Russia-Ukraine war

Without an international police or armed force, the ICJ "depends on the will and cooperation of states to implement its decisions," says Raphaelle Nollez-Goldbach, a researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research.

With Russia having retaken the battlefield initiative in recent months, Ukraine had doubled down on calls to permit it to use longer-range US weapons to attack Russian territory -- something Washington had resisted over fears it could drag NATO into direct conflict with Moscow.

The report by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency used open-source imagery to confirm that debris found in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in January this year is from a short-range ballistic missile made in North Korea.

The warning came as French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv should be allowed to "neutralise" Russian military bases from where Kremlin troops are firing missiles into Ukraine, and as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the world not to tire of the war.

Blinken arrived by overnight train from Poland and was due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his fourth visit to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, according to an AFP journalist accompanying him.

However, his handling of the assault against Ukraine was criticized by many in Russia and his reputation was further hit by recent corruption accusations against one of his deputies.

Russia's troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region as Kyiv awaits the arrival of much-needed US weapons that it hopes will stabilise the fragile front lines.

Global military expenditure saw its steepest increase in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fuelled spending across the world, researchers said Monday.

Rescuers were removing mountains of rubble on Thursday from the site of a lethal Russian missile strike on Ukraine's historic city of Chernigiv, where at least 18 people were killed in an attack that has prompted fresh pleas for allies to boost Kyiv's overstretched air defense systems.

From supply chain disruptions following the coronavirus pandemic to an energy crisis after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's economy has faced multiple challenges in recent years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to deliver air defence systems after the attacks, which wounded 17 in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Over two years into Moscow's all-out war against its neighbour, Kyiv's troops are struggling to hold back the Russian army as Western support fails to keep pace with the fighting.

With Ukraine suffering military setbacks since the failure of a counteroffensive last summer, Macron had last month shocked some allies by not ruling out sending Western troops to Ukraine.

Biden said the stopgap shipment of missiles, shells and ammunition for Kyiv was "not nearly enough" and would run out in a couple of weeks.

While there was "no consensus" on the sending of Western ground troops to Ukraine, "nothing should be excluded. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war," he said.

The meeting in Paris will be a chance for participants to "reaffirm their unity as well as their determination to defeat the war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine", the French presidency said.

The meeting will also touch on the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel, passed by the Senate but facing resistance in the House.

For the Ukrainian troops holding Russian forces from cities like Kostyantynivka, the task is becoming harder as their resources and stamina ebb.

Emerging from the darkness at a humanitarian crossing on the Belarus border, the children hugged family members who had been waiting for more than six hours.

Ecuador was planning to send six Russian military helicopters, long-range rocket launchers and air defense systems to the United States.

A heightened Russian offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine saw them capture the key town of Avdiivka last week in a major boost ahead of the second anniversary of the February 2022 invasion.

The overall figures vary, but events on the ground show that many Cubans have enlisted lured by the army's salaries

As President Volodymyr Zelensky headed for Berlin and Paris in a new bid to secure desperately needed military aid, Ukrainian generals said there was bitter fighting inside Avdiivka and that their forces were taking up "new positions".

Republicans continue showing internal divisions, as a faction in the Senate voted against the bill and House counterparts have expressed skepticism

Putin may have signalled in last week's interview with right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson that Russia was interested in negotiations but this would be so much on Moscow's own terms that Kyiv would not countenance such talks.

President Daniel Noboa announced last month that Quito had agreed to exchange Russian military equipment that had become "scrap metal" for new US weapons worth around $200 million.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration, the climate crisis and the "despicable" practice of surrogate motherhood made it to the list

Russia has also had to find new markets for its natural gas exports as Moscow cut its exports to EU nations, which have also looked for new suppliers.

The Russian leader will "sum up the results of the year", his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The crunch summit in Brussels -- which diplomats fear could drag on longer than the two days planned -- comes as fears mount over Western backing for Ukraine nearly two years into Russia's war.