Minsk said Friday that members of the Russia's Wagner mercenary group were acting as instructors for Belarusian territorial defence forces “in a number of military disciplines”, three weeks after the group's aborted rebellion in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Wagner "simply doesn't exist" as a distinct legal entity. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
This page is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
8:51pm: UN waits for Russian answer as Black Sea grain deal deadline looms
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is still waiting for a response from Russian President Vladimir Putin on a proposal to extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain beyond Monday, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.
Guterres wrote to Putin on Tuesday asking him to extend the Black Sea deal in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia's Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the international payment system SWIFT, sources told Reuters.
The current deal will expire on Monday if Moscow does not agree to extend it.
"Discussions are being had, WhatsApp messages are being sent, Signal messages are being sent and exchanged. We're also waiting for a response to the letter," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters when asked about negotiations.
According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Putin said on Thursday he had not seen the letter from Guterres proposing an extension of the deal, but that Russia was in contact with UN officials.
7:47pm: US takes custody of Russian agent from Estonia
The United States took custody Friday of an alleged Russian intelligence agent extradited from Estonia, as the Biden administration pursues possible prisoner exchanges for US detainees in Russia.
Vadim Konoshchenok was arrested in Estonia late last year as he sought to cross the border into Russia carrying semiconductors and US-made ammunition for sniper rifles, according to charges filed against him.
He was allegedly a central figure in a seven-person smuggling ring, which included five Russians and two Americans who operated "under the direction of Russian intelligence services" to obtain US electronics and other goods restricted by US export controls.
US officials said more than a half-ton (450 kilograms) of US-origin ammunition was interdicted or seized from Konoshchenok's operation.
He faces up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy, violation of export controls, smuggling and money laundering.
7:19pm: Russia exerting maximum efforts to stop Ukraine's soldiers in east, south, Zelensky says
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukrainians must understand that Russia was deploying all possible resources to stop Kyiv's forces from advancing in the east and south of the country.
"We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers," Zelensky said in his nightly video address after chairing a meeting with top commanders.
"And every thousand metres we advance, every success of every combat brigade deserves our gratitude."
5:30pm: Putin says he offered Wagner mercenaries the option to stay as a single unit
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he offered the Wagner private military company the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their same commander after their short-lived rebellion that posed the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule.
In remarks published Friday in the business daily Kommersant, Putin for the first time described a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including Prigozhin, on June 29, five days after the rebellion. He said he praised their efforts in Ukraine, deplored their involvement in the mutiny – which he previously denounced as an act of treason – and offered them alternatives for future service.
Putin told Kommersant that one option would see Wagner keep the same commander, Andrei Troshev, a retired military officer who goes by the call sign "Gray Hair” and has led the private army in Ukraine for 16 months.
“All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve,” Putin told the newspaper, “And nothing would have changed for them. They would have been led by the same person who had been their real commander all along.”
4:45pm: Ukraine concedes troops advancing 'not so quickly'
Ukraine acknowledged Friday that its troops were not making speedy headway in their counteroffensive to recapture territory in the east and south of the country from Russian forces.
“Today it's advancing not so quickly," the head of the presidency Andriy Yermak told reporters, conceding that battles were difficult and saying: "If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we'll say so. No one is going to embellish".
4:33pm: Blinken says Lavrov 'not constructive' in Southeast Asian talks
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov offered only a "negative" vision as the two sat in the same room at Southeast Asian talks.
Lavrov's involvement was not "constructive or productive" and he offered a "totally negative presentation and agenda", Blinken told reporters after the talks in Jakarta.
He said Moscow's top diplomat "effectively ascribed every problem in the world to the United States".
4:04pm: Ukraine says no talks with Russia until troops leave
Ukraine will not even consider negotiations with Moscow until Russian troops leave its territory, the head of Ukraine's presidential office said on Friday.
"Even thinking about these talks is only possible after Russian troops leave our territory," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, told reporters.
3:26pm: Russia says stray mine drifting on shipping route in northwestern Black Sea, state media reports
Russia's Black Sea fleet warned on Friday that a stray mine was drifting "uncontrollably" on a shipping route in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, the Interfax news agency reported.
FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the report.
3:23pm: Erdogan says Putin agreed to grain deal extension
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal which expires next week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
The deal, signed five months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is set to expire on Monday, and Putin has repeatedly threatened not to renew it because of obstacles to Russia's own exports.
