Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin orders former Wagner boss to control ‘volunteer units’ and rejoin frontline

Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered one of the top commanders of the Wagner military contractor to take charge of “volunteer units” fighting in Ukraine, signalling the Kremlin’s effort to keep using the mercenaries after the death of their chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In remarks released by the Kremlin on Friday, Putin told Andrei Troshev that his task is to “deal with forming volunteer units that could perform various combat tasks, primarily in the zone of the special military operation” — a term the Kremlin uses for its war in Ukraine.

Deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was also present at the meeting late Thursday, a sign that Wagner mercenaries will likely serve under the Defence Ministry’s command. Speaking in a conference call with reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Troshev now works for the Defense Ministry and referred questions about Wagner’s possible return to Ukraine to the military.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday said he was confident that both Poland and Slovakia would continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia after imminent elections, despite recent harsh rhetoric towards Kyiv.

Poland, which elects a new parliament on 15 October, said last week it would no longer agree to new arms deliveries to Ukraine but instead focus on rebuilding its own stocks.

Poland, a NATO member, had until recently been seen as one of Ukraine‘s staunchest allies in its war with Russia, but relations have soured since Poland’s decision to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports.

“I’m expecting and I’m confident that Ukraine and Poland will find a way to address those issues without that impacting in a negative way the military support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview in Copenhagen.

NATO-member Slovakia has also been a staunch ally of Ukraine, sending its eastern neighbour military equipment including MiG-29 fighter jets and an S-300 air defence system.

But opposition leader and former prime minister Robert Fico, who leads polls ahead of Saturday’s election, has pledged to end that military support.

“Whatever new government they will have in Slovakia, we will continue to sit down at NATO meetings,” Stoltenberg said, “and I’m confident that we’ll find ways to continue to provide support – as we have been after every election in this alliance since the war started.”

The United States believes an oil price cap on Russian exports remains an important tool, the White House said on Friday.

National security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that “nobody should be buying Russian oil in violation of the price cap.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was only a “matter of time” before Ukraine became an official Nato member as he met the defence bloc’s chief in Kyiv.

Kyiv has pushed to join Nato despite Russia‘s threat.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg reiterated on Thursday that Ukraine would be a member of the trans-Atlantic military alliance. He said the bloc would stand with Kyiv as long as it takes.

Ukraine launched a new wave of drone strikes on Russia’s border regions of Kursk and Kaluga overnight, according to the Russian defence ministry.

At least one drone targeted a power substation, Russian officials said, blowing up a transformer and cutting power supplies to the village of Belaya, less than 25km from the border.

Kyiv is yet to comment on the attacks, which began on Thursday evening and continued into Friday morning, and does not typically claim responsibility for operations across the border in Russia.

The Russian president met Andrei Troshev, who is known by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” or “grey hair“, along with deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Thursday night, the Kremlin said in a statement.

“At the last meeting, we talked about you overseeing the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first and foremost, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” Mr Putin was quoted as saying to Mr Troshev. Special military operation is what Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian athletes will be able to compete as neutrals at next year’s Paralympic Games in Paris despite the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

International Paralympic Committee member nations voted against a full suspension of the Russian committee at the organisation’s General Assembly in Bahrain, but a motion to partially suspend was passed on Friday afternoon.

The decision means Russian athletes will be able to compete in Paris next summer, provided they do not wear kit or fly the flag of Russia.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday he was confident that Poland will find ways to address disagreements with Ukraine without impacting military support for its neighbour’s war against Russia.

Poland said last week it would only carrying out previously agreed arms deliveries to Ukraine and would instead focus on rebuilding its own weapon stocks.

Poland, a NATO member, has been seen until recently as one of Ukraine‘s staunchest allies in its war with Russia. But relations between the two countries have soured after Poland’s decision to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports.

“I’m expecting and I’m confident that Ukraine and Poland will find a way to address those issues without that impacting in a negative way the military support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview in Copenhagen.

Specialists will arrive in Ukraine in the near future to draw up plans to establish production of military equipment including air defences, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff told reporters on Friday.

”I think very soon specialists will arrive here who will make a plan for our own production of everything that we need. First and foremost, this relates to air defences”, Andriy Yermak said.

Yermak talked more broadly about President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to the United States last week, but it was not clear whether the specialists and the systems he was referring to would be American.

The Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced a resolution on Friday calling for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russia, where he was arrested six months ago on spying charges that he denies.

The resolution, backed by 27 of the 100 U.S. senators, draws attention to the continuing detention of Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested on 29 March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.

A Moscow court on Tuesday declined to consider his latest appeal against his pre-trial detention.

”Evan Gershkovich, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, has been wrongfully detained in Russia for merely for doing his job: reporting facts and shedding light on President Putin’s bogus rationale for his illegal war against Ukraine“, said Senator Ben Cardin, the committee’s Democratic chairman.

“Freedom of the press is critical to holding governments accountable around the world,” said Senator Jim Risch, the panel’s top Republican.

Russia has said the reporter was caught “red-handed” in Yekaterinburg, where the FSB security service said he was trying to obtain military secrets. It has not provided any detail to support that assertion.

The U.S. has accused Russia of using Gershkovich to conduct hostage diplomacy, at a time when relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in more than 60 years because of the conflict in Ukraine.