The G-7 had agreed in June to provide Ukraine with about $50 billion of fresh aid, with the loans to be repaid using the profits generated by $280 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank funds.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Ukraine on Friday focused on helping the country to repair and reconnect its war-damaged electricity grid and boost its heating capacity as winter approaches.

International Energy Agency says coming winter will be hard as country has lost more than two-thirds of energy production capacity since Russian invasion

Moscow was aware of Ukraine's plan to launch a surprise offensive into its Western Kursk region as far back as 2023, according to recently revealed Russian documents. Now 45 days into the raid, Russia has so far failed to push Ukraine's forces out of its Western territories,

Russia said on Friday that its army would regain control of its Kursk region "in a timely manner", declining to say how soon this could be achieved. Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two,

Russian military command had predicted that Ukraine might launch an operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast and spent several months planning how to prevent it, according to documents seized by the Ukrainian army from abandoned Russian positions in the region.