TOP HEADLINES

· Russia has claimed the Ukrainian military deliberately targeted a hospital in Russian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, killing 14 people and injuring 24 patients and medical staff. Ukraine has not responded to the accusations. READ MORE BELOW

· The Russian Wagner private military group says it has taken control of the strategic village of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Kyiv said its forces have repelled the attack. 

· Talks are in progress between Ukraine and its allies about its demand for game-changing long-range missiles, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

· Moscow says it will not hold its yearly talks with Japan on renewing an agreement that allows Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands due to Japan's sanctions against Russia.

· Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov is set to hold a meeting with the new U.S. ambassador Lynne Tracy early next week.

· The Democratic People's Republic of Korea continues to criticize the U.S. decision to send tanks to Ukraine, describing it as an "unethical crime" aimed at furthering global instability.

· Zelenskyy has condemned the idea of neutrality in sports at a time when his country's athletes are fighting in the war, while their Russian counterparts are still able to compete.

· Ukraine has imposed new sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, the latest diplomatic measures from the Ukrainian president to cut off links between the two countries.

· The U.S. Treasury Department is set to warn countries and businesses that they could lose access to the U.S. market if they work with sanctioned entities, as the finance ministry's top sanctions official heads to Turkey and the Middle East next week.

· A German arms-maker has said it is prepared to dramatically increase its output of tank and artillery munitions growing demand in Ukraine and its Western allies, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany.

IN DETAIL

Strike hits Russian-held hospital 

Russia accused Ukraine's forces of deliberately hitting a hospital in Russian-held eastern Ukraine on Saturday, calling the attack which reportedly killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients a war crime.

Kyiv is yet to respond to the allegations.

The Russian defense ministry said the strike hit a medical facility in the Russian-occupied settlement of Novoaidar in the Luhansk region and was carried out using a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launch system. 

"A deliberate missile strike against a known functioning civilian medical facility is without doubt a serious war crime by the Kyiv regime," the ministry said.

"All those involved in the planning and execution of this crime will be found and held accountable.

Locals and soldiers had been under the supervision of civilian and military medics in the hospital for many months, it said.

In the neighboring Donetsk region, Ukraine's military said its forces fought back an attack in the area of Blahodatne on Sunday, despite claims from Russia's Wagner private military group that it had taken control of the village.

"Units of Ukraine's Defense Forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of ... Blahodatne ... in the Donetsk region," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily morning report, referring to fighting on Saturday.

It added that its forces had fended off Russian attacks in the areas of 13 other settlements in the region.

Fighting has intensified in Donetsk in recent weeks, with the precise location of the front line regularly shifting, especially around the town Bakhmut, where some of the heaviest battles of the war are taking place. 

Kyiv has said that the Russian offensive on Bakhmut has not started in earnest, but the situation in the area had become difficult, with President Zelenskyy on Friday calling it acute.