The Latest Breaking News from Moscow

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine pressed its counteroffensive against Russian troops Wednesday, pushing them back from the northeastern city of Kharkiv in what observers say could bring a new phase to the conflict even as U.S intelligence officials warned that Moscow was preparing for a protracted war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking to French University Sciences Po, said he wanted to restore the country's territory before an end of the war with Russia could be envisioned, adding he was still willing to dialogue with Moscow.

It took 11 years for Vladislav Zimin to complete his training in Russia to become an interventional cardiologist, a specialist who places stents in clogged arteries. After that, he practiced for five years, ultimately becoming head of his Moscow hospital’s cardiology and radiology department.

The Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) in eastern Ukraine said on Wednesday they had blocked access to Facebook and Instagram, aligning themselves with Russia's policy on the U.S.-based social networks.

The Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine said on Wednesday it had blocked access to Facebook and Instagram, aligning itself with Russia's policy on the US-based social networks. Moscow recognized the DPR and a second region of eastern Ukraine - the Luhansk People's Republic - as independent…

Ukrainian refugees who reluctantly find themselves under Moscow’s rule are receiving help from an unlikely quarter: networks of Russian volunteers helping those displaced by the war to leave Russia.

The Polish ambassador to Russia was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, the state-run news agency PAP quoted the Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau as saying on Wednesday, as tensions run high over the war in Ukraine.

The Russian-occupied region of Kherson in Ukraine plans to ask President Vladimir Putin to incorporate it into Russia by the end of the year, TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing an official from the Russian-controlled administration there.

Wallace says Russia’s top officers failed their troops on the ground

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow did not want war in Europe, but that Western countries were keen to see Russia defeated in its military campaign in Ukraine.

Russian diplomat Sergiy Andreev was feeling unwelcome on the streets of Warsaw even before protesters doused him with red liquid thrown in his face at short range this week. Soon after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Andreev, who is Moscow's ambassador in Poland, found the embassy bank accounts…