Ukraine warned Monday that Russian forces were preparing to intensify their fight for key cities in the Donbas, where the death toll from a weekend attack rose to 26 as rocket strikes killed six in the country's second city.

The attacks in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine came as Europe braced for deeper cuts in gas supplies from Russia.

Kharkiv

Russia will extend its fast-tracked citizenship scheme to all Ukrainian citizens, not just those living in separatist or Russian-occupied areas, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Monday. 

Putin's decree orders that "all citizens of Ukraine" be given "the right to apply for admission to the citizenship of the Russian

Moscow-backed authorities of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson said Monday they had foiled an attack against their local leader.

In recent weeks, attacks against pro-Russian representatives have increased in the occupied southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

On Monday, the Moscow-backed administration claimed that its

The Ritz-Carlton Moscow is changing its name after its parent company, U.S. hospitality group Marriott International, pulled out of the Russian market over the invasion of Ukraine, the five-star hotel announced Monday.

The luxury hotel, located steps away from Red Square on Tverskaya Ulitsa, will now be known as The Carlton Moscow, it said in a