Kyiv held out overnight against Russian attacks and bombing as fighting intensified in other cities. DW has an overview as the Russian war on Ukraine rages on.

As aggressive sanctions hit Russia over the war in Ukraine, a growing number of Western firms are cutting ties with the country. While ordinary Russians stand to be hit hard, the EU has also imposed more targeted measures at business elites. We take a closer look.

Gas prices have risen to record levels and gas storage facilities are far from full. With Germany dependant on Russia's gas taps, energy supplies are becoming a powerful political weapon to use against the West.

On his first tour of Israel as German chancellor, Olaf Scholz spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The trip comes as Europe's largest ground war in generations rages between Russia and Ukraine.

The US, EU and their allies have been announcing measures designed to isolate and weaken the Russian economy. Since 2014, Vladimir Putin has been taking pre-emptive steps to protect the economy from future sanctions. But Brian O'Toole, a former US Treasury official and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that in the face of Western sanctions, "Fortress Russia is gone."

Exiled Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in an interview with FRANCE 24 from London that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is political "suicide" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who "cannot win in Ukraine, even if he manages to take Kyiv or Kharkiv". This war is the result of an "emotional decision" by Putin, the former oligarch said.

Solidarity for Ukraine was front and centre during US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address this week. Biden reiterated that American troops will not fight in Ukraine, but warned that NATO territory would be defended. He also announced that US airspace would be closed to Russian planes and warned oligarchs that their assets would be seized. To find out more about the effectiveness of such sanctions, we speak to Daniel Tannebaum, who's Global Head of Sanctions at Oliver Wyman and a former compliance officer with the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the US Treasury Department.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military has spurred Europe’s worst security crisis in decades. But while most analyses are currently looking at how the war will end, here are most likely easy immediate ways to solve the situation.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday decried Russia's "recklessness" over the shelling of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine and demanded Moscow stop the war against its neighbour.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that the success of negotiations depends on Russia approaching them with good faith without dictating ultimatums. He spoke with France 24's Marc Perelman about the situation in the cities of Mariupol and Odessa, the negotiations that will take place on Monday and what Ukraine expects from Europe.

Ukraine has said the humanitarian corridors out of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy that lead to Russia and Belarus are "immoral." Meanwhile, negotiators were expected to meet for talks later. Follow DW for the latest.

The war in Ukraine may be keeping Emmanuel Macron off the campaign trail, but the benefit to the French president has been clear: for the first time, a poll over the weekend saw him getting more than 30 percent of votes in the first round. The conflict has given Macron an opportunity to demonstrate his leadership. Meanwhile, candidates from far-right Marine Le Pen to far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been stuck defending their past sympathies for Vladimir Putin and their calls to withdraw France from NATO. Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer in contemporary history and politics at the University of Chichester, tells us "it’s going to be a strange campaign".