Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine makes advances in south and east, top general says; Putin greets crowds in rare walkabout

Ukraine makes ‘slow’ but ‘sure’ advances, officials say

Ukrainian forces are advancing “slowly but surely” on the front lines in the east and southeast of the country as well as around the longstanding flashpoint of Bakhmut, senior military officials have said, according to Reuters.

The news wire reported:

Ukrainian commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley that the that his forces had “succeeded in seizing the strategic initiative.”

“Ukraine‘s defence forces are proceeding with their offensive action and we have made advances. The enemy is offering strong resistance, while sustaining considerable losses,” Zaluzhnyi wrote on Telegram.

He told Milley about weapons needed by Ukrainian forces as well as demining equipment – Ukrainian officials have cited large tracts of mined territory as an impediment to any advance.

Reuters also reported that deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, speaking on national television, had noted advances in sectors in the south designated by two occupied towns – Berdiansk and Mariupol.

“Every day, there is an advance,” Maliar said. “Yes, the advances are slow, but they are sure.”

She cited the recapture this week of the village of Rivnopol in the southeast, saying “mopping up operations were complete” and that the army was now well dug in.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksander Musiyenko said Ukrainian gains on the fringes of Bakhmut were probably a prelude for plans to recapture other areas, including the long-contested towns of Aviivka and Maryinka.

“It makes no sense to enter Bakhmut itself now. The risk is too great,” he told Ukrainian NV Radio “But in the east, Ukraine has gradually taken over the initiative. Ukraine has improved its tactical positions without sending in significant reserves.”

State-owned Russian news service Tass is reporting that the Russian Federation is opening criminal cases against what it claims are 160 mercenaries from 33 different countries who are operating on behalf of Ukrainian forces in the country.

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It quotes a report by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which states:

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As a result of interaction with the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation and other operational services, evidence of the participation of mercenaries from Georgia, the US, Latvia, Sweden and other states has been collected. Currently, 160 foreigners from 33 countries are being prosecuted.

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Rescue operations at the site of the strike on the restaurant in Kramatorsk have been completed, the regional governor of Donetsk has said on Telegram. Pavlo Kyrylenko confirmed that the final death toll in the attack was 12, and urged residents of Donetsk to consider evacuating.

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He posted:

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The rescue operations at the site of the missile strike in Kramatorsk have been completed.

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A total of 12 people, including three children, died as a result of the attack. 60 people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby.

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Rescuers managed to pull out 11 victims from under the rubble. 20 people applied for psychological help.

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I am asking everyone: do not neglect safety measures! Evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine!

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Donetsk is one of the region of Ukraine that the Russian Federation claimed to annex last year.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin greeted supporters in a rare up-close public appearance on Wednesday, after arriving in the remote southern region of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, 2,000km from Moscow.

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The appearance appeared to be an attempt to repair the damage done to his image wreaked by the weekend’s mutiny, as he tries to portray himself as retaining popular support with the whole of the Russian people behind him.

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He flew to the city of Derbent in the mostly Muslim region to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha and visit an ancient citadel and historic mosque where he took a tour and stopped to kiss fans, pose for selfies and shake hands with cheering crowds.

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It was an unusual move for a secretive president whom one senior security official once described as “pathologically afraid for his life”, requiring his staff to undergo a two-week quarantine during the pandemic.

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The length of the tables Putin used to greet foreign leaders last year was widely seen as both a power play and a way to socially distance himself for fear of infection.

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The death toll in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has risen to 12, after another body was pulled from the rubble early on Thursday, Ukrainian emergency services have said.

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Three children were among the dead, it said in a tweet, and 60 people were injured, including one child. Earlier reports had said four children were among the dead.

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“Emergency and rescue operations have been completed,” the emergency services added.

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#Краматорськ

Вранці 29 червня з-під завалів деблоковано тіло ще однієї загиблої особи.

Загалом загинуло 12 осіб (у тому числі 3 дитини), постраждало 60 осіб (у тому числі 1 дитина) та врятовано 11 осіб, з них 7 – підрозділом ДСНС.

Аварійно-рятувальні роботи завершені. pic.twitter.com/wC7m8UND7o

— DSNS.GOV.UA (@SESU_UA) June 29, 2023

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Ukrainian forces are advancing “slowly but surely” on the front lines in the east and southeast of the country as well as around the longstanding flashpoint of Bakhmut, senior military officials have said, according to Reuters.

