Lukashenko proposes "three-way cooperation" with Russia and North Korea Russian president Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting on Friday with his Belarusian ally, who suggested that Minsk could could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an old alliance with North Korea after this week’s summit with Kim Jong-un. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, made the proposal as he met Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Russian leader said he would brief him about the talks with Kim on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far east, Reuters reported. “I would like to inform you about the discussion on the situation in the region, which was quite important, and also to touch on the most acute issue, the situation in Ukraine,” Putin said at the start of the meeting. Lukashenko responded by saying that “we could think about three-way cooperation,” adding that “I think a bit of work could be found for Belarus to do there as well”. Closing summary Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines: The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has reported that it has seized the village of Andriivka in the partially-occupied Donetsk region. In a statement on Facebook, the general staff said of the battle around Bakhmut: “In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy does not abandon the attempt to break through the defence of the armed forces of Ukraine in the Bohdanivka area. In their turn, the defence forces of Ukraine during the offensive actions had partial success in the area of Klishchiivka. During the assault operations they had success and mastered Andriivka, causing the enemy significant losses in manpower and equipment.” Air force Col Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments in Ukraine that an overnight Russian drone attack on the region of Khmelnytskyi was an attempt to target warplanes used this week to attack Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 17 drones at the central Khmelnytskyi region that is home to the Starokostiantyniv airbase. Debris damaged 12 homes and shattered windows in a school, but no one was hurt, regional official Serhiy Tiurin said. A Ukrainian sea drone damaged the “Samum” small Russian missile ship in an attack at the entrance to occupied Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay on Thursday and the vessel had to be towed away for repairs, a Ukrainian intelligence source said on Friday. Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it repelled an attack on the Samum in the Black Sea, during which it destroyed a naval drone. Reuters could not independently verify the two accounts. The Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko told Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday that the country has recently supplied 60,000 tons of diesel and 60,000 tons of petrol to Russia, and is ready to further increase shipments Putin has told journalists that he is open to negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine, but Ukraine does not want them. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that the Russian navy has received two new ships this year, and is to receive another 12 by the end of 2023. The figure is significantly lower than the 30 new ships that in July the president claimed would be arriving. Shoigu was visiting the Russian Pacific fleet to check on the repair and modernisation of its nuclear submarines at the Zvezda plant in the town of Bolshoi Kamen. Poland will itself extend a ban on Ukrainian grains into Poland from midnight, the prime minister said on Friday, after the European Union said it would not extend a ban it had imposed. “We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission’s disagreement,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally in the northeastern town of Elk. The UK’s Ministry of Defence appears convinced of Ukrainian claims to have inflicted significant damage on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, suggesting that satellite images show the destroyed landing ship Minsk and the “catostrophically damaged” submarine Rostov. The US plans to increase monthly production of 155 millimeter artillery shells over the coming years to 100,000 in 2025, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said on Friday. “We’re going to be at 100,000 per month in 2025. We were at 14,000 per month 6 or 8 months ago, we are now at 28,000 a month today,” Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said at a conference on Friday. Romania’s plan to double Ukrainian grain transit capacity through its Constanța port in the coming months remains achievable, the country’s transport minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Friday. A Belgian government official said on Friday it expects the G7 to announce an indirect ban on Russian diamonds in the next two-to-three weeks. Senior diplomats and defence officials of South Korea and the US agreed on Friday that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is a serious violation of UN sanctions and urged Moscow to show responsibility as a security council permanent member. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to meet Joe Biden in Washington next week. His visit comes as Congress is debating providing as much as $21bn in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion. Zelenskiy is expected to be in the US to attend the United Nations general assembly. Nato has confirmed to the media that its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to New York next week to attend the UN general assembly. Putin and Kim Jong-un gifted each other rifles when they met in far eastern Russia, the Kremlin said on Thursday, and confirmed the isolated Russian leader would visit North Korea though no further details have been revealed. The Russian president, who has sought to strengthen alliances with other hardline leaders, met Kim on Wednesday amid speculation they would agree on an arms deal to bolster Russia’s war in Ukraine. Britain’s most senior military officer, Sir Tony Radakin, said that Ukraine “continues to hold the initiative, it is pushing Russia back” in a short assessment of the current state of the fighting. Russia said it is expelling two US diplomats accused of working with a Russian national who is accused of collaborating with a foreign state. The US said the move was unprovoked and wholly without merit. Separately, Slovakia has expelled a diplomat based in Russia’s embassy, the Slovak foreign ministry said on its website on Thursday. The ministry said: “The reason is his activities, which were in direct violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.” Satellite images appear to show the dismantling of a Wagner militia base south-east of the Belarus capital, Minsk. The images of activity in recent weeks showed tents being taken down at the Tsel military base in Mogilev region, and may indicate the winding down of the Russian mercenary company’s presence in the country after a brief mutiny inside Russia. Poland will itself extend a ban on Ukrainian grains into Poland from midnight, the prime minister said on Friday, after the European Union said it would not extend a ban it had imposed. “We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission’s disagreement,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally in the northeastern town of Elk. “We will do it because it is in the interest of the Polish farmer.” The US plans to increase monthly production of 155 millimeter artillery shells over the coming years to 100,000 in 2025, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said on Friday. “We’re going to be at 100,000 per month in 2025. We were at 14,000 per month 6 or 8 months ago, we are now at 28,000 a month today,” Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said at a conference on Friday. Demand for 155mm artillery rounds has soared in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reported. But allies’ supplies for their own defence have been run down as they have rushed shells to Kyiv, which fires thousands of rounds per day. The US ambassador to Moscow has visited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in pre-trial detention on charges of espionage, state news agency TASS reported on Friday. Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier that Moscow had approved a US consular request to visit Gershkovich, who denies the spy charges. A Ukrainian sea drone damaged the “Samum” small Russian missile ship in an attack at the entrance to occupied Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay on Thursday and the vessel had to be towed away for repairs, a Ukrainian intelligence source said on Friday. Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it repelled an attack on the Samum in the Black Sea, during which it destroyed a naval drone. Reuters could not independently verify the two accounts. Romania’s plan to double Ukrainian grain transit capacity through its Constanța port in the coming months remains achievable, the country’s transport minister, Sorin Grindeanu, said on Friday, Reuters reports. Grindeanu was meeting officials from Ukraine, Moldova, the European Commission and the US. Since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain initiative, Ukraine has been seeking further alternative routes to export its goods. Nato has confirmed to the media that its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to New York next week to attend the UN general assembly. Ukraine claims Russia is trying to hunt for warplanes used in Crimea strikes Col Yuriy Ihnat of the Ukrainian air force said in televised comments that an overnight Russian drone attack on the region of Khmelnytskyi was an attempt to target warplanes used this week to attack Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 17 drones at the central Khmelnytskyi region that is home to the Starokostiantyniv airbase. Debris damaged 12 homes and shattered windows in a school, but no one was hurt, regional official Serhiy Tiurin said. “Khmelnytskyi region was attacked. We understand what the enemy is looking for: where the command has hidden our bombers after the events that happened recently in the sea near Crimea,” Reuters reports Ihnat said. Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and bases its Black Sea fleet there. This week strikes by Ukraine appear to have destroyed a large landing vessel and a submarine that were in dry dock near Sevastopol. Energy supplies continue to cause tension in Moldova, with Reuters reporting that energy regulator ANRE has fined a unit of Russia’s Gazprom $1.9m (£1.5m/€1.78m) for not complying with a requirement on the separation of gas transporting activities from those of a supplier. Wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania, and with Russian troops stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria, Moldova has sought to avoid involving itself directly in the war. Lukashenko proposes "three-way cooperation" with Russia and North Korea Russian president Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting on Friday with his Belarusian ally, who suggested that Minsk could could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an old alliance with North Korea after this week’s summit with Kim Jong-un. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, made the proposal as he met Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Russian leader said he would brief him about the talks with Kim on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far east, Reuters reported. “I would like to inform you about the discussion on the situation in the region, which was quite important, and also to touch on the most acute issue, the situation in Ukraine,” Putin said at the start of the meeting. Lukashenko responded by saying that “we could think about three-way cooperation,” adding that “I think a bit of work could be found for Belarus to do there as well”. Volodymyr Zelenskiy will visit the US Congress next week, according to media reports, after a US official earlier said the Ukrainian president was expected to meet Joe Biden on Thursday. Punchbowl News on Friday said Zelenskiy’s visit with Congress was tentatively scheduled for Thursday. The Washington Post also reported Zelenskiy was set to travel to the US Congress on Thursday, while the Wall Street Journal said he would meet US lawmakers. Representatives for the Ukrainian president and congressional leaders could not be immediately reached for comment on the reports. Zelenskiy is expected to head to Washington next week after his trip to New York for the UN general assembly meeting, the US official told Reuters on Thursday. Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had destroyed two Ukrainian naval drones in the south-west part of Black Sea, state news agency Tass reported. Earlier the ministry said a Russian warship had destroyed a naval drone, apparently in a separate incident. The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said on Friday that Moscow has approved a US consular request to visit the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in pre-trial detention on charges of espionage, state news agency RIA reported. Gershkovich was arrested on 29 March in the city of Yekaterinburg. He, the Wall Street Journal and the US deny he is a spy. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday that Moscow was expecting a visit from the Vatican’s envoy on Ukraine and was ready to meet with him. Lavrov said in televised comments: Now the efforts of the Vatican, whose envoy is going to come once again, are continuing. We are ready to meet with everyone, ready to talk to everyone. Vatican envoy Matteo Zuppi has been in China this week as part of a diplomatic push to facilitate peace in Ukraine. Lavrov did not say when he was expected in Russia. Summary of the day so far … The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said the village of Andriivka, in the partially occupied Donetsk region, has been seized. In a statement on Facebook, the general staff said of the battle around Bakhmut: “In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy does not abandon the attempt to break through the defence of the armed forces of Ukraine in the Bohdanivka area. In their turn, the defence forces of Ukraine during the offensive actions had partial success in the area of Klishchiivka. During the assault operations they had success and mastered Andriivka, causing the enemy significant losses in manpower and equipment.” The Belarus leader, Alexander Lukashenko, told the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday that the country has recently supplied 60,000 tons of diesel and 60,000 tons of petrol to Russia, and is ready to further increase shipments Putin has told journalists that he is open to negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine, but Ukraine does not want them. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Friday that the Russian navy has received two new ships this year, and is to receive another 12 by the end of 2023. The figure is significantly lower than the 30 new ships that in July the president claimed would be arriving. Shoigu was visiting the Russian Pacific fleet to check on the repair and modernisation of its nuclear submarines at the Zvezda plant in the town of Bolshoi Kamen. The UK’s Ministry of Defence appears convinced of Ukrainian claims to have inflicted significant damage on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, suggesting that satellite images show the destroyed landing ship Minsk and the “catostrophically damaged” submarine Rostov. A Belgian government official said on Friday it expects the G7 to announce an indirect ban on Russian diamonds in the next two-to-three weeks. Senior diplomats and defence officials of South Korea and the US agreed on Friday that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is a serious violation of UN sanctions and urged Moscow to show responsibility as a security council permanent member. The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia and North Korea had not signed any agreements on military matters, or on any other areas, during Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia this week.