German prosecutors announced on Thursday that they have filed spying charges against a man suspected of passing floor plans of German parliament to Russian secret services, news wires reported.

EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday to impose sanctions on four top Russian officials, following the crackdown against Alexei Navalny supporters of the Kremlin critic, diplomatic sources said cited by news agencies. The symbolic response came after France, Germany, Poland and the Baltics urged the Union to sanction the Kremlin.

A Russian court on Saturday rejected an appeal by Alexei Navalny and upheld the Kremlin critic's prison sentence, in a case that triggered international condemnation and protests across the country.

The EU is stepping efforts to impose further sanctions on Russia with travel bans and asset freezes on allies of President Vladimir Putin possible in March, news wires reported citing diplomats close to the matter. The EU ambassadors on Wednesday gave punitive measures go ahead for further refining.

The number of Covid-19 cases in Eastern Europe surpassed 10 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, as countries across the region aim to increase vaccine procurements from multiple suppliers to accelerate inoculation programmes.

Moscow is ready to cut ties with the EU if the Union hits it with painful economic sanctions, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He said this in an interview with a pro-Kremlin media posted on the ministry’s website on Friday.

The EU is already working on a proposal to sanction Russia over the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, news wires reported. EU ambassadors discussed the punitive measures at a meeting on Wednesday, according to two diplomats familiar with the discussion.

Ukraine has formally banned registration of Russian-designed vaccines against coronavirus, the government said in a decree published on Wednesday. "Registration of vaccines... production of which was carried out in a state recognised by Ukrainian parliament as the state-aggressor, is prohibited," the decree, cited by Reuters, said.

An ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday announced plans for a new nationwide protest in support of the jailed politician, telling Russians to gather in residential courtyards on Sunday evening and turn on their mobile phone torches, Reuters reported.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday declared “America is back” on the global stage in his first diplomatic address as president, news wires reported. “America is back, diplomacy is back,” Biden said at the State Department, adding that his administration would work toward “reclaiming our credibility and moral authority.”