Brussels (AFP) - European Union leaders will hold a face-to-face summit in Brussels on May 25 to discuss the coronavirus crisis, the battle against climate change and tensions with Russia, a spokesman said.

Russia said on Thursday it hoped U.S. ambassador John Sullivan would use his time usefully in Washington during consultations with members of Joe Biden's administration amid a diplomatic row with Moscow.

France's foreign minister told Russia on Thursday that the European Union would hold President Vladimir Putin and Russian authorities directly responsible if hunger-striking Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died and it would impose new sanctions.

A medical trade union leader and ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Thursday she and her group were asking the jailed opposition politician to call off his hunger strike.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu went to Crimea on Thursday to oversee large-scale snap drills of Russia's southern military district and paratroopers close to Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Friday joined a fast-growing list of NATO and EU members demanding the removal of Russian diplomats for alleged spying, in actions that have infuriated Moscow and look certain to provoke further retaliation.