Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed the reports about the presence of Hizbullah fighters in Ukraine as "mere rumors and lies."

President Vladimir Putin on Friday denied a US media report that Russia is set to deliver an advanced satellite system to Iran that will vastly improve its spying capabilities.

The US and Russian foreign ministers are meeting in Iceland on Wednesday to gauge the enormous gulf between the rival powers and confirm a summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.

At least nine people were killed after shooting broke out Tuesday at a high school in the central Russian city of Kazan, local news agencies reported.

Russia on Friday began withdrawing troops that had been running drills near the borders of Ukraine, the defence ministry said, following weeks of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over the buildup.

More than 1,700 people were detained by police at rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in dozens of cities across Russia, an independent monitor reported on Thursday.

Russia's FSB security service said on Saturday it had detained a Ukrainian diplomat, accusing him of receiving sensitive information from a Russian national.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri concluded his visit to Russia Friday by meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, Hariri’s press office said in a statement.

Russia on Friday banned top officials from US President Joe Biden's administration from entering the country and announced a wave of tit-for-tat sanctions and expulsions of diplomats, as tensions soar between the rivals. 

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support for the former Soviet state, which fears a Russian invasion.