While military experts say the odds are stacked against them, for now Ukrainian defence forces have defied expectations.

Six days before the invasion, Russia reported a deal to sell China 100 million tons of coal. Hours before the bombing started, China agreed to buy Russian wheat.

The resumption of weapons tests following a month-long hiatus during the Winter Olympics and comes as the United States and its allies are focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The former president told a conservatives’ conference in Florida that Putin “understood me and he understood that I don’t play games”.

It started with an empty $40 bottle of wine Andrew Gosling found in a rubbish chute and a bad day. It ended with a man dead and two families devastated.

Extensive studies point to a market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, with scientists finding no support for an alternative theory that the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory.

Those fleeing Ukraine since the Russian invasion started have walked many kilometres through the night while others fled by train, car or bus, forming long lines at border crossings.

European Union President Ursula von der Leyen said “Putin... is destroying the future of his own country”.

The steps announced by the West since Russia began the invasion amount to some of the toughest sanctions on any country in modern times.

Due to host hundreds of diplomats at Windsor Castle this week, she is not able to stand for a protracted length of time.

As a reporter who’s covered a few Russian military forays, I’ve discovered that few are as effective as Putin in the art of confusion, deception and chaos.

The world is watching after Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces crossed the border into Ukraine.

Rescuing Arifa Hakimi from Afghanistan was a three-month mission in which she narrowly avoided a deadly bombing, disguised herself and faced a dangerous border crossing.

As fighting in Ukraine intensifies and enters a third day, the country - and its president - remain defiant in the face of Russian aggression.

The attack has hit major cities across Ukraine and invading forces are now closing in on capital, Kyiv. Here’s how it’s unfolding so far and the key flashpoints.

The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck about 66 kilometres north-northwest of Bukittinggi, a hilly town in West Sumatra province, according to the US Geological Survey.

The Russian president has set in train the demise of his kleptocratic regime. It will wither and die like the old Soviet Union.

Yarnya Arieva and Svyatoslav Fursin took up arms on the first day of their honeymoon, like them thousands of Ukrainians are uniting against Russia’s fire power.

The TV comic was elected on a promise to bring peace. Now he’s at war against a much more seasoned character.

With disinformation rife, determining exactly what is happening in Ukraine is difficult. Here’s what could be confirmed by Saturday morning.

The Ukrainian government asked for help with cyber security. These volunteers formed a makeshift “cyberwar unit” and set to work on Russian officials and websites.

The Russian president’s words and actions against Ukraine are playing from the same songbook as Adolf Hitler.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have crossed into Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia as Russian missiles pounded the capital.

US President Joe Biden will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

A succession of global and local shocks have exposed Australia’s dangerous lack of self-reliance. There’s a way to fix it.

Vladimir Putin is no ranting Hitler nor monstrous Stalin, he is howling at the loss of the former Russian Empire and will do everything in his power to regain it.

Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had entered the city’s western outskirts and confirmed that a Ukrainian jet had been shot down over the suburbs.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors.

The Ukraine tragedy shows clearly that the West’s basic principles of democracy and self-determination are the right ones.

‘We are Australians of Russian background,’ says an Orthodox priest. ‘We don’t want to be held responsible for anything that has happened there’.

The Ukrainian President said 137 civilians and military personnel have been killed so far.

As rockets rained down on the country’s main cities, ordinary Ukrainians took refuge in underground ­stations – or tried to go about their day as normal.

Experts do not believe Russia will attempt to destroy Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, but say the country’s crucial energy networks could be wielded as a strategic weapon in the conflict.

The Russian economy is large enough to absorb the impact of even the most severe sanctions.

Australian IT worker Andrew Gosling faces seven years in jail after he killed a Singaporean father-of-four by throwing a wine bottle off an apartment block.

A clip has emerged of a purported exchange between Ukrainian soldiers on Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, defying the Russian Navy and paying the ultimate price.

After vows of “swift and severe” sanctions, the US response was instead incremental and measured, and left the one thing that could really damage Russia off the table.

Dead people and a dog were among the electorate in the party vote which saw Valérie Pécresse crowned the leader of France’s right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party, according to a French newspaper investigation.

Three former Minneapolis police officers have been found guilty of depriving George Floyd of his rights by failing to give aid to the handcuffed Black man pinned beneath a colleague’s knee.

The economic impact for Australia may not be so immediate, but it will feel the effects of significant global disruption.

Reality has finally set in for locals who have refused to believe the invasion could happen. But now it’s here, they’re ready to fight.

In 1986, the no.4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. Western diplomats were stunned when the Soviets turned to the West for help with dealing with the fallout.

The US President issued more sanctions to punish Russia’s attack on Ukraine but stopped short of cutting off Putin’s access to the SWIFT global banking system.

US intelligence disclosures gave the US time to rally support from its allies on sanctions that in normal circumstances would have taken months to hash out.

Fascism, the ideology that denies all rights to individuals in their relations with the state, was not vanquished by World War II, only subdued temporarily.

Ukraine and Taiwan are linked by territorial disputes and a new “unbreakable friendship” between Russia and China. It’s no wonder China isn’t saying much.

China is the only major government to refrain from condemning Vladimir Putin’s attack. However, it tempered that by calling for restraint and respect for national sovereignty.

Queen Elizabeth has postponed two scheduled virtual audiences on Thursday but will continue with light duties, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said as the 95-year-old British monarch recovers from COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the “brutal invasion” and promised further sanctions on 300 members of the Russian parliament who supported Mr Putin.

Having warned of Putin’s plans for days, the US and Europe seem unsure now of their next move.