Not a single building in Nikishyne escaped undamaged after months of intense bombardment, which helped shrink the village of 700 to a handful residents as fighting raged in eastern Ukraine.

But since pro-Russian rebels captured in February the strategic city of Debaltseve about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away, the bombardment of Nikishyne has ended and residents are returning to a moonscape of shattered buildings and the daunting task of rebuilding their lives under rebel control.

Hungary said Friday it expected EU objections over its planned nuclear project with Russia to be resolved 'in a matter of weeks', and called a newspaper report that the deal had been blocked 'false'.

The Financial Times newspaper reported Thursday that EU nuclear body Euratom has refused Hungary's plans to import nuclear fuel from Russia in a decision backed by the European Commission, scuppering the planned expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Budapest.

A key ally of former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych was found dead after an apparent suicide Thursday in the third such case in two weeks.

Police said Oleksandr Peklushenko, former governor of the eastern industrial region of Zaporizhzhya, was found dead in his country home after suffering a fatal gunshot wound to the neck.

Russia launched major military exercises Thursday, with thousands of troops taking part in war games across the country, including in the annexed Crimean peninsula and southern regions near Ukraine.

More than 8,000 ground troops began drills set to last until early April in regions including southern Russia, Crimea, Armenia and the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, defense ministry officials said.

The Kremlin's top rights advisor on Thursday demanded access to the prime suspect in the killing of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, following allegations he was likely tortured into confessing.

Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin's human rights council, said at a press conference that he was waiting for permission from investigators to visit the suspect, former Chechen police officer Zaur Dadayev on Friday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will shun Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9, a spokeswoman said Thursday, citing tensions over President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also declined to attend the Moscow commemoration marking 70 years since Nazi Germany capitulated to Soviet forces in World War II.

The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian rebels is largely being observed but is still on "thin ice," an OSCE monitor said Thursday, one month after both sides agreed to the truce.

"The ceasefire holds broadly along the long contact line" in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, with crossfire continuing in some places but at a lower level, said Alexander Hug, deputy chief of the special monitoring mission the OSCE has dispatched to Ukraine.

Moscow said Wednesday it was baffled by fresh sanctions imposed by Washington on Crimea's biggest bank and a Russian nationalist group, calling the move a "political provocation."

The U.S. Treasury released the new blacklist, which also included eight pro-Russian separatist leaders operating in eastern Ukraine where a ceasefire is seen as largely holding despite sporadic clashes.

The United States will deliver Humvees and drones to Ukraine and hit rebel leaders and their alleged supporters in Russia with further sanctions, after repeated ceasefire violations, officials said Wednesday.

More than $75 million worth of "non-lethal defensive" equipment will be sent to Kiev, a senior administration official said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won't attend a May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow but will visit the Russian capital a day later, her office said Wednesday, amid tensions over the Ukraine conflict.

Merkel has declined an invitation to attend the Red Square commemoration marking 70 years since the capitulation of Nazi Germany to Soviet forces, a government spokesman said.