LIVE UPDATES: US President Biden Signs $40 Billion Military Aid Bill for Ukraine

The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) will set an exchange rate, according to which one Ukrainian hryvnia will be equivalent to two Russian rubles, the DPR authorities inform.

The changes will come into force on Monday, May 23, according to a decree published on the website of DPR leader Denis Pushilin.

The authorities of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) also issued a decree on Saturday, saying that the exchange rate of the ruble against the hryvnia will be set at two Russian rubles for one Ukrainian hryvnia, starting May 23.

Last month, the Ukrainian National Bank (NBU) said that inflation in Ukraine may exceed 20 percent by the end of this year due to Russia’s special military operation in the country. NBU and the Ukrainian government have taken measures to deter an increase in prices, including temporarily fixing the hryvnia exchange rate.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says the National Security Council will avoid aligning with sanctions on Russia as long as it can amid the opposition's calls to side with the West.

"Our duty is to our country. We must stick to the decisions written down by the National Security Council as close as we can and for as long as we can," he told TV Pink on Saturday.

Serbia voted with the majority of the UN Human Rights Council last month to suspend Russia from the group over Ukraine. In return, the European Union exempted Serbia from its sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports.

Vucic told TV Pink that his administration had partially backed EU sanctions on Belarus. He said it endorsed nine of the 25 measures brought forth by the Council of the European Union on April 8.

The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic said on Saturday that his fighters were combing the underground maze of the Azovstal steel works for possible hideouts, a day after Russia announced its capture.

"We do not rule out that someone could still be hiding there… We’ve been looking through every room, every corner. I have no doubt that we will find whoever may still be there," Denis Pushilin said on Russian television.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the steel plant in the southeastern port city of Mariupol had been liberated from Ukrainian troops, ending a monthlong standoff. A total 2,439 servicemen have been captured since May 16.

Pushilin said six Ukrainian personnel died in a failed attempt to detonate huge ammo depots on the steel works' grounds after the majority of their fellow troops gave in. Four others were seriously wounded.

The Russian military brought 18,873 Ukrainians trapped in Lugansk and Donetsk regions to safety in the past day, including 2,282 minors, a senior Russian defense official said on Saturday.

"A total of 1,396,798 people, including 234,762 children have been evacuated since the start of the special military operation," Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev told a news briefing.

Russian bomb squads cleared more than 76 hectares of unexploded ordnance in the eastern regions in the past day, destroying 1,659 explosive devices.

More than 21,500 tonnes of humanitarian assistance has been delivered to those in need in Ukraine since early March, Mizintsev estimated. The aid included essentials, food, medicine and medical equipment.

Mizintsev also said that Ukrainian troops had bombed residential areas in the village of Mykolaivka in Luhansk region, killing and wounding civilians. He said Ukrainian media workers and reporters from the New York Times had photographed the aftermath of the strikes and would likely blame them on Russia.

According to Onet, instead of MiG-29 fighters, Poland handed over to Ukraine a large number of spare parts and weapons for these aircraft. Due to these deliveries, Ukrainian aviation could restore combat capabilities of some of its aircraft, the report says.

He said Ukraine had fewer than 300,000 military personnel, including 120,000 combat-ready troops before Russia launched the military operation in February. He signed a decree in early 2022 to increase their number by at least 100,000.

Turkey refused to cut ties with Russia after it launched a security operation in Ukraine and any damage to Turkish assets in Ukraine could strain that relationship.

The ministry reiterated that Russia does not seek confrontation and is open to dialogue in the spirit of mutual respect.

The bill provides "supplemental emergency appropriations for fiscal year 2022 to Federal agencies to respond to the situation in, and for assistance to, Ukraine," according to the White House.

The company also noted that it has delivered some 1.49 billion cubic meters in gas supplies in 2021, which amounted to two-thirds of the total gas consumption in Finland.