Russian forces attacked both northern and southern parts of the front in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas, even as Kiev said Moscow’s assault was waning near the town of Bakhmut.
WAR ZONE
* The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many of them elderly and disabled, cling to life in horrific conditions in the besieged town of Bakhmut and its surroundings.
* Russian missile strikes and shelling have killed at least seven civilians in northern and eastern Ukraine, according to regional officials, including at least three women in a civilian shelter.
* The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed a hangar housing drones belonging to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Odessa region in the southwest of the country.
* Russia wants to create demilitarized buffer zones inside Ukraine around regions it has annexed, an ally of President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that it may need to push deeper into the Ukraine if such zones could not be set up.
* Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield information.
* The Estonian Foreign Ministry said it had decided to expel a Russian diplomat working at its embassy in Tallinn for “causing divisions in Estonian society”.
* According to an economic study carried out by Russian experts, the Russian middle class will shrink and social inequalities will increase in the coming years, with sanctions limiting growth potential and compromising development prospects.
DIPLOMACY
* The speaker of the Russian parliament has proposed banning the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued an arrest warrant against Mr Putin, accusing him of war crimes. Democratic and Republican US senators have urged the Biden administration to share information with the ICC as part of the war crimes prosecution against Mr Putin.
* Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark announced on Friday that they had signed a letter of intent to create a unified northern air defense to counter the growing threat from Russia.
