Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia releases video of defence minister in Ukraine in aftermath of Wagner rebellion

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Ukraine expects to receive a clear invitation for simplified accession to Nato when the military alliance holds a summit next month in Lithuania, a senior official said on Monday.

Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential staff, reiterated Ukraine’s position on Nato accession in comments published after Russia thwarted a march by mercenaries heading towards Moscow at the weekend, Reuters reported.

“Ukraine’s position: the expected result is to receive an invitation for simplified accession at the summit in July. But, importantly, we would like to receive an absolutely clear signal that would establish Ukraine’s path to Nato membership,” he told a briefing for German media.

Russia has summoned Moldova’s ambassador in Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the Russian foreign ministry.

It gave no immediate reason for the move, which comes amid strained ties between Moscow and Chi?in?u over Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, which borders Moldova.

Ukrainian forces have liberated the south-eastern village of Rivnopil from Russian control, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Monday.

Rivnopil lies west of a cluster of settlements that Ukraine said it recaptured from Russian forces earlier this month after launching a counteroffensive.

“Defence forces have brought Rivnopil back under our control. We are moving ahead,” Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Maliar said in an earlier statement that Ukrainian forces had liberated about 130 sq km (50 sq miles) in the south since Ukraine since the counterattack began.

Britain is prepared for a range of scenarios in Russia, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday, noting the potentially destabilising impact of the tensions between the Wagner group and President Vladimir Putin.

Putin faced an unprecedented challenge to his authority over the weekend from an abortive mutiny by heavily armed mercenary fighters from the Wagner group, Reuters reported.

The extraordinary events left governments, both friendly and hostile to Russia, groping for answers to what could happen next in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

Sunak said Britain was monitoring events carefully.

“It’s too early to predict with certainty what the consequences of this might be, but of course we are prepared as we always would be for a range of scenarios,” Sunak told reporters.

“It’s a situation that we’ve been analysing and monitoring for some time because we’re aware of the potentially destabilising impact of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and indeed, the tensions between the Wagner group and the Putin regime.”

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, has characterised Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Russian president as an anticipated outcome resulting from the empowerment of the mercenary figurehead.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in Russia was “the monster acting against his creator”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.

“The political system is showing fragilities, and the military power is cracking,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting with ministers from across the 27-member bloc.

Wagner group mercenary forces under Prigozhin seized control of military headquarters in southern Russia and began to move towards Moscow on Saturday before suddenly heading back to eastern Ukraine after a deal with the Kremlin.

“The most important conclusion is the war against Ukraine launched by Putin and the monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is fighting, the monster is acting against his creator,” Borrell said.

Russia’s defence minister has appeared on state TV and emergency counter-terrorism measures have been cancelled in Moscow and surrounding regions as the Kremlin seeks to restore calm following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny.

The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Sergei Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘Western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.

The Wagner chief has not been seen or heard from since he left Rostov with his troops on Saturday evening with an apparent deal offering him amnesty and exile in Belarus, however, Russian state-owned media reports that a criminal investigation into his actions has not ended.

The rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia demonstrates that Moscow has committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday. “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Vladimir Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has said. But he warned that the instability in Russia was dangerous for Europe and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.

The weekend’s events have “exposed the weakness of Putin’s regime”, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, saying he had discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden. In a statement, Zelenskiy called for global pressure to be exerted on Russia and said that he and Biden had also discussed expanding defence cooperation with an emphasis on long-range weapons.

The Russian rouble opened at a near 15-month low against the dollar in early morning trade on Monday, responding for the first time to the Wagner mutiny.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that Russia attacked Ukraine overnight from the south with three Kalibr cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones – two missiles and seven drones were shot down. Also, it claimed, four drones of an unknown type were launched from the north, and all of them were shot down.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the EU on Monday to “accelerate Russia’s defeat” by stepping up support for Ukraine.

Reuters reports Kuleba, who was attending a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said on Twitter the fact that tanks had moved towards Moscow during a thwarted coup showed that “Ukraine will win”.

