Diplomatic efforts have seen little progress in halting the fighting, including Monday's phone call between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had launched criminal proceedings against a prominent journalist who heads a publication in neighbouring Latvia providing critical coverage of the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine.

Kherson region. Late on May 18, Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern oblast, or region, of Kherson, killed a woman and injured three other people; earlier the same day, a man was killed in a drone strike on the village of Vesele on the Dnieper River.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending those countries’ more than three-year war.

The bombardment, which Ukrainian officials said mostly targeted Kyiv, came just a day before President Trump was expected to talk with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

RCP co-founder Tom Bevan commented on President Trump's statements about opening up trade with Russia after the Ukraine War comes to an end, Monday evening on FNC's "Special Report" panel. BRET BAIER,

Andrei Mordvichev led the brutal assault on Mariupol and has previously hinted that Russia has no intention of stopping at Ukraine.

Mercenaries are outlawed under international law. But Russia has misused the label to deny foreign fighters their protections as prisoners of war.