Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the country’s nuclear deterrent forces on "special" alert on Sunday, RT reported.

The move was announced during Putin's meeting with Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

"Western countries are not only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic area. I'm speaking about the illegitimate sanctions that everyone is well aware of. Top officials of leading NATO countries are also making aggressive statements against our country as well," Putin said. 

The move comes in response to "hostile" rhetoric by top NATO officials, he said, RT reported.

Earlier on Sunday, Putin praised his special forces for "heroically carrying out their military duties" in a new televised address, Daily Mail reported.

Putin gave his "special gratitude" for troops involved in the "special operation to provide assistance to the people's republics of Donbas" - a reference to the Kremlin's propaganda line that it intervened in Ukraine to help pro-Russian separatists who were at risk of 'genocide' at the hands of the legitimate government, the report said.

Putin spoke to mark the annual day of Special Operations Forces (SOF), as his huge forces appeared to be stepping up their battle to crush Ukrainian resistance amid mounting Russian losses.

Russian forces on Sunday entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv - as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was ready for peace talks.

The talks are expected to take place in the Gomel region at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, Belta news agency reported. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the Russian delegation is ready for the talks and waiting for their Ukrainian counterparts to arrive.