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The news wire reported:

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Ukrainian commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley that the that his forces had “succeeded in seizing the strategic initiative.”

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“Ukraine‘s defence forces are proceeding with their offensive action and we have made advances. The enemy is offering strong resistance, while sustaining considerable losses,” Zaluzhnyi wrote on Telegram.

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He told Milley about weapons needed by Ukrainian forces as well as demining equipment – Ukrainian officials have cited large tracts of mined territory as an impediment to any advance.

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Reuters also reported that deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, speaking on national television, had noted advances in sectors in the south designated by two occupied towns – Berdiansk and Mariupol.

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“Every day, there is an advance,” Maliar said. “Yes, the advances are slow, but they are sure.”

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She cited the recapture this week of the village of Rivnopol in the southeast, saying “mopping up operations were complete” and that the army was now well dug in.

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Ukrainian military analyst Oleksander Musiyenko said Ukrainian gains on the fringes of Bakhmut were probably a prelude for plans to recapture other areas, including the long-contested towns of Aviivka and Maryinka.

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“It makes no sense to enter Bakhmut itself now. The risk is too great,” he told Ukrainian NV Radio “But in the east, Ukraine has gradually taken over the initiative. Ukraine has improved its tactical positions without sending in significant reserves.”

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makes ‘slow’ but ‘sure’ advances, officials say”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 29 Jun 2023 03.50 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 29 Jun 2023 00.32 EDT”},{“id”:”649cdc468f08e5045d17e2e6″,”elements”:[{[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.

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Ukrainian forces are making progress in the south and southeast of the country, military officials have said. “Ukraine’s defence forces are proceeding with their offensive action and we have made advances,” the country’s commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi wrote on Telegram. “The enemy is offering strong resistance, while sustaining considerable losses.”

“,”elementId”:”62e650a9-aab8-43ce-98eb-e005c72925af”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Ukraine had made advances in sectors in the south designated by two occupied towns – Berdiansk and Mariupol. “Every day, there is an advance,” Maliar said on national televsion. “Yes, the advances are slow, but they are sure.”

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In Russia meanwhile, president Vladimir Putin went on a rare public walkabout in Dagestan, shaking hands and posing for selfies in an apparent attempt to counter the damage to his image wreaked by the weekend’s Wagner rebellion.

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It was an unusual move for a secretive president whom one senior security official once described as “pathologically afraid for his life”, requiring his staff to undergo a two-week quarantine during the pandemic.

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In other developments:

“,”elementId”:”16dd7cc5-56ad-49f3-8fd2-10927f9d066a”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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• A Russian general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine has not been seen in public since Saturday. The New York Times, citing anonymous US intelligence sources, reported that General Sergei Surovikin had prior knowledge of the uprising led by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with whom he had well publicised links. Surovikin is the head of the Russian aerospace forces and was formerly Moscow’s supreme commander in Ukraine.

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• The death toll in a Russian rocket attack on a packed pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has risen to 11, including four children. Ukraine’s state emergency service said at least 56 people were injured, some critically, when two Iskander missiles slammed into the restaurant in the city centre on Tuesday evening.

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• Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency has arrested a local man it accused of helping the Russians carry out the attack on Kramatorsk. The SBU said it had arrested an employee of a gas transportation company who helped coordinate the strike and allegedly sent video footage of the cafe to the Russian military. It provided no evidence for the claims.

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• Putin has said that he “didn’t doubt” that he had the support of Russians during the mutiny. In a meeting with the head of the southern Russian province of Dagestan, parts of which were aired on state television, he said: “I did not doubt the reaction in Dagestan and in all of the country.”

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• US president Joe Biden said Putin “was clearly losing the war” but that it was too early to tell whether he had been weakened by the Wagner rebellion. “He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” he added.

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• German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the failed mutiny had weakened Putin but the implications for his invasion of Ukraine remained unclear. “I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts,” Scholz said in an interview with broadcaster ARD.

n

• Ukraine’s defence minister says he expects a guarantee that his country will be invited to join Nato at the conclusion of the war with Russia, describing membership as non-negotiable. Before a meeting of Nato leaders in Vilnius next month, Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv recognised that accession to the military alliance was not possible while the conflict continued, but insisted hard pledges for the future would need to be made.

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• The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Gitanas Nausėda and Andrzej Duda, visited Kyiv, with Nausėda confirming that his country will supply Ukraine with two Nasams launchers within three months. The visit comes ahead of an EU leaders summit which begins on Thursday.

