Moscow’s troops have retaken a few villages in a border area that Kyiv’s forces invaded last month and are also advancing steadily in eastern Ukraine.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Western governments on Thursday that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

A senior Russian lawmaker on Thursday said that Ukrainian strikes on Russia with Western missiles would lead to global war with the use of nuclear weapons and that Moscow's response would be tough with more powerful weapons.