It was already hard to imagine a breakthrough emerging from the direct talks between Russia and Ukraine set to be renewed in Istanbul on Monday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of peace talks on Monday.

Asian shares have fallen and oil prices jumped as trade tensions and the Russian-Ukraine conflict ratcheted up geopolitical uncertainty.

Ukrainian forces have destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes parked at airfields thousands of miles from the front lines, according to a source in the country’s security services, in one of Kyiv’s most audacious and sophisticated counter assaults since the beginning of the war.

With 41 military aircraft impacted, the Ukrainian drone attack was described by some commentators as Russia's "Pearl Harbor." The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was a surprise air raid by Japan on the U.S. during World War II. Kyiv's assault follows ground advances by Moscow troops in recent days in Ukraine's Sumy border region.

A truck pulled in, and drones flew out of it.” From an airbase near Murmansk, in Russia’s far north, came similar stories: “The driver’s running around...drones are flying from his truck toward the base.

North Korea condemned a multilateral sanctions monitoring group's recent report on ties with Russia as political and biased, saying its military cooperation with Moscow was a "legitimate exercise of the sovereign right,