The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Sunday that he was willing to meet a pro-Ukraine group of Russian fighters keeping two Russian soldiers captive. The group said earlier it was willing to hand over the soldiers in exchange for a meeting with the governor.

Ukrainian forces have shelled a market area in the town of Shebekino, about 4 miles (7km) from the Ukrainian border, according to Gladkov. He said no one was injured but the attack had caused fires to break out near the market, a private area and a grain depot.

Ukraine is ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Saturday. He said: “We strongly believe that we will succeed. I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”

Ukraine’s plans for a counteroffensive against Russian occupation remain on track, its deputy defence minister Volodymyr V Havrylov told Reuters on Saturday, despite an “unprecedented” wave of missile and drone attacks across the country in recent weeks.

Gen David Petraeus old BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “very impressive” and can succeed, adding that the Ukrainians are “determined to liberate their country”. Petraeus, who was director of the CIA and led international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before that, has been in Kyiv recently, meeting President Zelenskiy and others.

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters. Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces had been resolved. But the Wagner chief blamed the discord on unidentified Kremlin factions – which he calls “Kremlin towers”.

Two people were killed and two injured by Ukrainian artillery fire on Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram: “Since this morning, settlements in the Shebekino urban district have been under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Kyrgyzstan’s president said on Saturday that his ex-Soviet republic was ready to work with the EU. President Sadyr Japarov, whose country is an ally of Moscow, said: “Kyrgyzstan is ready to work hand in hand with the European Union to resolve shared problems, encourage dialogue and find lasting solutions.”

Indonesia’s defence minister Prabowo Subianto has proposed a peace plan for the war in Ukraine, calling for a demilitarised zone and a United Nations referendum in what he called disputed territory. However, the proposed plan was dismissed by Ukraine.

Kremlin has banned Western journalists from Russia’s ‘Davos’. The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from “unfriendly countries” would not be allowed into the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which President Vladimir Putin has used to showcase the Russian economy to global investors.

The forced deployment of once-elite Russian VDV troops to Bakhmut amid the withdrawal of Wagner mercenary forces means “the whole Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Saturday that he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense shelling. AFP reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service that of the “over 4,800” shelters it inspected, 252 were locked, and a further 893 “unfit for use.” On Saturday, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that city authorities have received “more than a thousand” complaints regarding locked, dilapidated or insufficient air-raid shelters within a day of launching an online feedback service.

Russia will come back to full compliance with the New Start treaty if Washington abandons its “hostile stance” towards Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday the US was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia.

Ukraine would be ready to continue exporting grain across the Black Sea as part of a “plan B” without Russian backing if Moscow pulled the plug on the current grain export deal and it collapsed, Ukraine’s farm minister has said.

Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, has released excerpts of his correspondence with prison administrators, detailing his sarcastic demands for things like a bottle of moonshine, a balalaika and even a kangaroo. His requests were denied.

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian-controlled port city of Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov. Footage showed a large cloud of grey smoke rising from near the port area.

The former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev has reacted to the imposition of sanctions on him by Ukraine and has defended his investments in occupied Crimea.

Three people were killed and four injured, including a three-year-old girl, by fire from Ukrainian armed forces, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region.

Britain supports Ukraine joining Nato, the defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, saying the path is open to them. However, political realities may slow the process as it is not possible to add members in the middle of a war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he understood Ukraine would not join Nato while at war with Russia.

Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod region, despite Moscow’s claims on Thursday to have repelled the incursion. The Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos on social media of combat apparently in the Belgorod village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, between the Ukrainian-Russian border and the town of Shebekino, the legion’s stated goal.

The top US military officer has said training for Ukrainian forces on advanced US Abrams tanks has started, but those weapons crucial over the long term in trying to expel Russia from occupied territory will not be ready in time for Kyiv’s imminent counteroffensive.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has ordered shelters to be operational in the capital on a 24-hour basis, after allegations that yesterday three people who were killed by falling debris from a Russian missile attack were stuck outside a “locked” air raid shelter. Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in Thursday’s early morning missile attack. Residents of Kyiv have been leaving flowers, toys and sweets at a makeshift memorial at the location where Olha Ivashko, 33, and her daughter Vika, nine, were killed.

