First-quarter net profit of Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft declined by around 15% to 80.3 billion roubles ($1 billion) as revenue shrank, the company said.

German publication Der Spiegel said leaked documents show the modernization of Russian nuclear infrastructure.

President Aleksandar Vučić, who has refused to join western sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, last year told the Financial Times that Serbian arms and ammunition were ending up on the Ukrainian side via intermediaries he claimed to have no control over.

The Kremlin expects Russia and Ukraine to discuss the list of conditions for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine next week in Istanbul, its spokesman said on Friday, praising the U.S. role in mediating the talks.

Russia has continued to make billions from fossil fuel exports to the West, data shows, helping to finance its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – now in its fourth year.

From Athens to New York, oil tanker companies from Group of Seven nations are flocking back to the Russian oil trade.

Ukraine needs an initial 500 million euros ($566 million) to rebuild the most important infrastructure facilities at its Black Sea ports destroyed by constant Russian missile and drone attacks, a government minister said on Friday.

Third-grader Stanislav Martynyuk looks extremely proud in his school photograph. Hands folded on his desk; his eyes framed with spectacles that make him look like a serious – and adorable – 8-year-old scholar.