The announcement of Sergei Shoigu’s new role came as 13 people were reported dead and 20 more wounded in Russia’s border city of Belgorod where a section of a residential building collapsed
Prigozhin said he was ordering his troops to halt their march on Moscow after reaching a deal to resolve the crisis. The Kremlin announced that it will drop charges against the mercenary leader, who can take refuge in Belarus
Prigozhin posted a series of angry video and audio recordings in which he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike Friday on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine
General Valery Gerasimov replaces Sergei Surovikin – who previously led the Russian intervention in the Syrian war – while paramilitary forces from the Kremlin’s Wagner Group continue battering Ukrainian cities
Ukraine’s officials have expressed mistrust of Moscow’s proposal for a 36-hour cessation of hostilities, but not observing a truce could play against the country in international public opinion
The Russian leader issued the instruction after a petition from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, but Kyiv has dismissed it as ‘a cynical trap and an element of propaganda’
The Russian president met senior Defense Ministry officials to discuss beefing up Moscow’s nuclear capability, with armed forces numbers to rise to 1.5m military personnel
The Russian president repeated claims that Ukraine is planning to use a ‘dirty bomb’ while the West insists the Kremlin is using the supposed threat of such an attack as a pretext for a further escalation of the war
France, the UK and the US believe that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s claims of an imminent attack are a ruse to counter Kyiv’s gains in occupied Kherson