RIA Novosti, the Russian state-owned news agency, is reporting that the criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin over the mutiny has not been dropped. It was reported at the weekend that investigation into him would be closed as part of the deal that brought the march on Moscow to an end. RIA posted to Telegram to say:

The criminal case against Prigozhin has not been terminated, a source in the prosecutor general’s office told RIA Novosti.

The aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President [Vladimir] Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

Reuters reports he added: “As Russia continues its assault, it is even more important to continue our support to Ukraine.”

A couple of prominent Russian military bloggers on Telegram have suggested that defence minister Sergei Shoigu was known to be visiting the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine on Friday, and that the images and video released today by the Russian defence ministry may date from that trip, which would have occurred before the Wagner mutiny.

Nevertheless, at the FT’s Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon notes, the fact the video has been released is clearly intended to send a signal about the status of Shoigu.

Here are some of the images released officially by Russia which they claim show defence minister Sergei Shoigu visiting occupied Ukraine.

The location and date the video was taken are unverified.

Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell has said.

But he warned that the instability in Russia was dangerous and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.

“What is happening in Russia, it is important to understand that this is cracking the Russian military power and affecting its political system. And certainly it is not it’s not a good thing to see that a nuclear power like Russia is going into a phase of political instability,” he said on arrival at a summit of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

“The most important conclusion is the war against Ukraine launched by Putin and the monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is fighting, the monster is acting against his creator. The political system it’s showing its fragilities and the military power is cracking,” he added.

The cancelled mutiny in Russia will be top of the agenda at the Luxembourg summit of ministers who are expected to rapprove a pledge to give more funds to Ukraine’s military option.

They are also expected to approve the 11th round of sanctions against Russia, aimed at stopping Putin circumventing previous sanctions by using third countries to shop crude oil and other products around the world.

Citing Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency, Reuters reports that Russian security forces claim to have detained a Russian citizen on charges of sending money to Ukraine to buy drones and military equipment.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this round-up of overnight news from Ukraine:

At night, Russia attacked Ukraine from the south with three Kalibr cruise missiles and eight Shahed drones – two missiles and seven drones were shot down. Also, four drones of an unknown type were launched from the north, all of them were shot down.

Air defence forces were working in Odesa, one missile and a drone hit “certain objects” in the region the spokesperson for the air force command of the armed forces of Ukraine, said. There were no reports of injuries.

At dawn, Russian troops dropped prohibited incendiary shells on Kherson and Antonivka, fires broke out. Olhivka was also hit at night, one person was injured.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said he was cancelling the counter-terrorism regime imposed in the Russian capital during what the authorities on Saturday called an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.

Sobyanin made the announcement in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging application on Monday, in which he thanked residents for their “calmness and understanding.”

Reuters reports that separately, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said the situation in the country was “stable”.

More than 17,000 Ukrainian recruits have been trained by Britain and other allies over the last year to help fight Russia’s invasion, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Monday, according to AFP.

The recruits, from many different walks of life, all went through a “gruelling” five-week programme which the ministry said had transformed them “from civilians to soldiers”.

Britain and nine partner nations – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands – opened the initiative for new volunteer recruits to the armed forces of Ukraine in June last year.

The UK-led training programme, dubbed Operation Interflex, taught the recruits, who had little to no previous military experience, various skills including weapons handling, battlefield first aid and patrol tactics.

“The determination and resilience of the Ukrainian recruits that arrive on British soil, from all walks of life, to train to fight alongside our British and international forces, is humbling to witness,” the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said.

“The UK and our international partners will continue to provide this vital support, helping Ukraine defend against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes.”

Britain initially offered to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in battlefield skills, based on the UK’s basic soldier training.

The programme has now been extended and is on track to train about 30,000 recruits by 2024, according to the British defence ministry.

It said intelligence had shown that the training made “a significant difference to the combat effectiveness of Ukraine”.

“The UK armed forces maintains close communication with Ukraine to improve and evolve the course based on the skills most needed on the battlefield,” the ministry added.