British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday used his first visit to Kyiv to announce a major new air defense package, as the country celebrated retaking the southern city of Kherson.

Kyiv meanwhile said it was checking the authenticity of video footage Moscow says shows surrendering Russian soldiers being executed.

"I am here today to say that

A suspected gas explosion early Saturday in a five-story residential building killed nine people in Russia's southeastern Sakhalin island, the local governor said.

The blast occurred in a brick building built in the 1980s in the village of Tymovskoye, the TASS news agency reported.

"Nine people were killed, including four children," the region's

Russia Saturday blasted Warsaw's refusal to allow Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend a meeting next month of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as "unprecedented and provocative".

"The decision from Poland, which is the acting chairman of the OSCE, to refuse the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday dismissed the idea of a "short truce" with Russia, saying it would only make things worse.

"Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength. Someone may call this the war's end, but such a respite will only worsen the situation," the Ukrainian leader said in remarks broadcast at