Mykhaylo Podolyak

Polish pro-EU government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk won a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, marking an end to eight years of rule by right-wing populists.

Ukraine pledged Monday to bolster its defences in frontline Bakhmut, after reports that Kiev was withdrawing from the city that has become a symbolic prize in the war.

But Ukrainian forces fighting to retain control of the salt-mining town told AFP its capture by Russia was inevitable and that some units had already begun to pull back.

Russia might take the provocative step of putting Ukrainian soldiers on trial as Kiev marks 31 years of independence for the war-ravaged country next week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday.