A French military taskforce is wrapping up training of a new brigade of several thousand Ukrainian fighters who will be joining the war against Russia. They will be armed with France-supplied tanks, artillery canonn and other heavy weaponry.

Russian troops, including soldiers disguised as Ukrainians, briefly broke through the frontlines in the northeast, a sign that Moscow is successfully pressuring Kyiv. Four waves of Kremlin fighters descended on the re-conquered city of Kupiansk on Wednesday,

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the German chancellor's phone call with Russia's leader on Friday opened a "Pandora's box" that undermined efforts to isolate Vladimir Putin and end the war in Ukraine with a "fair peace".