Russia-Ukraine War News LIVE Updates: Heavy fighting, widespread shelling in battle for Donetsk, say Ukrainian officials

The Biden administration has ruled out 'business as usual' with Russia while it remains in Ukraine and US officials said there would be no formal discussions between Blinken and Lavrov in Bali. But they could not rule out the possibility of a chance encounter, which would their first since they last met in Geneva in January.

While strained US-China ties will be the focus of Blinken’s talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, the broader G20 gathering in Indonesia of leading industrialised nations will almost certainly be overshadowed by the Ukraine conflict and its effect on global food and energy security. And Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will be there, marking the first time he and Blinken will be in the same room, let alone the same city, at the same time in nearly six months. (AP)

US secretary of state Antony Blinken will see his Chinese counterpart this week at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 bloc of nations that will likely exacerbate splits over Russia’s war in Ukraine. (AP)

There was heavy fighting at the edge of the Luhansk region, its governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television, saying Russian regular army and reserve forces had been sent there in an apparent effort to cross the Siverskiy Donets River.

After Russian forces on Sunday took control of Lysychansk, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, Ukrainian officials said they now expect Moscow to focus its efforts especially on the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk.

Donetsk and Luhansk comprise the Donbas, the industrialised eastern part of Ukraine that has seen the biggest battle in Europe for generations. Russia says it wants to wrest control of the entire Donbas from Ukraine on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-proclaimed people's republics.

Russian troops are engaged in heavy fighting supported by widespread artillery fire as they launch a major offensive for Ukraine's Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said, a day after Moscow declared victory in the neighbouring province of Luhansk. (Reuters)

Ukraine's Maryna Viazovska paid tribute to those suffering in her war-torn country on Tuesday as she became the second woman to be awarded the Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize for mathematics.

Fierce shelling in eastern Ukraine as Nato heralds its 'historic' expansion

There was heavy fighting at the edge of Luhansk region, its governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television, saying Russian regular army and reserve forces had been sent there in an apparent effort to cross the Siverskiy Donets River.

After Russian forces on Sunday took control of Lysychansk, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, Ukrainian officials said they now expect Moscow to focus its efforts especially on the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk.

Russia says it wants to wrest control of the entire Donbas from Ukraine on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-proclaimed people's republics.

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Russia hammers Ukraine's Donetsk region after seizing Luhansk