The US’s top military officer says training for Ukrainian forces on advanced US Abrams tanks has started, but those weapons crucial over the long term in trying to expel Russia from occupied territory will not be ready in time for Kyiv’s imminent counteroffensive.

The Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka skipped her post-match press conference at the French Open tennis tournament on Friday, citing mental health reasons, two days after she was asked to comment on the war in Ukraine after her second-round win.

Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, released excerpts of his correspondence with prison administrators on Friday, detailing his sarcastic demands for things like a bottle of moonshine, a balalaika and even a kangaroo. His requests were denied.

Ukraine would be ready to continue exporting grain across the Black Sea as part of a “plan B” without Russian backing if Moscow pulls the plug on the current grain export deal and it collapses, Ukraine’s farm minister said on Friday.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had received ‘powerful support’ from allies attending a summit in Moldova on 1 June as it emerged F-16 fighter jets could be made available to Ukraine within six months. Several countries, including the UK, Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium, have said they want to help procure F-16s for Ukraine.

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled port city of Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov. Footage shows a large cloud of grey smoke rising from near the port area.

The former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev has reacted to the imposition of sanctions on him by Ukraine, and has defended his investments in occupied Crimea, Luke Harding reported.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and other city leaders of negligence after witness reports emerged that civilians had died earlier this week because a bomb shelter had not been opened in time, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh reported from Kyiv.

Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, has claimed three people have been killed and four injured, including a three-year-old girl, by fire from Ukrainian armed forces.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, chair of Ukraine’s parliament, has posted to social media about meeting Lithuania’s president, saying “We are grateful for the support of Lithuania, the EU, and the Euro-Atlantic future of Ukraine.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he understood Ukraine would not join Nato while the war with Russia was ongoing

Britain supports Ukraine joining Nato, the defence minister, Ben Wallace, said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La dialogue security meetings in Singapore, saying the path is open to them, although political realities may slow the process as it is not possible to add members in the middle of a war.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said the US “calls the tunes” for Nato, which Ukraine wants to join. Asked at a news briefing about Ukraine’s push to join the western military alliance, Peskov said Kyiv’s Nato ambitions underscored its unwillingness to resolve problems at the negotiating table.

Russia again attacked Kyiv overnight, with Ukrainian forces claiming air defence shot down all 15 cruise missiles and 21 attack drones. Overnight the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, said the city of Nikopol had been struck by shelling.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Friday that two people had been killed and two others injured when Ukrainian forces shelled a road in the town of Maslova Pristan near the Ukrainian border. “Fragments of the shells hit passing cars. Two women were travelling in one of them. They died from their injuries on the spot,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said on Friday that four houses were damaged after Ukrainian forces shelled a town near the border. There have also been reports of explosions in occupied Berdiansk, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, one of the areas of the country the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.

Two long-range drones attacked fuel and energy infrastructure in Russia’s western Smolensk region overnight on Friday, but no injuries or fires were reported, the region’s acting governor said.

Mariupol’s mayoral aide Petro Andryushchenko has claimed that three people have been killed by the detonation of a landmine on the Mariupol-Donetsk H20 highway. He said the incident happened near Olenivka, the location of a prison massacre earlier in the war.

China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, said on Friday that the Russian side appreciated China’s desire and efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis. “The risk of escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war is still high,” Li said at a news briefing about his visit to Europe. “All sides must ensure the safety of nuclear facilities and take concrete measures to cool down the temperature,” he said.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday the US was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia. Washington would also encourage initiatives by other countries to bring about an end to the conflict, as long as they uphold the UN charter and Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.

