Australia has vowed it will take the “strongest action possible” if Russia has harmed one of its nationals captured fighting for Ukraine, after reports emerged the prisoner of war may have been killed.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to take decisive measures if harm has been inflicted on Oscar Jenkins, a Melbourne school teacher captured while fighting for Ukraine. Disturbing video footage from December shows Jenkins being interrogated by Russian forces.

Oscar Jenkins, an Australian teacher fighting for Ukraine, was reportedly captured and interrogated by Russian soldiers. His status and whereabouts are unknown.

Russian troops pressing their slow advance through eastern Ukraine took control of two settlements in Donetsk region, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Russia claims to occupy 2 more villages in Ukraine's east; Kyiv hasn't confirmed Ukraine's special forces claim to repel North Korean assault in Russia's Kursk Oblast, killing 17 soldiers Ukraine opens doors to foreign firms for military equipment modernization Germany announces first deliveries of promised RCH 155 self-propelled howitzers UK to finance production of air defense,

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise - to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.

Russia is prepared to study U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's peace initiatives on Ukraine when he takes office next week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Lavrov cautioned that Trump's comments on the war - which he previously said he could end within 24 hours of entering the White House - were being made before his inauguration,