and says Russia was "forced" to send troops into Ukraine was presented in Moscow on Monday. President Vladimir Putin casts the war,

Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine, as part of a grinding campaign to weaken Kyiv’s grip on the country’s industrial heartland.