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• Duda warned the presence of Wagner troops in Belarus could pose a potential threat to the region. “It is difficult for us to exclude today that the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus could pose a potential threat to Poland, which shares a border with Belarus, a threat to Lithuania … as well as potentially to Latvia,” Duda said.

n

• UK officials are coordinating with the EU over plans to seize the interest on billions of frozen Russian assets and send the proceeds to Ukraine, the UK’s Europe minister, Leo Docherty, has said. The transfer of the interest on frozen Russian assets is seen as one of the most legally viable routes to use Russian assets to help the recovery of Ukraine.

n

• Kyiv has appointed Herman Smetanin as the new head of state-owned weapons producer Ukroboronprom. “The newly appointed general director faces three main tasks: to increase the production of ammunition and military equipment, build an effective anti-corruption infrastructure in the company, and transform Ukroboronprom,” said Oleksander Kamyshyn, the minister for Ukraine’s strategic industries.

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Poland expects the European Union to help it fund measures to strengthen its eastern border, a deputy minister said on Thursday, after Warsaw announced a tightening of security due to concerns over the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus.

Reuters reports that asked on Thursday whether Brussels should help Warsaw pay for such measures, deputy foreign minister Paweł Jabłoński said “Poland expects it”.

“European solidarity means supporting countries threatened with destabilization,” he told public radio. “These safeguards need to be increased.”

On Wednesday the leader of Poland’s deputy prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński, said the country believed that there could be around 8,000 Wagner troops already in Belarus.

State-owned Russian news service Tass is reporting that the Russian Federation is opening criminal cases against what it claims are 160 mercenaries from 33 different countries who are operating on behalf of Ukrainian forces in the country.

It quotes a report by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which states:

As a result of interaction with the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation and other operational services, evidence of the participation of mercenaries from Georgia, the US, Latvia, Sweden and other states has been collected. Currently, 160 foreigners from 33 countries are being prosecuted.

This is the video clip which shows Vladimir Putin on a rare public walkabout in Russia, which was broadcast on state television. It has been widely seen as a visible attempt to reinforce the popular image of Russia’s president in the aftermath of the weekend’s armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.

Here are some recent images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.

The UK’s ambassador to Ukraine has described the strike on Kramatorsk which took 12 lives as “heartbreaking”. In a tweet, Melinda Simmons said:

The Russian attack on Kramatorsk is heartbreaking. Ukrainian children among those killed in a missile attack on a pizza restaurant. So obviously not a military installation but a popular venue for residents and visitors. The rap sheet against Russia continues to grow.

Papal envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, will meet in Moscow on Thursday, Reuters reports, citing the RIA news agency.

The sound of explosions has been heard in Kherson, according to Suspilne. This is not uncommon, as Ukrainian and Russian forces have positions on opposite sides of the Dnipro.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the distribution of humanitarian aid in Nevske in the Ukraine-controlled portion of Luhansk has been paused after Russian shelling.

It cites the regional governor Artem Lysohor, who said there were no casualties or injuries, but that due to the deterioration of the security situation, the humanitarian aid would be distributed later.

Rescue operations at the site of the strike on the restaurant in Kramatorsk have been completed, the regional governor of Donetsk has said on Telegram. Pavlo Kyrylenko confirmed that the final death toll in the attack was 12, and urged residents of Donetsk to consider evacuating.

He posted:

The rescue operations at the site of the missile strike in Kramatorsk have been completed.

A total of 12 people, including three children, died as a result of the attack. 60 people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby.

Rescuers managed to pull out 11 victims from under the rubble. 20 people applied for psychological help.

I am asking everyone: do not neglect safety measures! Evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine!

Donetsk is one of the region of Ukraine that the Russian Federation claimed to annex last year.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had rejected calls from Washington and Kyiv to arm Ukraine due to “concerns that I don’t think any of the western allies of Ukraine have”.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said Israel needed “freedom of action” in Syria, where Israel often bombs Iranian targets near Russian forces.

He said he also had fears that Israeli weaponry could be captured in Ukraine and turned over to Iran, specifically the Iron Dome air defence system, which was developed with the US.

“If that system were to fall into the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenseless and imperiled,” he said.

Iran has developed a closed relationship with Moscow in recent months.

A bit more from the ISW report, which suggests that the Kremlin will attempt to balance its desire to mitigate the “widespread disdain” for the MoD establishment that fuelled Wagner’s rebellion, while also trying to disempower those who sympathised with the mutiny.

