Malta said Wednesday it would temporarily stop giving citizenship and residency to Russians and Belarusians over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, suspending the so-called "golden passports" scheme for wealthy investors.

Malta's parliamentary secretariat in charge of citizenship said in a statement it had "suspended, until further notice, the

Russian forces said they had captured a port on the Black Sea on Wednesday as Russian and Ukrainian troops battled for another city and Ukraine's leader said Moscow wanted to "erase" his country.

The Russian army said it had taken control of Kherson, as its troops advanced and pounded cities across southern and eastern Ukraine, defying sanctions

The European Union on Wednesday cut seven Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system and banned Kremlin-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik from broadcasting into the bloc.

The measures, effective immediately, were the latest ratcheting up of the Western-coordinated sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, now in its seventh day.

"At

Police in Moscow detained two women and five children who wanted to lay flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy as day six of Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine came to a close Tuesday.

Researcher Alexandra Arkhipova said the children aged 7 to 11 were initially held with their mothers in a police van before being taken to a police station and eventually