Reuters

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the "biggest blow" in Kyiv's military campaign is yet to come, but admitted the operation is difficult as Russia throws all it can to stop the offensive.

The artillerymen of Ukraine's 67th infantry brigade are delighted with the U.S.-supplied M119 howitzer amid an increase in military exchanges south of the Russian-held town of Kreminna.

International donors made pledges on Monday of close to $1.5 billion in aid for Sudan and the surrounding region, about half of estimated needs for a deepening humanitarian crisis that has driven some 2.2 million people from their homes.

President Joe Biden said on Monday the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is "real", days after denouncing Russia's deployment of such weapons in Belarus.

War-torn Ukraine is seeking up to $40 billion to fund the first part of a "Green Marshall Plan" to rebuild its economy, a senior Ukrainian government official told Reuters ahead of a summit this week.

Ukraine confirmed on Monday it had driven Russian forces from an eighth village in its two-week-old counteroffensive in a heavily fortified part of the front line on the most direct route to the country's Azov Sea coast.

Mali's unexpected demand for the departure of U.N.

Mali started counting votes on Sunday from a constitutional referendum that the ruling military junta and regional powers have said will pave the way to elections and a return to civilian rule.

The start of a 72-hour ceasefire aimed at calming more than two months of conflict between rival Sudanese military factions brought a lull in clashes in Khartoum early on Sunday following battles and air strikes overnight, residents said.

Russia reported fierce fighting on Sunday on three sections of the front line in Ukraine while Ukraine's president praised his troops for repelling enemy advances and said their counter-offensive was progressing well.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday ordered more troops to western Uganda where attackers from a group with links to Islamic State killed at least 37 secondary school students.

There is an ongoing global threat posed by toxic cough syrups, the World Health Organization (WHO) told Reuters, saying it was now working with six more countries than previously revealed to track the potentially deadly children's medicines.

It is "highly likely" that the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was caused by explosives planted by Russians, a team of legal experts assisting Ukraine's prosecutors in their investigation said in preliminary findings released on Friday.

Tunisia is set for a strong tourist season with visitor numbers nearing pre-pandemic levels, a government official told Reuters, bringing some badly needed foreign currency into an economy mired in crisis as bankruptcy threatens state finances.

NATO allies may be ready to remove some hurdles from Ukraine's path to the military alliance, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday, a few weeks before a NATO summit that aims to bridge differences over Kyiv's accession.

At least two explosions rocked Kyiv on Friday and air raid sirens blared as African leaders began a peace mission, hoping to mediate between Ukraine and Russia.

The conflict in Sudan hit the two-month mark on Thursday with no sign of a resolution as diplomatic peace efforts hit roadblocks and the risk of a broader ethnic war rises.

Regional and federal government officials as well as Eritrean soldiers were involved in the theft of food aid in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, the head of an investigation by the Tigrayan authorities said on Thursday.

Russia announced plans on Thursday to stage elections in occupied parts of Ukraine in just three months, Moscow's latest bid to signal it is in control even as a Ukrainian counteroffensive has pushed its forces back in some areas.

Tetyana Tarasevych remembers how life got better in Ukraine's southeast nearly 70 years ago after the vast Kakhovka water reservoir was built near her home in the village of Hrushivka.

Key African states stressed the need for grain imports to tackle food insecurity as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to discuss with the continent's leaders the fate of a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of food and fertiliser from Ukraine.

NATO members are racing to complete a plan to provide long-term support to Ukraine, but are wrestling with how best to assure the country's security until it can join the military alliance, according to U.S.

After a week of heavy fighting, the real tests of Kyiv's counteroffensive lie ahead, with Ukrainian troops some distance from Russia's main defensive line and the bulk of forces prepared for the push still on standby.

The road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Storozheve is lined with the corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles.

Kidney dialysis patients are dying and dead bodies have been left to decompose in a morgue and in city streets as Sudan's war rages on, despite efforts by volunteers and aid workers to keep critical healthcare running.

A lawyer for Russia on Wednesday dismissed Ukraine's account of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in World Court hearings earlier this week as "fiction".

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi delayed a trip to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Wednesday for security reasons as Moscow and Kyiv reported heavy fighting in southern Ukraine.

The head of Russia's powerful mercenary Wagner Group said on Tuesday he was "not sure" if his men would continue to fight in Ukraine amid a bitter standoff with the Defence Ministry after capturing the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Reuters journalists gained access to the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Neskuchne on Tuesday, confirming that Ukraine's forces have been advancing in the early phase of a counteroffensive against Russia's invasion.