Russia's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had launched criminal proceedings against a prominent journalist who heads a publication in neighbouring Latvia providing critical coverage of the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of launching attack drones on one another overnight, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with his US counterpart Donald Trump - and again refused an immediate ceasefire.

Donald Trump says Moscow and Kyiv will start ceasefire negotiations "immediately", after two-hour call with Putin.

The EU adopted four sets of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, including a 17th package targeting Moscow's shadow fleet, and measures related to chemical weapons, human rights and hybrid threats,

U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending those countries’ more than three-year war

It follows Donald Trump saying Russia and Ukraine will "immediately" start negotiating, after a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin.

The EU and Britain announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday without waiting for the United States to join them, a day after President Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin without winning a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

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