U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs on Thursday announced it would pull out of Russia, becoming the first Wall Street institution to distance itself from Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

"Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements," a spokeswoman for the company said. 

"We are

Western sanctions have driven Russia and its close ally Belarus "mighty close" to default, the World Bank warned Thursday. 

Sweeping sanctions imposed on the two countries over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine have left their economies in “square default territory,” the development organization's chief economist Carmen Reinhart told Reuters. 

“They're n

Russian forces on Thursday rolled their armored vehicles up to the northeastern edge of Kyiv, edging closer in their attempts to encircle the Ukrainian capital.

An AFP team saw plumes of smoke rise over the village of Skybyn, just a few hundred meters past the last checkpoint marking Kyiv's northeastern city limits.

Ukrainian soldiers described a