Two close allies of the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Thursday publicly criticised Russia’s most prominent mercenary, casting Yevgeny Prigozhin as a blogger who “screams” all the time about his problems.

The west may at some stage have to negotiate with Vladimir Putin or the existing Russian leadership even as it pursues international justice against them, Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a speech in Moldova, he said: “The timing issue – and this is where I want to be very transparent and honest with you. The question is if in a few months to come, you have a window for negotiation with the existing Russian political power, the question will be an arbitrage between a trial and a negotiation, I will be very frank with you. And you will have to negotiate with the leaders you have, de facto, even if the day after you will have to judge them in front of them of the international justice. So this is a question of articulation. Because otherwise you can put yourselves just in an impossible situation where you say: ‘I want you to go to jail, but you are the only one I can negotiate with.’”

Macron also said that Ukraine needed security assurances. Leaders will meet in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in July to discuss Nato membership for Ukraine.

Russia does not plan to declare martial law after Tuesday’s large-scale drone strike on Moscow, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said.

Figures from Russia, including the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Putin should declare martial law nationwide to “sweep away that terrorist gang”.

Only 500 people are left in Bakhmut, the city in the east of Ukraine which has been subject to heavy fighting in the last year, according to the city’s mayor. The figure from Oleksii Reva, reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, is a tiny fraction of its prewar population of 70,000.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, has said he has asked prosecutors to investigate “crimes” committed by senior Russian defence officials before and during the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has claimed it destroyed the last major warship of the Ukrainian naval forces, the Yuri Olefirenko, which it said was stationed in the southern port of Odesa. The Russian air force said it attacked the ship on 29 May. Ukraine has not commented.

Russia has said it will evacuate children from villages near its border with Ukraine, after several days of shelling of the Belgorod region. “The situation in [the border village of] Shebekino is worsening,” the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram.

Analysis from the Kyiv Post has claimed that about 90% of the 500 missiles and drones launched by Russia in May in attacks on Ukraine failed, to the cost of $1.7bn. It said that 533 of them were destroyed by the Ukrainian air force. It includes 401 Shahed-136 drones, which cost about $20,000 each.

The Russian security council deputy chair, Dmitry Medvedev, said on Wednesday that Britain was Moscow’s “eternal enemy” and that any British officials who facilitated the war in Ukraine could be considered legitimate military targets.

A 60-year-old man has been killed in the shelling of Vovchansk in Kharkiv.

Germany’s government spokesperson has said Ukraine has the right to attack Russian territory as it qualifies as self-defence. In an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Steffen Hebestreit said: “International law allows Ukraine to carry out strikes on the territory of Russia for the purpose of self-defence.”

The UN has proposed that Kyiv, Moscow and Ankara start preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine as it tries to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a source close to the talks has told Reuters.

Moscow has been targeted with a large-scale drone attack for the first time in its 15-month-old war in Ukraine, marking a new inflection point in a conflict that the Kremlin said would never threaten the lives of ordinary Russians.

Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of terrorist activity over Tuesday morning’s drone attacks and claimed Kyiv had chosen the path of intimidation of Russian citizens. He said that Ukraine had chosen the path of attempting “to intimidate Russia, Russian citizens [with] attacks on residential buildings” and added that the drone attacks were “clearly a sign of terrorist activity.”

Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, earlier denied Ukraine was involved. However, he did he predict “an increase in the number of attacks”

One of the drones used in Tuesday morning’s drone raid on Moscow appears to have been a Ukrainian manufactured UJ 22 drone produced by the Ukrjet company. Alleged footage of the drone, captured in flight during the attack, appears to match released images of the unmanned aerial vehicle which Russia has claimed has been used in other attempted attacks.

James Cleverly, the UK’s foreign secretary, told reporters that Ukraine has the “legitimate right” to defend itself and can “project force” beyond its borders. At a news conference in Estonia on Tuesday, Cleverly said: “[Ukraine] has the legitimate right to do so within its own borders of course, but it does also have the right to project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself.”

