The Russian government will increase salaries for military servicemen by 10.5 percent from Oct. 1, a decree published on the official web portal has shown.

The move comes days after an abortive armed mutiny by the mercenary Wagner Group, which briefly took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched towards Moscow.

The surprise move was made by the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who said it was a protest against incompetence and corruption in Russia’s top brass.

After pushing Russian forces out of northern regions last year, Ukraine has taken steps to tighten the defence of its border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia.

“Right now, there is no direct threat of offensive actions from Belarus and Russia in the zone that is the responsibility of the Northern Group of Forces,” ‘North’ Commander General Serhiy Naev said.

But he said moves to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities were needed in the event of a growing threat, and added: “Our intelligence does not stop work[ing] to obtain information.”

Putin discussed with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi the situation around Ukraine and how Moscow had resolved an armed mercenary mutiny, the Kremlin and New Delhi have said.

“While discussing the situation in Ukraine, PM [Modi] reiterated his call for dialogue and diplomacy,” the Indian government said in a statement on Friday.

The boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, shocked the world by leading Saturday’s armed revolt, only to abruptly call it off as his fighters approached Moscow.

A Belarusian journalist has been sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of “aiding extremist activities” as the country continues a crackdown on the opposition and independent journalists, which it has stepped up since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine.

The trial of Pavel Padabed was held behind closed doors. His conviction and sentencing on Friday were reported by the Belarusian Association of Journalists. Padabed worked with Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite channel that broadcasts into Belarus and is considered by the Belarusian government to be “extremist media”.

President Alexander Lukashenko has taken an increasingly repressive line towards the opposition and independent journalists since mass protests engulfed the country in 2020 after he was re-elected in an election that was widely regarded as fraudulent.

Central bank data show that Ukraine had a current account deficit of $1.43bn in the first five months of the year.

In the same period last year, Ukraine recorded a current account surplus of $3.07bn.

Ukraine’s export-driven economy has been hit hard by Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022, with exports dropping due to disrupted logistics.

Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked media outlets linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary group, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports.

While authorities have not outlawed the Wagner Group, its fighters have been given the option of being integrated into Russia’s regular armed forces, joining their leader in exile in Belarus or returning home.

Commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military says its counteroffensive plans are hindered by the lack of adequate firepower, from modern fighter jets to artillery ammunition, in an interview with the Washington Post.

Valery Zaluzhny said it “pisses me off” that some in the West complain about the slow progress of the counteroffensive and that Ukraine is still awaiting F-16 fighters promised by its allies.

“I do not need 120 planes. I’m not going to threaten the whole world. A very limited number would be enough,” he told the newspaper.

“But they are needed. Because there is no other way. Because the enemy is using a different generation of aviation.”

“[The counteroffensive] is not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything. Every day, every meter is given by blood,” he said.

Belgium’s prime minister says Russia’s frozen assets could provide 3 billion euros ($3.27bn) a year to rebuild Ukraine.

“We’re working on a method based on windfall profits. … If we find a stable legal platform, we could use it for Ukraine,” Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told journalists at the European Council summit.

“A windfall profit system will be developed, and the current estimation is that the total returns could be 3 billion euros a year.”

The EU said it has frozen more than 200 billion euros ($218bn) of Russian central bank assets in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine with another 30 billion euros ($33bn) of Russian oligarchs’ private assets also blocked.

While most European leaders agree on using the frozen assets to pay for the reconstruction, the legality of how to extract this money is complex and still needs to be researched.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the future of Wagner forces in various African countries is a matter for those governments that write up the contracts.

Lavrov said Wagner had worked in Central African Republic and other countries on the basis of contracts drawn up directly with the governments concerned.

He added that Russia’s defence ministry has “several hundred” military advisers working there.

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 492 of the war.

Putin discussed the conflict in Ukraine and the Wagner mutiny in a telephone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Kremlin said.

The statement from the Kremlin added that Modi had expressed support for the Russian leadership’s decisive actions in handling the rebellion last Saturday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered his top military commanders to boost defences in the northern military sector as the Wagner Group leader arrives in Belarus.

