Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have held a lengthy phone call to discuss the escalating situation in the Middle East and Ukraine peace talks.

Smirnova, the director of the Narva museum that is housed in the fortress, has defiantly hung from the battlements a large banner of Putin’s face, with the words “war criminal” below it. In January this year a court in Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova on the charge of spreading false information.

The statement said Putin, in his conversation with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu "stressed the importance of a return to the process of talks and resolution of all issues concerning Iran's nuclear programme strictly through political and diplomatic means". The Kremlin statement said Russia would remain in close contact with both Iran and Israel.

Trump has generally veered away from overtly criticizing Putin while openly berating Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky, but has repeatedly condemned Russia's lethal airstrikes and floated that the Kremlin could be "tapping us along."

The Russian leader briefed Trump on his recent talks with officials in Iran and Israel, and reiterated Moscow's proposal to seek mutual solutions on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Ukraine has destroyed a Russian military convoy in a single strike using a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket system in the Donetsk region. According to early reports, more than 20 Russian soldiers were killed and many others injured in the attack, which took ...

The military display involved tanks, artillery, and military vehicles, which simulated the Soviet breakthrough against Axis forces that ultimately opened the Balkans to Soviet control.