"We are preparing to welcome Putin in August and we agree on the extension of the Black Sea grain corridor," Erdogan told reporters.
State news agency Interfax reported Friday that Russia has not made any statements on the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russia has previously said it will only agree to extend the deal if its own conditions on its implementation are met.
2:38pm: Ukraine says advanced nearly 2km along southern front this week
Kyiv said on Friday its troops had advanced nearly two kilometres along the southern front over the past week as Ukraine pushes ahead with its counteroffensive.
Mykola Urshalovych, a senior representative of the National Guard, told reporters that forces "supported by tanks, have advanced 1,700 meters to the south and southeast" over the past seven days. Troops are advancing despite "dense" minefields and shelling, he added during the briefing.
2:21pm: Russia's Lavrov 'aggressively' rejected call for troop withdrawal from Ukraine, says EU's Borrell
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded aggressively to a request during the ASEAN Regional Forum to withdraw troops from Ukraine, calling it part of a Western conspiracy, the European Union foreign policy chief said on Friday.
"Lavrov responded (to) me very aggressively and explained his point of view, saying everything is a 'West conspiracy' and the war will continue... as Russia is not at all ready to stop the aggression and withdraw troops," Josep Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of the forum in Jakarta.
2:02pm: Wagner fighters are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus
Mercenary fighters from Russia's Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the Belarusian defence ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said the training was taking place near the town of Osipovichi, about 90 km (56 miles) south of the capital Minsk.
"(Wagner) fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines," the ministry said.
1:26pm: Russia could give legal status to private military groups says Kremlin
The Kremlin said Friday that Russia could grant legal status to private military groups, in what would be a U-turn prompted by the fallout of the Wagner group's short-lived insurrection last month.
"This issue will be considered," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, describing a move that would give Russian authorities greater direct control over ostensibly private fighters.
Peskov said that Vladimir Putin had made the point in an interview published a day earlier with the Kommersant business newspaper.
Questions around the official status of private mercenary groups "required further consideration", Peskov paraphrased the Russian leader as saying.
11:36am: Kremlin says Wagner's legal status needs to be considered
The Kremlin said on Friday that the status of the private Wagner mercenary group needed to be "considered", a day after President Vladimir Putin said the group had no legal basis.
10:07am: Putin says Russian mercenary group has no legal basis so 'doesn't exist'
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Wagner private military company “simply doesn't exist” as a legal entity, in comments adding to the series of often bizarre twists that have followed the group’s abortive revolt last month — the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine.
“There is no law on private military organisations. It simply doesn’t exist,” Putin told a Russian newspaper late Thursday, referring to the Wagner group.
9:38am: Russia's Lavrov has no plans to contact US side during Indonesia meeting, spokeswoman says
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has no plans for contacts with US officials during his current visit to Indonesia, his spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday. Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are both in Jakarta for the ASEAN Regional Forum, a security gathering.
9:02am: Russia launches overnight drone attack on Ukrainian president's hometown
A 56-year-old man was injured in an overnight Russian drone strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, the regional governor said on Friday.
The attack damaged a number of buildings in Kryvyi Rih but Ukraine's air force said 16 of the 17 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones launched by Russia overnight had been shot down in southern and eastern areas of the country.
Falling debris damaged a municipal enterprise, two residential buildings and a transport company in Kryvyi Rih, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.
5:17am: France gives its highest order of merit to AFP journalist killed in Ukraine
France has posthumously awarded AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed while working in Ukraine, the Légion d'Honneur (Legion of Honour).
Soldin was given the top honour with effect from June 28, 2023 by a presidential decree issued on Thursday, according to France's official gazette.
Soldin, AFP's video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed in a rocket attack in the country's east on May 9, more than a year after the Russian invasion.
He was 32 years old.
Key developments from Thursday 13 July:
Ukraine has received US cluster munitions, a senior Pentagon official said on Thursday.
The US announced on July 7 it would send Kyiv cluster munitions as part of an $800 million security package intended to ensure Russian forces that invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago cannot halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Hungary signalled on Thursday it could ratify Sweden's bid to join NATO in the autumn, with a ruling party lawmaker saying Turkey's decision to back Sweden's bid opened the door to strengthening the alliance at a time of need.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia could withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal until other sides fulfil their promises.
The deal, which allows for the safe export of Ukrainian grain and fertiliser from Black Sea ports, is due to expire next Monday. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to block its extension over aspects of its implementation affecting Russia's own exports.
Read yesterday’s live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