Wagner’s goal of removing Gen Valery Gerasimov and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, suggested that the Kremlin may view their unpopularity as “a direct threat to Putin’s ability to retain support among key constituencies and the military”, the US thinktank wrote.

ISW previously assessed that the Kremlin is likely attempting to signal that Shoigu will maintain his position, but the Kremlin has yet to promote Gerasimov in a similar way in the days following the rebellion.

The Kremlin may attempt to placate disdain for the MoD establishment by reducing Gerasimov’s role in operations in Ukraine, although he is highly likely to maintain, at least nominally, the position of overall theater commander and his long-term role as Chief of the General Staff.

ISW has previously assessed that Gerasimov’s removal from either position would be too damaging to Putin’s and the MoD’s reputation .. Putin is likely further incentivized not to publicly replace Gerasimov out of fears of legitimizing rebellion as a successful means of blackmail.

The EU should not “lower the bar” on membership for Ukraine in terms of corruption and democracy, Denmark’s foreign minister has warned in an interview with the Financial Times, saying to do so would risk “importing instability”.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen told the newspaper Denmark supported EU membership for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the western Balkans but that “geopolitical circumstances” did not justify skating over governance reforms.

If you don’t complete the reform process before you enter, then there could be a risk of slowing down afterwards. And we do not export stability, we risk importing instability. And that’s why it is so important to stress the need of fulfilling the [EU membership] criteria.”

If there were to be special treatment for Ukraine, it should be in the form of extra help for Kyiv meet EU standards, he said.

We want to invest and we want to assist and we want to be as positive and help some as possible, but we can’t lower the bar.

Russian sources are speculating that the Wagner rebellion is already having widespread impacts on the Russian military command structure, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine.

One prominent milblogger claimed here had been “large-scale purges” among the command cadre of the Russian armed forces and that the Russian MoD is currently undergoing a “crash test” for loyalty, the US thinktank wrote.

The milblogger notably claimed that Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) commander and rumored deputy theater commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky assumed responsibilities as overall theater commander in Ukraine from Chief of the General Staff and current overall theater commander Army General Valery Gerasimov on an unspecified date, but likely after the rebellion …

Another Russian source claimed that an “atmosphere of suspicion has enveloped the General Staff” and that affiliates of Gerasimov are accused of indecision and failure while the affiliates of deputy commander of the joint grouping of forces in Ukraine Army General Sergei Surovikin are accused of complicity in the rebellion.

The ISW said the sources had largely been accurate in their previous reporting on Russian command changes but emphasised that it could not confirm any of the reports

Russian president Vladimir Putin greeted supporters in a rare up-close public appearance on Wednesday, after arriving in the remote southern region of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, 2,000km from Moscow.

The appearance appeared to be an attempt to repair the damage done to his image wreaked by the weekend’s mutiny, as he tries to portray himself as retaining popular support with the whole of the Russian people behind him.

He flew to the city of Derbent in the mostly Muslim region to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha and visit an ancient citadel and historic mosque where he took a tour and stopped to kiss fans, pose for selfies and shake hands with cheering crowds.

It was an unusual move for a secretive president whom one senior security official once described as “pathologically afraid for his life”, requiring his staff to undergo a two-week quarantine during the pandemic.

The length of the tables Putin used to greet foreign leaders last year was widely seen as both a power play and a way to socially distance himself for fear of infection.

The death toll in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has risen to 12, after another body was pulled from the rubble early on Thursday, Ukrainian emergency services have said.

Three children were among the dead, it said in a tweet, and 60 people were injured, including one child. Earlier reports had said four children were among the dead.

“Emergency and rescue operations have been completed,” the emergency services added.

Ukrainian forces are advancing “slowly but surely” on the front lines in the east and southeast of the country as well as around the longstanding flashpoint of Bakhmut, senior military officials have said, according to Reuters.

The news wire reported:

Ukrainian commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley that the that his forces had “succeeded in seizing the strategic initiative.”

“Ukraine‘s defence forces are proceeding with their offensive action and we have made advances. The enemy is offering strong resistance, while sustaining considerable losses,” Zaluzhnyi wrote on Telegram.

He told Milley about weapons needed by Ukrainian forces as well as demining equipment – Ukrainian officials have cited large tracts of mined territory as an impediment to any advance.

