Two pilots were killed when their Su-30 fighter jet crashed during a demonstration in Russia's Kalingrad region.

Footage has emerged on Twitter of the plane flying above a crowd of spectators before taking a sudden dive and disappearing out of view behind a tree.

According to Russian state media, local officials said early investigations suggested the crash was caused by a technical malfunction.

Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that its forces had made progress near Robotyne on the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also said children were among the dead or wounded civilians following a day in which Russians launched six rockets and 36 air strikes and fired 32 rocket salvo fire systems at populated areas and Ukrainian troop positions.

It said 33 combat clashes had taken place and noted that Ukraine’s defence forces continued an offensive operation in Melitopol and Berdyansk directions.

It said they had “partial success in the Robotyne area of the Zaporizhzhia region.” It added that Ukrainians had dug in at the point of their advance and were conducting defensive attacks from there.

Ukraine, which is seeking to form safe shipping routes in the Black Sea, has started registering ships willing to use the corridor, a local news agency said on Saturday.

Kyiv announced a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release cargo ships that have been trapped in its ports since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The corridor is a new test of Russia’s de facto blockade since Moscow abandoned a deal last month to let Kyiv export grain.

“Registration is now open and the coordinator is already working,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said.

Poland’s defence minister said on Saturday that its increased number of troops on the border with Belarus was a deterrent amid “destabilising” actions by its pro-Russian neighbour.

Mariusz Blaszczak met in Jarylowka, in eastern Poland, with some of the troops recently deployed close to Belarus.

He insisted that the increased military presence is purely a deterrent move, not a hostile act, as Minsk and Moscow are claiming.

“There is no doubt that the Belarus regime is cooperating with the Kremlin and that the attacks on the Polish border are intended to destabilise our country,” Mr Blaszczak said.

Two Belarus military helicopters briefly entered Poland’s airspace last week, a move considered by Warsaw to be a deliberate provocation.

Pictures have emerged of Ukrainian soldiers firing mortar rounds at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk, today.

Other pictures show troops in trenches and reinforced beds in shelters like scenes from the First World War.

A civilian was killed and six people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, following Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, a Russian-installed official in the eastern Ukrainian region claimed on Saturday.

One civilian was killed in a district of the city of Donetsk, while the six wounded people were in Makiivka, which lies east of Donetsk, said Denis Pushilin who is the Russian-appointed head of the region.

“In total, the enemy fired 127 rounds of ammunition at peaceful cities and regions in the republic,” Pushilin said on his Telegram channel, referring to the Donetsk People’s Republic as Moscow calls the region.

Pushilin said cluster munitions were among the artillery used. Both sides have used cluster munitions in the course of Russia’s 17-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv received cluster munitions from the United States last month and vowed to only use them against concentrations of enemy soldiers.

The information could not be independently verified. Donetsk has been partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska has repeatedly said that one of the most unexpected outcomes for Moscow after invading Ukraine is that “soft power fought back”.

Bel Trew interviewed her from the heart of Kyiv where she learned first-hand how soft diplomacy can have an instant impact on the world stage.

Read the whole article below.

Since Vladimir Putin rose to power as Russia’s president 23 years ago, few things have rocked his leadership as much as Saturday 24 June when Wagner mercenaries barrelled towards Moscow.

The “army within an army” who had been ruthlessly grinding away for months at the vanguard of some of the bloodiest fighting in eastern flanks Ukraine were now on the verge of triggering a war within a war - this time, against the Kremlin.

But the Russian president was spared that when the mutiny was halted in its tracks about 125 miles from the capital, in a deal between the leader of the mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Putin – brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin himself was due to head to Belarus – although he has been pictured in Russia since – with an invitation for Wagner fighters to gather in Belarus. Thousands are set to entered the country since.

Read the full article below.

Mourners gave their last respects to Daria Filipieva who was killed in the Donetsk oblast.

Relatives, friends, and comrades attend the farewell ceremony for Ukrainian servicewoman, military paramedic Daria Filipyeva on Independence Square in Kyiv,

Hundreds attended the emotional ceremony.

A street vendor has been pictured waiting for customers near a railway station in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

It came after Russia shelled 16 cities and villages in the region this week.

At least three people died after missiles rained down on the centre of Pokrovsk.

But unbelievably people have still continued with their business.