Russia’s military has said its forces had captured three villages in eastern Ukraine, where it is advancing even as Kyiv mounts its own assault on Russian territory, AFP reports.

In a briefing published on its Telegram page, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had seized settlements in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported that the villages were: Synkivka, Kostiantynivka and Novozhelanne. The reports could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov said he had called on EU allies to contribute to an air defence shield over Ukraine’s western regions at an informal defence ministers meeting earlier today.

Strengthening Ukraine’s air defences is crucial to protecting the civilian population and infrastructure, he said in a statement on Telegram.

“I am grateful to our European allies for their support. A strong partnership between Ukraine and the European Union is key to ensuring the inevitable victory over the aggressor and achieving a just peace in Europe,” the post said.

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv’s forces had advanced about a mile in its incursion of Russia’s western Kursk region in the past 24 hours.

Syrskyi briefed president Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link and said Ukrainian forces took control of 2 sq miles of Russian territory.

AFP reports that the death toll from Russia’s overnight attack on Sumy is now two.

Two women were killed and eight other people were wounded in the northeastern city, officials said, as residents of settlements near Russia’s border were urged to evacuate.

Sumy lies just across the border from Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive on 6 August.

Regional prosecutors said the body of a 37-year-old woman had been found under the rubble of a building in Sumy hit in the strike. A 48-year-old woman later died in hospital from her injuries.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the intergration of Ukraine in the European Union is at the heart of efforts to secure peace.

Speaking at the Globsec Forum in Prague, she said Europe’s duty was to protect itself with Nato at its core. She said central Europe could be one of the greatest beneficiaries of a new push for a European defence sector.

She called for a systemic overhaul of Europe’s defence capabilities and said it was time for governments to think of the union “intrinsically as a security project”, saying security must be the focus of everything the union does.

In a bleak warning, von der Leyen added: “we cannot afford any more illusions, the second half of the decade will be high risk” and said “Europeans must be on guard”.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that ongoing corruption investigations into Russian defence officials involve “serious charges” that will lead to court trials, Reuters reports.

A military court in Moscow placed Pavel Popov, a former deputy defence minister, in detention yesterday on suspicion of fraud in the latest of a string of corruption probes of officials tied to former defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

Asked to comment on the investigations, Peskov said: “Indeed, serious charges are being brought.

“This is the systematic work of law enforcement agencies”, he told reporters. “We cannot talk about more details. Once the investigation is completed, there will be a trial.”

The corruption scandal, the biggest to hit Russia’s defence and military establishment in years, have seen at least a dozen officials detained since April.

The Kremlin has never made any deals with Telegram boss Pavel Durov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that he was not aware of any meetings between the tech entrepreneur and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A French judge put Russian-born Durov, boss of the messaging app that has become a key communication tool for both sides of the Ukraine conflict, under formal investigation on Wednesday. He is being investigated for suspected complicity in running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, child sex abuse images, drug trafficking and fraud.

“There were no negotiations between Durov and the Kremlin,” Peskov told reporters. “And the fact that he visited Russia, well, he is a Russian citizen, he moves freely, so naturally he visited Russia.”

“There were no deals between the Kremlin and Durov,” Peskov said in response to further questions.

Peskov said that as far as he was aware, Putin and Durov had never met.

Russia, after years of pressure on Durov and his tech ventures, has rallied behind him, with Peskov this week saying that the case against him should not become political persecution.

The commander of Ukraine’s air force said on Friday that it had shared with US partners a preliminary report about an F-16 jet crash that took place on Monday, according to Reuters.

Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram that the US, where the F-16 is manufactured, was assisting the investigation.

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that the F-16 crashed and its pilot died while approaching a target during a Russian air strike.

The Kremlin said it was not worried that Mongolia could arrest president Vladimir Putin during his visit next week to the member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued a warrant for the Russian leader, AFP reports.

Putin will travel to Mongolia on Tuesday, in a first trip to an ICC member since The Hague-based court issued a warrant for his arrest over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children in March 2023.

“There are no worries, we have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Asked if Moscow had discussed the arrest warrant with Ulaanbaatar ahead of Putin’s trip, he said: “All aspects of the visit were carefully prepared.”