Moscow-installed governor in Sevastopol says blaze, attributed to Ukrainian drone strike, now under control

• At a glance: what we know on day 430 of the invasion

Ukraine’s president said on Friday that he had asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to help bring back Ukrainian children deported by Russia.

In his evening address, AFP reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy as saying:

We need to involve everyone ... to put pressure on the Russian aggressor and the terrorists who kidnapped so many of our children.

The UN, many others want to do something, but so far the results have been poor. So I have appealed to the leader of China.

Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending.

Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen.

Constant attacks from Russian troops have made it impossible for Kherson residents to return to their normal lives

• What we know on day 424 of the invasion

Ukraine’s military have set up positions on the eastern side of Dnipro river near Kherson city. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson.

France and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania expressed dismay that China’s ambassador in Paris questioned whether Crimea is part of Ukraine. France stated its “full solidarity” on Sunday, with all the allied countries affected, which it said had acquired their independence “after decades of oppression”.

Russia is advising citizens to avoid travel to Canada. Russia cited what it calls numerous cases of discrimination against its citizens, including physical violence, its foreign ministry has said.

Russia appeals for “real men” in new military recruitment drive. Russia’s defence ministry has launched a major drive for volunteer recruits, pitching to their masculine pride and appealing for “real men” amid a limited pool of fighting-age men in Russia, the UK Ministry of Defence says.

Evacuations in Russian city of Belgorod after bomb scare. More than 3,000 people in the Russian city of Belgorod were returning to their homes on Saturday after being evacuated while an explosive was disposed of, the local governor said.

At least five Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts late on Saturday night, damaging civilian buildings, local officials said. One missile hit a house in the village of Kotliary, just to the south of Kharkiv, while another caused a fire in the city itself, said the regional governor, Oleh Sinegubov.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had captured another three districts in the western part of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Troops who have continued into the heavily contested city are thought to be part of the Wagner group of mercenaries.

Russia confirmed it would expel 20 German diplomats in retaliation for its own diplomats being sent home from Berlin, the Tass news agency said, citing Russia’s foreign ministry.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has again refused to take sides in the war in Ukraine, calling for a “negotiated political solution” between Kyiv and Moscow. “We urgently need a group of countries to sit round a table with both Ukraine and Russia,” he said after a meeting with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Lisbon.

The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that if the G7 moved to ban exports to Russia, Moscow would respond by terminating the Black Sea Grain deal that enables vital exports of grain from Ukraine, Reuters reports.

UK Ministry of Defence says Kremlin has made it harder for civilians to avoid being drafted into the army

• What we know on day 416 of the war

Five Ukrainians from Russian-occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia oblast will be tried by a Russian court for being part of a “terrorist group”, according to Russian state media.

The five Ukrainians were transported from Melitopol to Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014, and subsequently transferred to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre in Moscow, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of Ukraine’s joint armed forces, announced the decision on social media

• What we know on day 409 of the war

The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea.

Russian state-run Tass news agency quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.

Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.

Top Ukrainian official criticises the ‘symbolic blow’ of Russia assuming the rotating presidency. This blog is now closed

• Russia’s presidency of UN security council a ‘symbolic blow’, says Ukraine

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has promised to increase the supply of munitions to the country’s forces, during a visit to the headquarters of Moscow’s troops fighting in Ukraine, according to footage published by the defence ministry on Saturday.

In the video published on Telegram, Shoigu presides over a meeting with senior military officers, including Gen Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff, Reuters reports.

The volume of supplies of the most demanded ammunition has been determined. Necessary measures are being taken to increase them.

Russia’s president says deal struck to station weapons on ally’s territory, according to Tass news agency

• What we know on day 395 of the invasion

More than 5,000 former criminals have been pardoned after finishing their contracts to fight in Russia’s Wagner mercenary group against Ukraine, the founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Saturday.

The Wagner group, originally staffed by battle-hardened veterans of the Russian armed forces, took on a much more prominent role in the Ukraine war after the Russian army suffered a series of humiliating defeats last year, Reuters reported.