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South Korea's military shrank by 20% in the past six years to 450,000 troops, largely due to a sharp drop in the population of males of enlistment age for mandatory service in the country with the world's lowest birthrate, a report said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

The dramatic decline in the pool of available males for military service is also causing a shortfall in the number of officers and could result in operational difficulty if it continues, the defence ministry said in the report.

The report was made to the ruling Democratic Party member of parliament Choo Mi-ae, whose office released it.

South Korea's military has steadily declined since the early 2000s when it had about 690,000 soldiers. The pace accelerated during the late 2010s and there were about 563,000 active-duty soldiers and officers in 2019, according to Reuters.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kyiv "values and fully supports" a joint statement by European leaders on achieving peace in Ukraine while protecting Ukrainian and European interests, Reuters reported.

French, Italian, German, Polish, British, Finnish and European Commission leaders on Saturday welcomedU.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to try to end the war, but emphasised the need to pressure Russia and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.

"The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations," Zelenskiy wrote on X, according to Reuters.

European allies have rallied behind Ukraine in a renewed surge of support, insisting that any peace talks with Russia must include Kyiv, BBC reported.

"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," said a joint statement issued by the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and the European Commission.

Their statement came after US President Donald Trump announced he would meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday in a renewed effort to end the war, according to BBC.

Concerned that Ukraine will not be invited to its own peace talks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that any agreements without Kyiv would amount to "dead decisions".

Haiti’s government announced Saturday that it is implementing a three-month state of emergency in the country’s central region as gang violence surges, Associated Press reported.

The measure will cover Haiti’s West, Artibonite and Center departments “to continue the fight against insecurity and respond to the agricultural and food crisis,” according to a government statement.

The region — known as Haiti’s rice basket — has been under attack in recent years, with gangs killing farmers or forcing them to abandon their fields as they raze nearby communities, according to Associated Press.