Russian government officials have not shown any willingness to engage with the United States on discussions about prisoner swaps involving American basketball star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Mykhailo Podolyak said Russian forces had boobytrapped everything in Kherson - from buildings to sewers - and has trained artillery on the city to blow it to pieces as Ukraine advances.

Videos show desperate Russian troops fleeing from their burning tanks and a group of soldiers being blown up by Ukrainian missiles during a disastrous assault on a town in eastern Ukraine.

The remark was posted by Yevgeny Prigozhin's catering company, a favorite of Putin, on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections in response to a request for comment from a Russian news site.

Diplomat Andrei Kelin alleges he has evidence of UK special forces' participation in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Black Sea fleet, which he claims to have passed on to his UK counterpart.

A US Air Force tanker appeared to draw a penis in the sky on Tuesday night nearby Russia's Syrian naval base as the war in Ukraine persists.

At least 400,000 have fled since Putin announced he would begin drafting people into the army in September, significantly more than the 300,000 he added to his ranks.

Western capitals have said Moscow is behind a ramping up of nuclear rhetoric since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said US officials were trying to track the shipments, but did not know whether Russia has received the ammunition.

Sales of antidepressant pills in Russia have soared more than 70 per cent this year compared to last as the miserable reality of Putin's war on Ukraine begins to impact their lives, officials say.

In a further blow to Putin's invasion, 950 Russian soldiers were killed in a single day, pushing his force's death toll up to at least 71,200, Kyiv has claimed.

KHERSON REGION, Ukraine — On the screen of a thermal imaging camera, the Russian armored personnel carrier disappeared in a silent puff of smoke. “What a beautiful explosion,” said 1st Lt. Serhiy, a Ukrainian drone pilot who watched as his weapon buzzed into a Russian-controlled village and picked off the armored vehicle, a blast that was audible seconds later at his position about 4 miles away. “We used to cheer, we used to shout, ‘Hurray!’ but we’re used to it now,” he said. Sign up for The Mo

Russia told the U.S. on Tuesday that it was about to start exercises with its nuclear forces, at a time of heightened tension over Ukraine amid claims and counterclaims about dirty bombs.

A missile and drone blitz has knocked out a third of the country's power stations in just eight days as winter approaches, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, was asked whether occupied regions of Ukraine are under Moscow's 'nuclear umbrella' and said they are 'protected at the same level as the rest of Russia.