Here is a summary of today's developments
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Friday that he had warned the Wagner group chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin – who apparently died in a plane crash earlier this week – to watch out for possible threats to their lives, and he insisted that Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.
A second plane linked to Prigozhin by some Russian media has no connection to Wagner group and never did, the CEO of the aircraft operator company told Reuters.
Russian investigators said on Friday that they had recovered flight recorders and 10 bodies from the scene of a plane crash thought to have killed Prigozhin two days ago.
Heineken has completed its lengthy exit from Russia with the sale of its operations there for a symbolic €1, after Moscow clamped down on asset sales in retaliation for western sanctions.
The Kremlin said on Friday that western suggestions that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie”. It declined to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.
The UK’s defence ministry has said there is not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin was onboard the plane that crashed with no survivors earlier this week, but said it is “highly likely” he is dead, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Turkish and Ukrainian foreign ministers said on Friday that other solutions to the export of Ukrainian grain than the Black Sea grain deal, which ended after Russia quit last month, were less optimal.
The deal brokered by Turkey and the UN last year had allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain. Ankara has been trying to persuade Moscow to return to the agreement.
Ukraine announced earlier this month a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release cargo ships that have been trapped in its ports since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The first vessel that used the corridor arrived in Istanbul last week.
In a news conference during his visit to Kyiv, the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said renewing the grain deal was a priority for Ankara and that Russia must be included in the equation for a functioning agreement.
Updated
