Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch five-hour drone assault on Kyiv in one of conflict’s largest attacks

Slovak leader Robert Fico is seeking to install "a dam against progressivism" by declaring that Slovakia’s legal precedence on "national identity" issues, such as family and gender.

Critics of populist Prime Minister Fico, including some legal experts, fear the amendment will threaten Slovakia's commitments to European Union laws and international treaties.

Mr Fico has taken an increasingly anti-liberal stance in rights issues, building on his pro-Russian and pro-Hungarian international policy position. He has promoted closer relations with Russia and China and criticised sanctions on Moscow and the EU's military aid for Ukraine.

The amendment states that only male and female will be recognised as genders, and that school curriculums must respect the constitution, including its cultural and ethical positions. It will also tighten adoption rules.

"The Slovak Republic maintains sovereignty above all in issues of national identity," the amendments say, in particular on cultural and ethical issues.

The EU Commission has proposed an 18th sanctions package against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

Aimed at Moscow’s energy revenues, banks and military industry, the sanctions will see transactions with Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines banned, as well as banks who engage in sanctions circumvention.

"Russia's goal is not peace, it is to impose the rule of might ... strength is the only language that Russia will understand," Ms von der Leyen told a news conference.

The Commission has proposed lowering the Group of Seven nations (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil to $45 a barrel from $60 barrel in a bid to cut Russia's energy revenues.

It also lists more vessels that make up Russia's shadow fleet and oil trading companies.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is “deeply saddened” after a school shooting in Austria in which nine people were killed before the attacker is believed to have turned the gun on himself.

Here’s what the Ukrainian president said:

Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg was arrested on Tuesday and charged with discrediting the Russian army after describing the Ukraine war as a game of "bloody chess", his party said.

Mr Shlosberg, 61, made the comment in a video debate in January in which he urged an end to the war.

"We must first stop killing people," he said at the time. "If we achieve peace, we will regain freedom." The liberal Yabloko party has claimed that his arrest was linked to these remarks.

Mr Shlosberg was detained after authorities searched his home and the Yabloko office in Pskov, a city near the Estonian border, the party said.

It added that he was placed in pre-trial detention pending a court hearing on Wednesday.

Mr Shlosberg is one of relatively few opposition politicians remaining in the country. Scores of others who oppose the Kremlin have fled. Alexei Navalny, the most prominent domestic opponent of president Vladimir Putin, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February last year.

The second swap of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war has been completed, the Russian defence ministry said according to Interfax.

It comes after an exchange on Monday say prisoners of war under the age of 25 swapped between the warring countries, following direct talks in Istanbul on June 2.

Oleksandr Usyk has challenged Donald Trump to spend a week in Ukraine, at his home, to witness firsthand the realities of the conflict.

The invitation comes after Trump claimed he could resolve the war "in 24 hours" before became US president. With the conflict now past its third year since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, Usyk believes Trump needs a deeper understanding of the situation.

Speaking to the BBC, Usyk, the current WBC, WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion, painted a stark picture of life in Ukraine. He stated, "I advise American president Donald Trump to go to Ukraine and live in my house for one week, only one week."

Political commitment to Ukraine’s future in Nato will not change even if it is not explicitly mentioned in a communique published following a summit in the Hague, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Monday.

"The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit," Mr Rutte said at Chatham House in London, according to The Kyiv Independent.

"Whether it is again in the communique or not, I think that's not relevant, because all the language we previously agreed on is there — until we decide it is no longer there."

The Nato summit will take place from June 24-25, and Mr Rutte said the following communique may exclude Russia and Ukraine.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has said Russia is too weak to attack Nato, noting that it is “not even capable of defeating Ukraine”.

Regarded as the EU’s most pro-Russian leader, Mr Orban said it would not be in the bloc’s interest to have a “direct conflict with Russia” and therefore Ukraine must not join Nato.

But he added that Russia would not be capable of taking on Nato, while speaking with French TV channel LCI according to The Kyiv Independent.

"The Russians are too weak for that," he said. "They're not even capable of defeating Ukraine, so they're incapable of really attacking NATO."

"Europe must be strengthened in the long term, and there must be a strategic agreement with Russia," he said, adding that sanctions against Russia are "destroying Hungary and the whole of Europe."