TOP HEADLINES

• President Vladimir Putin said that elections conducted this month in Russian-held parts of Ukraine marked a step towards their full integration into Russia. The votes in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were denounced by Kyiv as illegal.

• NATO has placed firm orders for $1.06 billion of key ammunitions destined for Ukraine, with another $1.4 billion-worth of contracts to be processed, its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv.

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has formally apologized after members of his parliament gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian man who fought with the Nazis during World War Two while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present. Veteran Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was a Polish-born Ukrainian who served in unit controlled by one of Adolf Hitler's Waffen SS units, but later emigrated to Canada. READ MORE BELOW

• UK and France's defense ministers are in Kyiv to discuss supplying further arms and military supplies to Ukraine, which is seeking more weapons to bolster its counteroffensive against Russian forces.

• Russia carried out a massive wave of air strikes on three Ukrainian regions overnight in which officials said some attack drones had hit their mark. Targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Odesa in the south and Kirovohrad in central Ukraine, one governor said they had experienced "an extremely difficult night." 

• Poland's agriculture minister has said talks with Ukraine are back on track as the two countries try to resolve a dispute about Warsaw's ban on Ukrainian grain imports.

• Ukraine's military claimed it had held off determined attacks by Russian forces trying to regain lost positions on the eastern front, while analysts suggested Kyiv was making progress in the southern theater. Ukraine is trying to advance southward to the Sea of Azov to cut off a Russian land bridge between the Crimean peninsula and Russia's positions in the east.

• Several hundred members of Russia's Wagner private mercenary group have returned to eastern Ukraine to fight but are not having a significant impact on the battlefield, according to Ukraine's military. 

• Ukraine's move to create a shipping channel for grain exports is a positive step for global food security, a top UN trade official said, but efforts continue to reach a new agreement over a broader Black Sea corridor due to the threat of Russian attack.

• Ukrainian and Polish football teams will boycott all competitions featuring Russian sides, their national federations have announced following a decision by UEFA to lift a ban on Russia's youth sides.

IN DETAIL

Trudeau apologizes for standing ovation for Ukraine Nazi

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has offered an "unreserved" apology in parliament after the legislature publicly - if unwittingly - celebrated a Ukrainian World War II veteran who fought alongside the Nazis. The incident last week during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shaken Canada, prompted the speaker of parliament to step down and triggered diplomatic turmoil.

"I would like to present unreserved apologies for what took place on Friday and to Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation for the position they were put in, for all of us who were present," Trudeau told lawmakers. "To have unknowingly recognized this individual was a terrible mistake and a violation of the memory of those who suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazi regime."

Last week, the Ukrainian president had been in Canada as part of a tour to bolster Western support for his country's campaign against Russian forces. Zelenskyy was in the chamber as guest of honor when the speaker, Anthony Rota, name-checked the elderly veteran as a World War II hero, prompting a standing ovation.

It emerged afterward that the veteran had served in a Ukrainian unit that was controlled by the Waffen SS unit.

Trudeau said earlier Wednesday that the mistake "deeply embarrassed Parliament, and Canada," and he was apologizing in front of all Canadians and the Jewish people around the world.

"It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust," Trudeau said.

Trudeau's government has been under intense pressure over the affair, which Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre described as the "biggest single diplomatic embarrassment" in Canada's history.

Russia has demanded that Canada now "bring to justice" the 98-year-old man, with Moscow's ambassador to Canada calling on Trudeau to apologize directly to Moscow for Hunka and his unit's "multiple war crimes" against the Russian people.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday