Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoys on Tuesday yielded no public breakthrough on a potential Ukraine peace deal, with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov suggesting unsolved "territorial problems" were the main stumbling block.

Exclusive drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows a devastated Ukrainian town nearly encircled by Russian forces near the city that Moscow this week claimed to now control.

Russian forces have surrounded the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70 per cent of it, President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday, though Kyiv's top general insisted Ukrainian defenders were pushing back hard amid fierce fighting in the city centre.

Ukrainian troops fighting in eastern Ukraine are expressing doubts that a peace proposal currently being negotiated will prevent Russia from attacking their country again.

New battlefield reports suggest intensified fighting across eastern Ukraine as both Russian and Ukrainian forces suffer heavy losses for minimal territorial gains. According to claims from Russian MOD channels,

The Ukraine peace plan negotiated between the U.S. and Russia is a non-starter for Ukraine, and also puts the country in the unenviable position of saying no to a mercurial American president.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia had taken the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, marking the culmination of a 20-month campaign. Ukraine denied the town had fallen, saying that its troops were still in control of the north.

Ukraine has condemned two-time Olympic diver Sofiia Lyskun's switch to represent Russia and will try to strip her of awards. Lyskun, 23, told the Russian newspaper Izvestia this week that “coaches’ incompetence” was a factor in her decision.

Hello, this is Kateryna Hodunova reporting from Kyiv on day 1,379 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today's top story so far: The Third Army Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces denied Russian claims of a breakthrough in the city of Lyman in Donetsk Oblast,