North Korean leader Kim Jong Un headed home with some explosive souvenirs from his weeklong tour of Russia. The visit has fanned Western concerns that Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin might strike an arms deal.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to meet Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The visit is meant to lay the groundwork for a possible Putin visit to Beijing next month.

Kyiv said its plans were in response to unilateral bans announced by the three states after an EU ban expired. The trio argue they are protecting their local markets, while Ukraine says the ban is "legally wrong."

Kim Jong Un returned to North Korea from Russia, where he deepened "comradely fellowship and friendly relations" with Vladimir Putin. Western countries fear the visit involved plans to arm Russia's war in Ukraine.

Azerbaijan launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku's government said a truce and talks were contingent on the enclave's unconditional surrender.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is mainly populated by Armenians but internationally recognised as lying within Azerbaijan's borders. A particularly bloody conflict in 2020 enabled Baku to recover a large part of the territory. Both countries have been accused of committing war crimes over the years.

Zelenskyy's visit comes as many conservative Republicans are growing skeptical of US aid to Ukraine. Kyiv has been heavily reliant on weapons assistance from the West as it staves off Russia's invasion.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. China has long provided diplomatic support to Assad's regime, and could play a role in reconstructing war-battered Syria.

Warsaw says it is ending its supply of weapons to Ukraine, but that future deliveries could still be on the table. The move comes amid a growing dispute over a grain import ban with Kyiv.

In just a day, Azerbaijan was able to force ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to disarm. Usually, Armenians would look to Russia for help, but Russian peacekeepers stayed well out of the recent conflict. Why?

German aid organizations allegedly demanded that money be spent on sick German children instead of tank deliveries to Ukraine. But the whole story is made up, and the video explaining it is a spoof.

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington seeking more help to fend off Russia's forces, US President Joe Biden said he was confident Congress would continue supporting Kyiv.