Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but, if the West escalated the Ukraine war any further, then Moscow should respond and, if necessary,

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Republicans will vote on a Russia sanctions bill once Trump approves it, as pressure mounts on Moscow to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

"Putin's criminal war is getting closer to our borders," Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, said on Wednesday.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday, part of an agreement struck at the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June.

Russian officials and commentators have shown little indication that Moscow is about to change course under new pressure.

A bipartisan bill in Congress would enable President Trump to slap "bone-crushing sanctions" on Russia, says Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

The European Union failed for a second day to approve a new package of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday as Slovakia continued to seek concessions over gas supplies, four EU diplomats told Reuters.

Ukraine’s military commander in charge of the country’s drone warfare program urged the US and NATO countries alike on Wednesday to learn from Kyiv’s use of the technology on the battlefield so in the future there are not “hard questions from your children [about] when [their] father will come back.