There are considerable risks for Ukraine if it chooses to fight on rather than seek a deal to end the war with Russia.

President Vladimir Putin donned military fatigues for a surprise visit to troops in Russia's western Kursk region on Wednesday where he ordered them to press their lightning advance and swiftly retake the rest of the area from Ukrainian forces.

As a drone smashed into the side of her apartment block early on Tuesday, Russia's full-scale offensive on Ukraine literally came home to Svetlana in a suburb southeast of Moscow.