Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants a meeting with Russia next week to push forward ceasefire talks.

Russia now controls more than two-thirds of Ukraine’s Donetsk region — the main theater of the ground war. Russian forces have carved out a 10-mile-deep pocket around the Ukrainian troops defending the crucial city of Kostiantynivka, partly surrounding them from the east, south and west.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday predicted the Russian economy would withstand the European Union's latest sanctions package and said Moscow would intensify its strikes against Ukraine.

The European Union has approved a new package of sanctions on Russia, including restrictions on banking and fuels made from Russian petroleum, and a revised oil price cap – the 18th raft of measures since the country’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.