The Russian defence ministry said eight drones targeted the city overnight but Russian media close to the security services wrote that the number was many times higher, with more than 30 drones participating in the attack.

Three of the drones hit residential buildings in the south-west of the city but no explosions were reported. Two people were injured in the attack, said Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, and the buildings sustained minor damage. Video showed broken windows and a blackened facade at one address hit by a drone early on Tuesday morning.

Russia blamed Kyiv for the attack. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied Ukraine was involved, but said he predicted “an increase in the number of attacks”

Russia continues to pummel Ukraine with deadly missile and drone strikes on a near-daily basis. Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, faced its third air raid in 24 hours on Tuesday morning. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has confirmed that 20 residents were evacuated from a damaged building, and that one person died, four were injured. He cautioned residents against ignoring air alarms, urging residents to stay indoors, saying “do not go out to the balconies and streets to observe how the air defence works. Last night, a woman died in a house in Holosiivskyi district, who went out on the balcony to see how drones were shot down.”

Eleven Russian missiles aimed at Kyiv were shot down by the Ukrainian air defence on Monday morning which led to a wave of explosions being heard in the Ukrainian capital. One person was hospitalised as a result of the attacks. The local authority reported that the roof of a two-story building caught fire in the district as a result of falling debris, but that the fire was contained.

The adviser to the head of the office of Ukraine’s president, Mykhailo Podolyak, has suggested that any peace settlement acceptable to Ukraine would include not only a restoration of the country’s sovereign borders, but a demilitarised zone extending between 100km and 120km into Russia. Podolyak tweeted: The key topic of the postwar settlement should be the establishment of safeguards to prevent a recurrence of aggression in the future. To ensure real security for residents of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions and protect them from shelling, it will be necessary to introduce a demilitarisation zone of 100km-120km on the territory of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, and Rostov republics. Probably with a mandatory international control contingent at the first stage.”

Two people were killed and eight were wounded in a Russian attack on the city of Toretsk on Monday morning, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said. Kyrylenko said Russian forces had used high-explosive aerial bombs in the attack at about 11:30 a.m. local time which damaged a gas station and a multi-storey building in the city.

Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that he would sign a bill to allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition party Civic Platform (PO), led by Donald Tusk, allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result became too dependent on its fuel when it was in power. The PO party rejects the claims and says the law is designed to destroy support for Tusk in the lead up to the elections being held at the end of the year. Mark Brzezinski, the US ambassador to Poland, also voiced concerns. He said “The U.S. government shares concerns about laws that may ostensibly reduce voters’ ability to vote for those they want to vote for, outside of a clearly defined process in an independent court.”

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that her government planned to increase spending on military aid to Ukraine by $2.6bn over this year and next year. Earlier this year, Denmark set up a $1b fund for military, civilian and business aid to Ukraine. Danmarks Radio, the Danish public-service broadcaster, reported that the new funds were earmarked for military aid.

Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill that sanctions Iran for 50 years. The bill was put forward by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The bill will stop Iranian goods transiting through Ukraine and ban use of its airspace, as well as imposing trade, financial and technology sanctions against Iran and its citizens.

Ukraine reported that Russia launched up to 40 cruise missiles and about 35 drones overnight: air defence claimed to have shot down 37 missiles and 29 Shahed drones.

An unspecified military target in the western Khmelnytskyi region was struck, with the regional governor reporting that “five aircraft were disabled” and that a fire had broken out in a fuel warehouse.

In Odesa, fragments of a downed kamikaze drone hit the port infrastructure causing a fire, and rockets and drones were shot down over Lviv, Kirovohrad, Poltava and Mykolaiv regions.

Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Russia was trying to exhaust the country’s air defences with the increased attacks, adding: “The enemy is trying to keep the civilian population in deep psychological tension.” Klitschko added: “Another difficult night for the capital. But, thanks to the professionalism of our defenders, as a result of the air attack of the barbarians in Kyiv, there was no damage or destruction of infrastructural and other objects.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin “appears to have again indirectly undermined Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authority and regime”, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has written in its latest analysis of the conflict. The US-based thinktank bases its assertion on the response given by Prigozhin to a journalist asking about Russian state media’s ban on any discussion of Wagner. Prigozhin said that officials could have benefited from their historic ability to censor information if Russia had not declared war on Ukraine. He then shifted to addressing a single, unnamed official: “If you are starting a war, please have character, will, and steel balls – and only then you will be able to achieve something.”

Foreign investors who left Russia after selling their businesses there between March 2022 and March 2023 withdrew about $36bn from the country, the state RIA news agency reports, citing analysis of data from the Central Bank.

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a medical facility in Dnipro on Friday has risen from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.

Two people were killed in a series of drone strikes in Kyiv overnight, the largest such attack to hit the Ukrainian capital since the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian military said that 58 of 59 Russian drone strikes across the territory of Ukraine were intercepted by aerial defence systems.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that “most of the lives that could have been taken by the [strikes] were saved” and thanked “each and everyone” of the people who had taken part in defensive operations.

Zelenskiy has also asked his country’s parliament to approve 50-year-long sanctions against Iran because of its role in supplying Russia with drones and military equipment for the war.

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a medical facility in Dnipro on Friday has risen from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.

Russian attacks near the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of heavy fighting in recent months, have abated slightly, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military.

The EU’s spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, Nabila Massrali, has said Russia “will be held accountable” for attacks on civilian areas.

Authorities in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine continue to coerce local populations into accepting Russian passports as part of efforts to annex territory, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin has told the BBC that Russia has “enormous resources and we haven’t just started yet to act very seriously”.

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a panel to investigate US allegations that a Russian ship collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town last year, the presidency said in a statement.

Preliminary operations have begun to pave the way for a counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has said. “It’s a complicated process, which is not a matter of one day or a certain date or a certain hour,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s an ongoing process of deoccupation, and certain processes are already happening, like destroying supply lines or blowing up depots behind the lines.

Ukraine’s defence ministry has claimed Russia is planning to simulate a major accident at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station to try to thwart Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive. The plant, in an area of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, has been repeatedly hit by shelling that each side blames the other for.

Russian forces have temporarily eased their attacks on the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to regroup and strengthen their capabilities, a senior Kyiv official said on Saturday. Russia’s Wagner private army began handing over its positions to regular Russian troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, Reuters reported. In a statement on Telegram, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Russian forces have continued attacking but that “overall offensive activity has decreased”.

Russian forces have intercepted two long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles supplied to Ukraine by Britain, the RIA news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Reuters reports that the ministry said it had intercepted shorter-range US-built Himars-launched and Harm missiles, and shot down 13 drones in the last 24 hours, RIA reported.

Defeat in its war against Ukraine would leave Russia “vindictive” and “brutal” and posing a threat to Nato countries, the outgoing head of the RAF said. Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston told The Telegraph that Russia’s air force, surface navy and submarine force are a threat to Britain and Nato. He warned its threat could even get worse if the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was ousted.

A construction worker has been killed near the Russian village of Plekhovo, a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine after shelling from the Ukrainian side, said Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region. Works were being carried out not far from Plekhovo on fortifying defensive lines for the state border, the governor said on Telegram.

Ukraine struck oil pipeline installations deep inside Russia on Saturday with a series of drone attacks including on a station serving the vast Druzhba oil pipeline that sends western Siberian crude to Europe, according to Russian media. Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia have been growing in intensity in recent weeks, and the New York Times reported that US intelligence believes Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month.

Ukraine has asked Germany to supply it with Taurus cruise missiles, an air-launched weapon with a range of 500 km (310 miles), a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Berlin said on Saturday. Germany received the request several days ago, the spokesperson said, confirming a report by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She declined to provide further details or say how likely it was that Germany would supply the missiles to Ukraine.

Russia has dismissed criticism from the US president, Joe Biden, over Moscow’s plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, saying Washington had for decades deployed just such nuclear weapons in Europe. Russia said on Thursday it was pushing ahead with the first deployment of such weapons outside its borders since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, and the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said the weapons were already on the move.

Russia is to start expelling German diplomats, teachers and employees of cultural institutions next month. The measure is expected to further exacerbate tensions between the two countries, which have already had very fraught ties since Russia invaded Ukraine early last year.

Russia failed in a bid to prevent Ukraine taking a place on the World Health Organization’s Executive Board, on a day which also saw North Korea gain a berth. Ten countries joined the board for a three-year term but Russia tried to exclude Ukraine, which it invaded 15 months ago, from joining the 34-nation forum at the ongoing World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Russia has accused Japan of “cynical, unscrupulous speculation” over Tokyo’s comments around the nuclear threat Moscow poses and promised to respond to Japan’s latest round of sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said on Friday that Japan would place additional sanctions on Russia after the G7 summit Tokyo hosted last week agreed to step up measures to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on an outpatient clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to two, with 30 people wounded, according to media reports. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest.”

Tehran on Saturday accused Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, of anti-Iranian propaganda in his call for Iran to halt the supply of drones to Russia, saying his comments were designed to attract more arms and financial aid from the west. Zelenskiy in a video address on Wednesday called on Iranians to stop their slide into “the dark side of history” by supplying Moscow with drones.

A Belarus court has rejected an appeal by a jailed Polish-Belarusian journalist against his eight-year prison sentence for reporting critically on president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. Agence France-Presse reports that Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and active member of the Polish minority in Belarus, was sentenced in February.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, plans to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway from this Monday to deepen cooperation on top national security and economic issues, the US state department has said. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland has joined Nato, with Sweden’s bid to join awaiting ratification from Hungary and Turkey.

A deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian Black Sea ports has not yet resumed full operations, the UN said on Friday, having come to a halt before Russia’s decision last week to extend it.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has told China’s special envoy Li Hui there are “serious obstacles” to resuming peace talks, blaming Ukraine and western countries. Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy security council chair, Dmitry Medvedev, has said the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades and negotiations with Ukraine were impossible as long as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in power.

The former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former US president Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and “the vital importance of Ukrainian victory” on Thursday, a spokesperson for Johnson said.

Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, claimed that the relocation of some of the weapons from Russia to Belarus had already started, according to reports.

Unverified footage appears to show a drone speedboat attack on the Russian naval vessel the Ivan Khurs in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The video appears to show at least one of the drones getting extremely close to the ship, though it remains unclear whether or not any damage was done.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has begun withdrawing its forces from the devastated Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and transferring its positions there to regular Russian troops, according to its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Ukraine has secured the release of 106 captured soldiers in a prisoner exchange with Russia on Thursday, according to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff. The soldiers, including eight officers, were reportedly said to have been captured fighting in Bakhmut.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Sweden and Denmark to protest over what it described as the “complete lack of results” in an investigation to identify who blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year.

Ukraine said on Thursday it had shot down all 36 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks which it claims likely targeted key infrastructure and military facilities.

Russia has denied a fire broke out at the ministry of defence in Moscow, after users on social media and reports in the local Tass news agency said emergency services had been called to the building. State-owned Tass initially reported on a fire at the ministry early on Thursday morning, but later reported the ministry saying there was none.

Washington is looking into reports that American vehicles were used by Ukraine inside Russia, the White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. He said the US has been clear with Kyiv that it does not support any such use of US-made equipment.

It came as the Kremlin said the use of US-made military hardware by pro-Ukraine fighters who conducted a raid on a Russian border region this week was testament to the West’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The Russian military said on Tuesday it had routed militants who attacked the Russian border region of Belgorod with armoured vehicles the previous day, killing more than 70 “Ukrainian nationalists” and pushing the remainder back into Ukraine.

Ukraine will not be able to join Nato as long as the war is going on, the alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Wednesday. “I think that everyone realised that, to become a member in the midst of a war, is not on the agenda,” Reuters reports he said at an event organised by the German Marshall Fund of the US in Brussels. “The issue is what happens when the war ends.”

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the police evacuated a family of four children and three adults from Toretsk in Donetsk after the latest round of shelling. The children’s mother says that they have already come under fire five times and run under mines. Suspilne says they lived 300 metres from the frontline and about 800 metres from the positions of the Russian army, but now plan to go to stay with relatives in Vinnytsia.

The Russian private army Wagner lost more than 10,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, according to the group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin. He said about 20% of the 50,000 Russian prisoners recruited to fight in the 15-month war had died in the eastern Ukrainian city, Reuters reported. The figure was in stark contrast with claims from Moscow that it has lost just over 6,000 troops in the war, and is higher than the official estimate of the Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979 and 1989.

The World Health Organization assembly passed a motion on Wednesday condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities. The motion passed by 80 votes to nine, with 52 abstentions and 36 countries absent, Reuters reported.

The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) expects to spend €1.5bn (£1.3bn) in Ukraine next year in support of infrastructure and the economy, a senior source at the bank has said. It comes on top of €3bn already projected for 2022 and the remainder of 2023. The funds have helped the economy continue to function and ensure that there was no run on banks and that civil servants continued to be paid.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, has accused Washington and London of thwarting efforts to reach a settlement over the conflict in Ukraine and of turning a blind eye to what he said was increasing “terrorism and violence” visited on civilians by Ukraine. Reuters reports that in remarks at a security forum outside Moscow attended by foreign security officials, Naryshkin expressed satisfaction that most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America had not imposed sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, despite what he called colossal pressure to do so from Washington.

The first of three Russian hypersonic missile scientists to be arrested on suspicion of treason will go on trial next week, the court handling the case said on Wednesday. The criminal case against Anatoly Maslov, 76, will open in St Petersburg’s city court on 1 June, the court said on its website.

The Netherlands wants to give Ukrainian pilots F-16 training as soon as possible, the Dutch defence minister, Kajsa Ollongren, said on Wednesday in a letter to parliament. The training would be coordinated with Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and other countries could join, Ollongren added.

Russia has announced that a court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don will try five foreign men, including three British nationals, accused of fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Moscow. The trial will begin on 31 May on terrorism-linked allegations and other charges. The men are believed to face trial in absentia.

Ukraine’s main Orthodox church said on Wednesday it had decided to switch to a calendar in which Christmas is celebrated on 25 December, a move that distances it from Russia. Ukrainian Christians, a majority of whom are Orthodox, have traditionally celebrated Christmas on 7 January alongside other predominantly Orthodox Christian countries.

Germany will buy 18 Leopard 2 tanks and 12 self-propelled howitzers to replenish stocks depleted by deliveries to Ukraine, a member of the parliamentary budget committee that approved the purchase on Wednesday told Reuters. The tanks order will come to €525.6m (£457m) while the howitzers have a price tag of €190.7m; all of them are to be delivered by 2026 at the latest, said the finance ministry documents meant for the parliament.

Russia’s prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, is in Beijing, where, before signing bilateral agreements with China, he said: “Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level.” He said Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in March was further evidence of the “special” nature of bilateral relations between the two countries. It is expected that Vladimir Putin will visit China later this year.

Nine people remain in hospital, utility supplies continue to be disrupted, and more than 500 people remain displaced after the cross-border incursion into Belgorod by anti-Russian partisans on Monday, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian region.

Gladkov also announced two more incidents, stating a drone attack over Novaya Tavolzhanka failed when the explosive device dropped did not detonate, and that shelling in Terezovka has injured one person who has been hospitalised as a result.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting some quotes from Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed leader in occupied Donetsk, who has said that the situation for Russian forces on the flanks of Bakhmut has stabilised.