MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has agreed to US President Donald Trump's initiative to establish a ceasefire with Ukraine from May 9 to 11 and conduct a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange with Kiev, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, held a phone conversation, during which the sides noted the advisability of returning to efforts to normalize relations between Iran and the Arab monarchies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Trade between Russia and Belarus is at a record level, despite the difficulties being created from outside, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump on Friday expressed his hope that the May 9-11 ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in commemoration of the Victory Day, the end of the Great Patriotic War, will mark the "beginning of the end" for the ongoing armed conflict.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called Kiev's attack on Russia's Rostov Region another act of terrorism.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall after arriving in Moscow on Friday to participate in Victory Day celebrations.

A "calibrated escalation" is likely to follow the overnight US-Iran clash in the Strait of Hormuz, veteran war correspondent Elijah J. Magnier tells Sputnik.

Both planes — the hero of 1941 and today's valiant successor — share the same gritty job: protecting ground troops.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The situation at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Iran is generally calm, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said on Friday.

The missiles represent a qualitative leap forward in the Fateh family — moving from rocket artillery to true cruise missile technology, an expert says.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will attend Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, Press Secretary of the Kazakh president Aibek Smadiyarov said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday, commenting on a possible troop pullout from Europe, that resources of the United States are limited and should be reassigned in line with national interests.