Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in person at a meeting of Ukraine's international backers in Germany on Friday to rally support for Kyiv days after one of the deadliest Russian strikes of the war.

He will also meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then head to Italy, following the meeting at Ramstein Air Base, which comes days after 55 people were killed and 300 wounded in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava.

Ukraine on Friday claimed to have recaptured a part of the eastern town of New York, in the first success for Kyiv on this part of the front for months.

"Thanks to the high morale, courage and professionalism of the brigade's fighters, Azov managed to stabilize the situation, regain control of part of New York," the Azov Brigade, fighting in the area, said on social media.

Ukraine's decision to end an agreement allowing Russia to pump gas via its territory will hurt Europe more than it will Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported Kamala Harris in November's U.S. presidential election, an apparent wry remark a day after the United States issued indictments accusing Moscow of vote interference.

The EU on Thursday warned Serbia that keeping strong ties with Moscow was "not compatible" with its aspiration to join the bloc, after a top government official met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin described his country as an "ally of Russia" on Wednesday, as he met Putin on the sidelines of an economic forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday.

NATO member Turkey has applied for membership in the BRICS bloc of developing economies, a senior Kremlin official said Wednesday, as Russia and China seek to counter the West's global influence.

Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs aide, told reporters that Turkey has submitted an application "for full membership" in the bloc that Russia this year chairs, and it will be considered.

Top U.S. military leaders will be in Germany to discuss Ukraine's wartime needs as Russia has conducted one of its deadliest airstrikes in the conflict and Ukraine presses its offensive in Russia's Kursk region.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host a meeting Friday at Ramstein Air Force Base of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, made up of military leaders from more than 50 nations that have regularly provided funds and weapon systems to bolster Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron named the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, as France's new prime minister on Thursday after more than 50 days of caretaker government.

The appointment of the 73-year-old Barnier follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who might be able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by Macron's opponents to quickly topple the new government that Barnier will now put together and lead.

Police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate in Munich on Thursday, fatally wounding him. Authorities said he may have been planning to attack the consulate on the anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.

No one else was hurt in the shootout shortly after 9 a.m.. in an an area near the consulate and a museum on the city's Nazi-era history. Officers had been alerted to a person carrying a "long gun" in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich, at around 9 a.m. and returned fire when he shot at them. The suspect died at the scene.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area -- and claimed that Ukraine's Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.

Putin was speaking a day after Russia attacked Ukraine's western Lviv region with deadly strikes, and after recent advances by Moscow's forces in the Donbas.