Live Blog | Lithuania calls for the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank Related articles

The Australian government has pledged a new aid package to Ukraine worth A$110 million (€68 million). Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Monday that this includes seventy military vehicles.

“Australia continues to condemn and oppose Russia’s actions and is determined to help Ukraine win the battle,” said Albanese, whose government has previously donated $680 million (€417 million) in aid to Ukraine.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Monday he had no indications that the Wagner mercenary army had left conflict areas in Ukraine. In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency, Mychajlo Podoljak says he does not see an exodus to the Luhansk region, where Wagner’s main force was located.

“I understand that they have not yet completed their tasks and agreements and that there is still no vision on their new logistics,” said the adviser, who also indicated that Ukraine is trying to estimate whether anything will change in the Russian military . The group was “much more aggressive and capable on the battlefield than the Russian army”.

Lithuania’s president calls on NATO to strengthen its eastern flank after the Wagner mercenary army’s uprising against Russia. “We are dealing with a big state, a nuclear weapon state, and any kind of internal unrest inevitably affects the security of the surrounding countries,” Gitanas Nauseda said, according to Lithuanian Radio.

The president stressed that his country also borders Belarus, where Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will settle. Nauseda indicated that she did not know if Prigozhin had already arrived in Belarus. There has been international ambiguity over the whereabouts of the head of the mercenary army since he ordered his troops to return to their bases.

A Russian rocket attack on Kiev on Friday claimed two more lives. Mayor Vitali Klitsjko announced yesterday that two bodies were found in a damaged apartment building. Rescuers have already found three dead on Friday evening.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian military bombarded the city with more than 50 cruise missiles and three combat drones during the attack. More than forty missiles and all drones would have been intercepted. Russia’s attack was seen as one of the fiercest in Kiev in recent weeks, coming just before Wagner’s mercenary army rose up and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troops moved towards Moscow.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fears further unrest in her country if Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin takes up residence there. “Bringing war criminal Prigozhin to Belarus means more instability in the country,” she wrote on Twitter. “Belarus doesn’t need more criminals and scoundrels, but justice, freedom and security for our people.”

This live blog is based on reports from our correspondents and editors BNR, The Guardian, ANP, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, CNBC, Sky News and Agence France-Presse. BNR also uses online reports from news agencies Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax (Russia) and Belta (Belarus). Since the reporting of these agencies is not verifiable and cannot be qualified as independent, in these cases the origin of the report is explicitly stated.