Lithuania’s president urged Nato leaders to be bolder in addressing Ukraine’s push for membership at a summit in his country next week, saying this would boost Kyiv’s battlefield performance.

Saudi Arabia will prolong its unilateral oil production cut by one month, keeping a lid on supply amid persisting fears over the global economy.

Top officer Sergei Surovikin, who has faced questions over his links to the mercenary chief and insurrection leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, was conspicuously absent at a meeting of senior army leaders.

Ambassador Lynne Tracy was granted access to the Wall Street Journal reporter, despite accusing Russia of ‘hostage diplomacy’.

CCTV shows brigade using drones to counter missile-equipped rivals in a drill.

Proposal to let Russian bank access world’s financial system is ‘the least worst option’ to secure extension of Black Sea grain deal, and underscores difficulties international community faces over sanctions against Moscow.

Moscow’s FSB security service says it arrested a Ukrainian agent – a recruited Russian national – in an assassination attempt on Sergei Aksyonov.

Last weekend Yevgeny Prigozhin led his Wagner forces in a rebellion against Russia’s top military brass. Propagandist Dmitry Kiselev said on Sunday: ‘Prigozhin has gone off the rails because of big money.’

500 extra police will support thousands of guards and soldiers stationed along border with Belarus, amid Warsaw’s worry about up to 8,000 Wagner mercenaries being accommodated in eastern neighbour.

‘China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the … power to do so,’ Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns said in a lecture in Oxfordshire, UK.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Kyiv as a show of continuing support from Madrid and the EU for Ukraine’s fight to dislodge invading Russian forces.

Muted during the uprising, Beijing has since moved to ensure discipline, ‘absolute loyalty’ to the party among PLA ranks.

Opponents of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu have stepped up internal calls for his removal following the failed revolt by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Issue statement after Brussels meeting that move is to reduce supply chain dependencies, but that EU ‘does not intend to decouple’ from China.

Bloc aims to ‘de-risk and diversify’ for mutual economic benefit yet not ‘decouple or turn inwards’, according to leaked draft statement seen by Post.

Putin was due to talk at annual ‘Strong Ideas for a New Time ’ forum in Moscow on Thursday, his words likely analysed even more closely than usual following the weekend’s aborted revolt.

Amid worry that a weakened President Putin could mean a greater threat, Poland says it will reinforce border following reports Wagner mercenaries plan to move to neighbouring Belarus.

Russia’s most senior generals have dropped out of public view following a failed mercenary mutiny aimed at toppling the top brass, amid a drive by President Vladimir Putin to reassert his authority.

But in the wake of an aborted mutiny, buyers and sellers are keeping an even more vigilant eye on Russia’s political and economic situation as they weigh whether this is their ‘best chance’ to gain market share.

The mercenary chief sought to seize the defence minister and the military’s chief of staff but failed when they discovered his plan, Western officials say.

The attack on Kramatorsk in east Ukraine wounded 61 other people as Russia showed no sign of easing aerial attacks even after a short-lived mutiny last weekend.

Russian oil accounted for almost half of all India’s imports last month – a staggering leap from less than 2 per cent before the Ukraine war. But its refiners are struggling to keep pace