Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has hailed the European Union's expected offer of candidate status for his battle-weary nation, as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv and the eastern Donbas region.
The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO says, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.
The Russian government says it is sanctioning a further 121 Australian citizens, including a state premier, business people, army officials and journalists.
Ukrainian forces claim to have pushed forward in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but say their only hope to turn the tide is more artillery to offset Russia's massive firepower.
Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine have been sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.
Russia has struck Ukraine's capital Kyiv with missiles for the first time in more than a month, while Ukrainian officials say a counterattack on the main battlefield in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk.
Ukraine claims to have recaptured a large chunk of territory in the devastated eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and foiled an attempted advance by Russian troops on the 100th day of Moscow's invasion.
Ukrainian forces are resisting a Russian assault on Sievierodonetsk, the largest city they still hold in the eastern Donbas region, but are weathering heavy artillery barrages.
Moscow-backed separatists have pounded eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, as Ukrainian officials pleaded for sophisticated Western weapons to stop the onslaught.
A ship has entered the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia completed its capture of the city to load metal and ship it east to Russia, TASS news agency reported, in a move that Kyiv decried as looting.
A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's February 24 invasion.
Ukraine says it has held off the latest assault on an eastern city that has become the main target of Moscow's offensive since Russian forces finally seized Mariupol last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says his army has inflicted serious damage on Russian forces despite the fall of the key port city of Mariupol.
