LIVE UPDATES: Stingers and Javelins Sent to Ukraine Already Being Sold on Black Market - Lavrov

Drueke felt he was too old to fight but had useful experience training soldiers, and decided to volunteer to teach Ukrainians how to use equipment, his mother said. He did two tours of duty in Iraq while in the US military, she added.

France has already sent 12 self-propelled howitzers CAESAR to Ukraine, Macron noted, adding that Zelenskyy asked for six more units of this equipment.

The UK bought and refurbished more than 20 self-propelled howitzers M109 from a Belgian company that will be sent to Ukraine, Wallace said.

Analysts say refineries that are in operation now are providing only what they can - or, more accurately, what they desire - without putting additional money into expanding existing capacity or acquiring idled plants that can be reopened to provide measurable relief to consumers.

In March 2014, nearly 97% of Crimean voters supported secession from Ukraine and becoming part of Russia. Ukraine continues to consider Crimea as its own, but temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that Crimean residents democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia.

According to the DPR head, Assad has announced the official start of the procedure for the DPR recognition.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukraine staged an attack on a health facility in Odessa on June 11 to put the blame on Russian forces, the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, who also leads Russia's humanitarian response coordination headquarters, said on Thursday.

"On June 11, in Odessa, specialists from the 83rd Center for Information and Psychological Operations of the armed forces of Ukraine conducted a staged filming of the results of an attack on a medical facility, allegedly carried out by the Russian military," Mizintsev told a briefing.

The Russian defense official added that Ukraine’s security forces have cordoned off the area where the health facility is located so locals could not film the "attack" on their mobile phones.

"We warn you in advance that in the near future these and other materials fabricated by the Kyiv regime about the alleged ‘atrocities of the Russians’ are planned to be widely distributed through Western and Ukrainian media, as well as Internet," Mizintsev said.

"We're closely monitoring the situation. We are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities, as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the families of the two reported missing US citizens," he said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Coca-Cola HBC, a bottler of the coca-cola drink, said on Thursday and it is, together with its customers in Russia, in the ‘process of depleting stock."

The company also said that it will "no longer produce or sell Coca-Cola or other brands of the Coca-Cola Company in Russia" after the company’s stock is fully depleted.

"This is openly discussed, and they are sold at a discount, so to speak. In general, the process of mastering the black market is underway. They will return to a large extent to where they came from to Ukraine," Lavrov said in an interview with the NTV broadcaster.