Ukraine received its first 3 billion euro ($3.09 billion) tranche of the European Union's portion of a loan agreed by the Group of Seven members and backed by the earnings from frozen Russian sovereign assets,

Russia accused Ukraine on Friday of carrying out a missile strike on a supermarket in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, saying the attack killed two civilians and wounded two others.

The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

More than 850 tonnes (850,000kg) of donated humanitarian aid has been sent to Ukraine by a Lancashire charity since the the Russian invasion. Chorley-based International Aid Trust, said it had sent more than 30 emergency vehicles to the country since February 2022, as well as lorries full of clothes, food, medical supplies and generators.

Ukrainian drones struck deep inside Russia in an overnight attack targeting an oil facility serving a military airfield in the city of Engels, nearly 400 miles from the border, Ukraine’s military said Wednesday.

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

The U.S. is set to provide Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles as the Biden administration works to get Kyiv in a stronger negotiating position before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The Ukrainian military says it struck a fuel storage depot deep inside Russia. The strike caused a huge blaze at the facility that supplies an important Russian air base.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some 38,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia's western Kursk region since August.

The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin was open to talks with Donald Trump, after the incoming US president said a meeting between the pair was being set up.

Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has repeatedly said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine.