Pentagon spokesman says press reports of missile ‘inaccurate’; Russian president says former head of Wagner made ‘serious mistakes in his life’

The UK schools minister, Nick Gibb, said the government was monitoring the situation carefully following reports that the leader of the Wagner mercenary group died in a plane crash.

Gibb told GB News: “We are obviously monitoring the position very carefully. We’re working with our allies to see how matters develop.”

Wagner leader and chief commander Dmitry Utkin were onboard the crashed Embraer plane, according to Russian officials

• Yevgeny Prigozhin onboard plane in fatal crash, says Russia
• What next for the Wagner group? | Analysis
• Death will leave lasting mark on Russian army and elite

Russia has appointed a new acting head of its aerospace forces to replace Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon”, the RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

In June, US intelligence claimed that Surovikin, who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine, had prior knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising, in which Wagner group mercenaries captured the city of Rostov and moved on Moscow before cutting an amnesty deal.

Ex-chief of the Russian Air and Space Forces Sergei Surovikin has now been relieved of his post, while colonel-general Viktor Afzalov, head of the main staff of the airforce, is temporarily acting as commander-in-chief of the airforce”.

Russian leader, wanted under international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, gives speech by video link to summit in South Africa. This live blog is now closed

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted a picture of himself alongside Nikolai Denkov, the prime minister of Bulgaria, with whom he said he had “fruitful talks” at the Ukraine-Balkans summit on Monday.

Zelenskiy said the two leaders had discussed further cooperation, Black Sea security and alternative grain corridors, adding that he expected to meet more “Balkan colleagues” on Tuesday.

TU-22M3 – used extensively in missile strikes on Ukraine – seen burning in images shared on social media

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

A drone appears to have destroyed a supersonic Russian bomber on an airfield hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine, British military intelligence has said, the latest in a string of successful assaults on prestige infrastructure and military hardware.

These attacks, far beyond the frontlines, are powerful propaganda for Ukraine, though Kyiv rarely claims them directly. Hits on key assets, which are meant to be heavily guarded by the latest technology, is highly damaging to morale in Russia, even if they do not change the balance of forces on the battlefield.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis steps up criticism of Russia as he meets Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Athens

• What we know on day 544 of the invasion

At least two people were injured on Monday when parts of a Ukrainian drone destroyed by Russian air defences fell on a house in the Moscow region, Reuters has cited the regional governor as saying.

As mentioned in an earlier post, nearly 50 plane flights in and out of the capital were disrupted after Russia said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district, west of the capital, and destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby.