Russia will make no big concessions on a peace plan for Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday, after a leaked recording of a call involving U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff showed he had advised Moscow on how to pitch to Donald Trump.

The strikes occurred in a strategic maritime corridor, raising concerns about energy security and navigational safety.

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will travel next week to Moscow as momentum builds for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Russia's state communications watchdog threatened on Friday to block WhatsApp entirely if it fails to comply with Russian law, news agencies reported.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warns that intelligence shows Russia may attack NATO by 2029, citing Moscow's military buildup and economic shift toward war.

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Congressional Ukraine Caucus criticized a reported peace plan backed by the Trump administration.

A court in Russia on Thursday convicted eight people on terrorism charges over an attack on a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine.

A Putin ally has called for more detail in Trump's peace plan for Ukraine. Follow Newsweek's live coverage of the war.

Russia on Thursday ordered Poland to close its consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Warsaw's decision to close the last Russian consulate in Poland after a railway explosion that was blamed on Moscow.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors and researches human rights violations in countries across the world. It has been outspoken in its opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recently published an investigation into Russian forces using drones to deliberately chase, injure and kill civilians living in Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Friday to shore up Hungary’s energy supplies and discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The trip to Moscow is the second since last year for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is widely considered Putin’s closest partner among all EU leaders.