A spokesman for Vladimir Putin on Friday denied rumors swirling in the European media that a baby had been born to the Russian leader.

Several news outlets reported that a woman romantically linked to Putin in the past had given birth, a possible explanation for the leader's unusual absence that has sent the Russian rumor mill into overdrive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he'd spent more enjoyable evenings. German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked of a "glimmer of hope" but said she was under "no illusions".

A month after the ceasefire deal which she and French President Francois Hollande thrashed out with Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko at marathon overnight talks in the Belarus capital Minsk in February a peace of sorts is holding in eastern Ukraine.

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.

The death toll after a massive fire ripped through a shopping mall in Russia rose to 11 on Friday, as rescue workers combed through the rubble for victims, local officials said.

"Eleven bodies have been found," Andrei Rodygin, spokesman for the emergencies ministry in Tatarstan told the RIA Novosti news agency.

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.

Sweden said on Thursday it would raise defense spending by 6.2 billion kronor (677 million euros, $720 million) and bring back troops to a "strategic" Baltic island amid concerns over Russia's military resurgence.

The country's left-wing government said most of the money, to be spent between 2016 and 2020, would go towards modernizing ships that could detect and intercept submarines.

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend ceremonies marking 100 years since the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in April, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

Armenia is hosting the commemoration for those killed by Ottoman forces in World War I in its capital on April 24.