A top Ukrainian official on Saturday criticised the 'symbolic blow' of Russia assuming the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council.
"It's not just a shame. It is another symbolic blow to the rules-based system of international relations," Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, wrote in English on Twitter.
On Saturday, Russia took over the presidency of the UN's top security body, which rotates every month. The last time Moscow held the post was in February 2022, when its troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Friday it planned to "exercise all its rights" in the role.
The United States on Thursday urged Russia to "conduct itself professionally" when it assumes the role, saying there were no means to block Moscow from the post.
Ukrainian official Yermak also hit out at Iran, which Kyiv and its allies accuse of supplying Russia with arms, including hundreds of assault drones which have menaced Ukrainian infrastructure facilities. Tehran denies supplying Russia with weapons.
US President Donald Trump held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, while Israeli officials continued indirect negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over flood-ravaged central Texas as hopes dimmed of finding survivors from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children.
Four workers were killed and at least 22 others were injured in a fire that broke out on Monday at a key data centre in Cairo, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the spokesperson at Egypt's Health Ministry, told Reuters on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said on Monday the US would send more weapons to Ukraine, primarily defensive ones, to help the war-torn country defend itself against intensifying Russian advances.
Tropical Storm Danas headed for China's eastern seaboard on Tuesday morning, as Zhejiang province braced for landfall after the storm tore through Taiwan with record winds and torrential rain, leaving two dead and over 600 injured.
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has fined three exchange houses a total of AED 4.1 million for failing to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations.