A rare video aired on Ukrainian television on Sunday allegedly showing a Russian pilot who had defected and encouraging other Russian soldiers to do the same. His dramatic escape allegedly took six months to plan, and was carried out in cooperation with Ukraine’s intelligence services. Whether the video is authentic remains unclear, but one thing is certain: Ukraine is doing everything it can to fuel Russian defections. 

The vote follows the submission of Aleksey Reznikov’s letter of resignation, which he tendered at the president’s request

The Russian president said the West needs to facilitate Moscow’s own agricultural exports before he will join a pact that guaranteed security for Kyiv’s Black Sea exports.

Moscow will return to the Black Sea initiative only after the West lifts restrictions on Russian agricultural exports, the president has said

The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, had been the subject of increasing speculation in Ukraine. It was the biggest shake-up in Ukraine’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

A government investigation about a Russian ship contradicts U.S. accusations that South Africa provided arms to fight Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said. But a government report won’t be released, he added.

• Russia's diplomats were once a key part of President Putin's foreign policy strategy. But that has all changed. 
• In the years leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomats lost their authority, their role reduced to echoing the Kremlin's aggressive rhetoric. 
• BBC Russian asks former Western diplomats, as well as ex-Kremlin and White House insiders, how Russian diplomacy broke down.

Membership will only be possible when the country's borders are “stable,” a Czech official has said

In Ukraine's north-east, Russia has recently deployed an estimated 100,000 troops in renewed attacks. But Quentin Sommerville, who spent the past month with Ukrainian brigades in the area, discovers it is the increasingly sophisticated drone attacks that are particularly feared.

Hundreds of people in Kyiv have paid their respects to one of Ukraine's most celebrated fighter pilots, who was killed in a mid-air crash last week.

Western efforts to arm Kiev and break the Russian economy are getting nowhere, Giuseppe Conte has said 

Ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney has claimed that sending weapons to Kiev is Washington’s best defense investment in history

The most critical internal threat Putin has faced in years is gone. His rival and former ally’s reported death likely means the end for the Wagner Group but ushers in a new phase of fear and anxiety in Russia

The death of a renowned fighter jet pilot marks a “terrible” day for Ukraine as it tries to tip the balance against Russia.

Remarks by Nicolas Sarkozy have raised fears that Europe’s pro-Putin chorus may grow louder as Ukraine’s plodding counteroffensive puts pressure on Western resolve.

President Vladimir Putin has called on all employees of Wagner and other Russian private military contractors to take an oath of allegiance to the Russian state.

The very public death of Putin henchman Yevgeny Prigozhin highlights the evolution of Russia into a mafia state held together by violence and incapable of global leadership.

The Kremlin appears to be sending the signal that no degree of effectiveness can protect someone from punishment for disloyalty.

The West should stop talking about sending arms to Kiev and engage diplomatically with Moscow, the ex-French president has said

One of Russia's leading military figures, Gen Sergei Surovikin, has reportedly lost his job as air force chief after weeks of speculation about his disappearance from public view.