Reuters also reported that deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, speaking on national television, had noted advances in sectors in the south designated by two occupied towns – Berdiansk and Mariupol.

“Every day, there is an advance,” Maliar said. “Yes, the advances are slow, but they are sure.”

She cited the recapture this week of the village of Rivnopol in the southeast, saying “mopping up operations were complete” and that the army was now well dug in.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksander Musiyenko said Ukrainian gains on the fringes of Bakhmut were probably a prelude for plans to recapture other areas, including the long-contested towns of Aviivka and Maryinka.

“It makes no sense to enter Bakhmut itself now. The risk is too great,” he told Ukrainian NV Radio “But in the east, Ukraine has gradually taken over the initiative. Ukraine has improved its tactical positions without sending in significant reserves.”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.

Ukrainian forces are making progress in the south and southeast of the country, military officials have said. “Ukraine’s defence forces are proceeding with their offensive action and we have made advances,” the country’s commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi wrote on Telegram. “The enemy is offering strong resistance, while sustaining considerable losses.”

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Ukraine had made advances in sectors in the south designated by two occupied towns – Berdiansk and Mariupol. “Every day, there is an advance,” Maliar said on national televsion. “Yes, the advances are slow, but they are sure.”

In Russia meanwhile, president Vladimir Putin went on a rare public walkabout in Dagestan, shaking hands and posing for selfies in an apparent attempt to counter the damage to his image wreaked by the weekend’s Wagner rebellion.

It was an unusual move for a secretive president whom one senior security official once described as “pathologically afraid for his life”, requiring his staff to undergo a two-week quarantine during the pandemic.

In other developments:

• A Russian general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine has not been seen in public since Saturday. The New York Times, citing anonymous US intelligence sources, reported that General Sergei Surovikin had prior knowledge of the uprising led by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with whom he had well publicised links. Surovikin is the head of the Russian aerospace forces and was formerly Moscow’s supreme commander in Ukraine.

• The death toll in a Russian rocket attack on a packed pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has risen to 11, including four children. Ukraine’s state emergency service said at least 56 people were injured, some critically, when two Iskander missiles slammed into the restaurant in the city centre on Tuesday evening.

• Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency has arrested a local man it accused of helping the Russians carry out the attack on Kramatorsk. The SBU said it had arrested an employee of a gas transportation company who helped coordinate the strike and allegedly sent video footage of the cafe to the Russian military. It provided no evidence for the claims.

• Putin has said that he “didn’t doubt” that he had the support of Russians during the mutiny. In a meeting with the head of the southern Russian province of Dagestan, parts of which were aired on state television, he said: “I did not doubt the reaction in Dagestan and in all of the country.”

• US president Joe Biden said Putin “was clearly losing the war” but that it was too early to tell whether he had been weakened by the Wagner rebellion. “He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” he added.

• German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the failed mutiny had weakened Putin but the implications for his invasion of Ukraine remained unclear. “I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts,” Scholz said in an interview with broadcaster ARD.

• Ukraine’s defence minister says he expects a guarantee that his country will be invited to join Nato at the conclusion of the war with Russia, describing membership as non-negotiable. Before a meeting of Nato leaders in Vilnius next month, Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv recognised that accession to the military alliance was not possible while the conflict continued, but insisted hard pledges for the future would need to be made.

• The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Gitanas Nausėda and Andrzej Duda, visited Kyiv, with Nausėda confirming that his country will supply Ukraine with two Nasams launchers within three months. The visit comes ahead of an EU leaders summit which begins on Thursday.

• Duda warned the presence of Wagner troops in Belarus could pose a potential threat to the region. “It is difficult for us to exclude today that the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus could pose a potential threat to Poland, which shares a border with Belarus, a threat to Lithuania … as well as potentially to Latvia,” Duda said.

• UK officials are coordinating with the EU over plans to seize the interest on billions of frozen Russian assets and send the proceeds to Ukraine, the UK’s Europe minister, Leo Docherty, has said. The transfer of the interest on frozen Russian assets is seen as one of the most legally viable routes to use Russian assets to help the recovery of Ukraine.

• Kyiv has appointed Herman Smetanin as the new head of state-owned weapons producer Ukroboronprom. “The newly appointed general director faces three main tasks: to increase the production of ammunition and military equipment, build an effective anti-corruption infrastructure in the company, and transform Ukroboronprom,” said Oleksander Kamyshyn, the minister for Ukraine’s strategic industries.