Russia is still refusing to sign up to an unconditional comprehensive ceasefire. It has no intention of returning any of the Ukrainian land it has seized, occupied and claims to have annexed. On the contrary: it's pushing for more.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cast doubt on Friday over the Vatican as a potential location for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, saying that the Holy See itself would find it uncomfortable to host two mainly Orthodox Christian nations.

The announcement was made ahead of an expected prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia on Friday – an outcome of last week’s face-to-face talks in Turkey, the first time the two countries have held direct talks at any level in three years.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said reviving the nation's birth rate is one of Russia's "top priorities."

Russia's Arctic LNG 2 plant, currently under U.S. sanctions, has shut down its first production train because reservoirs are full in the absence of tankers to load, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Russia will give an appropriate and harsh response to the massive attacks on its cities that Ukraine carried out with drones and Western-supplied missiles, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.