The G7 countries will impose sanctions against those involved in the export of grain from the territory of Ukraine, the White House announced in a note on further measures of the Joe Biden administration in relation to Russia.

"G7 Leaders will decide to impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights abuses - including war crimes, exercising illegitimate authority in Ukraine, and involved in Russia’s tactics to steal Ukrainian grain," the document says.

The announced measures were timed to coincide to the G7 summit which is under way in Germany.

NATO plans to enhance its battlegroups in its eastern parts and to look at issues of military supplies, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

"At the Summit, we will strengthen our forward defenses. We will enhance our battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance up to brigade-levels. We will transform the NATO Response Force. And increase the number of our high readiness forces. To well over 300,000," he said at a news conference ahead of the alliance’s summit in Madrid.

NATO is the biggest threat to global peace since it is pushing the European Union toward confrontation with Russia and China and is seeking to destroy the "buffer zone" by forcing neutral states to take sides in this confrontation, a French member of the European Parliament told TASS on Monday.

On Monday a major DDOS attack has targeted Lithuania's national network infrastructure, more than a week after EU sanctions took effect for Kaliningrad, and neighboring Lithuania took the dramatic step of banning land transport of goods, including transport of steel and ferrous metals to the Russian exclave.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wants his country's government to immediately begin consultations with the European Commission, regarding the possible implementation of sanctions on Kaliningrad transit.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called russia's aggression against Ukraine "the most urgent" threat facing the Alliance. He noted that in NATO's new Strategic Concept, russia would be called the biggest and most direct threat to Allied security.

The head of the Alliance spoke about this today during a round table held under the auspices of the European media outlet Politico on the eve of the Madrid NATO summit, Ukrinform reports.

General Jens Stoltenberg says the western military alliance will boost its high readiness forces to "well over 300,000" in response to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid, Stoltenberg said on June 27 that the alliance will enhance its battle groups on its eastern flank up to brigade levels.

"We will strengthen our forward defenses...We will transform the NATO Response Force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000," Stoltenberg told reporters.

NATO will increase the strength of its rapid reaction force nearly eightfold to 300,000 troops as part of its response to an “era of strategic competition,” the military alliance’s secretary-general said Monday.

The NATO reaction force currently numbers around 40,000 soldiers which can deploy quickly when needed.

Coupled with other measures including the deployment of forces to defend specific allies, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the move is part of the “biggest overhaul of collective defense and deterrence since the Cold War.”

Russia on Sunday defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since 1918 after the grace period on its $100 million payment expired, according to reports.

The $100 million interest payment deadline due to be met by the Kremlin had initially been set to May 27 but a 30-day grace period was triggered after investors failed to receive coupon payments due on both dollar and euro-denominated bonds.

In an attempt to encourage African nations to stop buying Russian fertilizer, the European Union developed a working plan that would help then develop their own fertilizer plants.

The draft, dated June 15 and prepared by aides of European Council President Charles Michel, was to be presented at a summit of EU leaders last week, however the EU Commission then "explicitly opposed the text," warning that supporting fertilizer production in developing nations was incompatible with their 'green' initiatives.