“The decision … is for Commander-in-Chief [Valeriy] Zaluzhnyi and North commander [Serhiy] Naev to implement a set of measures to strengthen this direction,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

During the meeting, government and military leaders also heard a report from the country’s intelligence and security forces about the situation in Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbour.

On Tuesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia under a deal negotiated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that ended the Wagner Group’s mutiny on Saturday.

Pope Francis says there is no apparent end in sight to the war in Ukraine as his peace envoy completes three days of talks in Moscow.

“The tragic reality of this war that seems to have no end demands of everyone a common creative effort to imagine and forge paths of peace,” the pope told a religious delegation from the patriarchate of Constantinople.

The Vatican added that the papal envoy, Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, had finished his consultations in Moscow, where he had met one of Putin’s advisers, Yuri Ushakov, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

“[The visit was] aimed at identifying humanitarian initiatives, which could open roads to peace,” the statement said.

It added that further steps would be taken but gave no details.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, says Ukraine is preparing to commit a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

On Telegram, Zakharova wrote: “Additional devices have been installed in Kyiv to measure radiation, city officials said. Recently, in a number of regions of Ukraine, exercises began in case of an accident at the ZNPP.”

“Kyiv authorities are preparing to commit another terrorist attack!”

The World Bank has approved a $1.5bn loan to Ukraine to support reconstruction and recovery, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

On Telegram, Shmyhal said, along with guarantees from the Japanese government, the funds would be channelled to support social security and economic development.

“In particular, the loan will help support subsidies for internally displaced people and pension payments,” Shmyhal said.

On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund’s board completed its Ukrainian loan review, allowing Kyiv to immediately withdraw $890m for budget support.

The finance ministry said so far it received $3bn in budget support from Ukraine’s partners in June, with 40 percent of it provided as grants.

Russia has demanded an explanation from Poland over its arrest of Russian citizens, state news agency RIA reported, citing foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Poland said it arrested a Russian ice hockey player on suspicion of having spied for Moscow while playing for a Polish club.

“The detained man is a professional athlete from a first division hockey club,” said a Polish government statement, adding that the Russian national, living in Poland since 2021, was charged with espionage and remanded into custody for three months.

“On the territory of Poland, he carried out tasks for foreign intelligence, including identification of critical infrastructure in several regions,” the statement added.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin also accused Poland of having a “frenzied Russophobic position”.

Ukrainian prosecutors have charged a Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian collaborators with war crimes over the alleged deportation of dozens of orphans from Kherson.

The charges brought by Ukraine’s prosecutors follow a wider investigation carried out in cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), which also issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his alleged involvement in the deportations of children.

Yuliia Usenko, head of Ukraine’s Department for the Protection of Children’s Interests, told the Reuters news agency, “It was not a one-day event. 48 children … in the Kherson Region Children’s Home were forcibly displaced, deported.”

“We don’t know how these children are, in what conditions they are kept, or what their fate is.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and prominent European figures forming a working group to address ecological damage from the war.

The working group includes former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Margot Wallström, European Parliament Vice President Heidi Hautala and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Zelenskyy said forming the group is “a very important signal of supporting Ukraine. It’s really important. We need your professional help.”

Thunberg said Russian forces “are deliberately targeting the environment and people’s livelihoods and homes and, therefore, also destroying lives”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denies that Russia intentionally attacked civilian targets in Ukraine, saying it only targeted military infrastructure or other military targets.

Speaking at a news conference, Lavrov instead accused Ukraine of deploying troops and heavy weapons at places such as schools and apartment buildings.

He said such tactics were war crimes.

Ukraine and its Western allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of targeting civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, power stations and residential buildings.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said he believed the West somehow wanted to freeze the conflict in Ukraine to buy time to pump more weapons into that country.

Speaking at a news conference, Lavrov accused Western countries of taking a “schizophrenic” approach to the conflict.

At first, he said, the West wanted to see Russia lose on the battlefield and for its leaders to go on trial and only then to press for peace in Ukraine.