Is the war entering a new phase? Russian forces have killed at least six people in Ukraine, according to officials, after launching ballistic missile attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and strikes on other regions, including a supermarket in the northern city of Chernihiv. The attacks on Sunday came as Russian officials said that Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine had also come under fire, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the occupied city of Horlivka. Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv cities were all hit. In northern Chernihiv, officials said a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people, including a nine-year-old girl, and wounding 25 others.

The Ukrainian capital Kyiv came under ballistic missile attack from Russian forces early on Sunday, local authorities said, while other regions suffered bombardments later during the day that killed at least six people. Russia said areas of Ukraine under Moscow's control had also come under attack, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka. In its morning note, Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight. In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people -- including a 9-year-old child -- and wounding 25, Ukraine's emergency services said. "This is deliberate Russian terror that has no military justification," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

In "Biological War," Annie Jacobsen imagines society collapsing from a man-made plague--part of a wave of such prophecies. But what do we miss when we try to predict the future? In the fall of 1989, a select group of Soviet scientists was summoned to Obolensk, a secluded municipality on Moscow's periphery, and gathered at what appeared to be an insane asylum to discuss a pioneering technique for mass murder. If someone had been observing the institutional activity from space--a distinctly non-theoretical possibility--they might have seen a shuffle of patients roaming the grounds or playing volleyball in their pajamas. These were actors, hired to play the disturbed as a cover story for something even more disturbing. The eight-story glass building at the center of the complex, which had putatively been devoted to vaccine manufacturing, was in fact a highly classified defense facility. Its remit was called, or "biological preparations"--what one participant later described as "the most ambitious Soviet arms program since the development of the hydrogen bomb." The most recent experiments there had at last demonstrated the viability of a weapon that could wipe out entire enemy populations without leaving a scratch on their infrastructure. It was a pathogen genetically engineered to spread within hours, to kill within days, and to resist all existing treatment.

Is the war entering a new phase? At least 11 people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine, while Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Kirov region killed six others, officials on both sides of the conflict said. A Russian missile attack killed six people and wounded "dozens" in the Kyiv region on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Earlier, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in the city and called on residents to stay in shelters as air defence systems were operating. Separately, Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the city of Sloviansk, said five people were killed and nine others injured after Moscow dropped two aviation bombs on the city.

What is Iran's Pickaxe Mountain? Has Russia helped Iran target CIA sites in the Gulf? When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov on Thursday in Manila, on the margins of a summit of Southeast Asian nations, Moscow's war on Ukraine was officially the top agenda item. But the meeting between Rubio and Lavrov was held under the shadow of fresh reports suggesting that Russia might be playing a more active role than it has publicly acknowledged in Iran's attacks on United States military sites in the Middle East. Three days into the war, on March 3, The Washington Post reported that a CIA station in the US embassy in Riyadh had been targeted, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Is the war entering a new phase? A Russian strike on a ship near the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa has killed at least 10 people, while Ukraine has launched hundreds of drones to attack Moscow, a day after Kyiv was hit by one of the heaviest barrages of ballistic missiles of the war. Russia struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship carrying corn with a crew from India and Syria, Ukraine's seaports authority said on Monday. Officials said eight crew members had been rescued. "Since the beginning of July, the Odesa region was under constant daily shelling. There were days when 13 to 15 air raid alerts had been announced in the region," Kiper told Ukrainian television.

Russians are returning to cash, as mobile internet shutdowns disrupt card payments, and more businesses seek to dodge tax under mounting financial pressure more than four years into the war with Ukraine. Russia has added 1.56tn roubles (£14.8bn; The spike comes amid a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks, which have repeatedly led the Kremlin to shut down mobile internet across large swathes of the country, leaving many unable to pay by card. The government says the aim of the shutdowns is to counter the drone strikes. Having cash on hand gives you some sense of control and security, one woman in Moscow told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian drone strikes hit two sprawling warehouses belonging to Russia's major online retailer, Wildberries, in the Tambov and Moscow regions, killing nine people and wounding dozens, officials said on Saturday. Moscow's mayor said more than 370 drones had targeted the Moscow region. A seventh night of US strikes cuts water to villages in Iran's south Trump jokes that England turned Harry Kane into a'defensive player' Venice protesters rally against US ambassador's superyacht tour

Ukraine creates'long-range' command to step up strikes on Russia Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicles hit what the Ukranian military say was a Russian tanker during a strike at a location given as Sea of Azov in this screenshot taken from video released Thursday. Kyiv - Ukraine is setting up a "long-range impact" command within its armed forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Kyiv's campaign against Russian energy and logistics has forced Moscow to ban diesel exports and restrict shipping near the Sea of Azov, which abuts the Black Sea. For months, Ukrainian attack drones have been targeting key energy infrastructure thousands of kilometers across Russia in what Kyiv casts as long-range sanctions against the primary contributor to Russia's state budget, backing its war effort. In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported strikes almost daily, with officials saying it is only fair to bring the war to Russia more than four years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow last month. Kremlin insiders say recent Ukrainian strikes have strengthened Russian President Vladimir Putin's resolve to keep fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin said, with Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now. Two of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Putin was instead likely to escalate the conflict, now well into its fifth year. One of them, who meets regularly with the president, described a "high probability" of escalation in the coming months.