Australia has vowed it will take the “strongest action possible” if Russia has harmed one of its nationals captured fighting for Ukraine, after reports emerged the prisoner of war may have been killed.

Oscar Jenkins, an Australian teacher fighting for Ukraine, was reportedly captured and interrogated by Russian soldiers. His status and whereabouts are unknown.

Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise - to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.

Russia is prepared to study U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's peace initiatives on Ukraine when he takes office next week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Lavrov cautioned that Trump's comments on the war - which he previously said he could end within 24 hours of entering the White House - were being made before his inauguration,