St. Petersburg

Fierce fighting raged Thursday in southeastern Ukraine, where a Western official said Kiev has launched a major push and Russian President Vladimir Putin said "hostilities have intensified significantly."

Day 519 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

He was killed when he tried to help the besieged members of the Storm detachment, reported Fontanka, a local media outlet in St. Petersburg.
President of the Assembly of St. Petersburg, Alexander Belsky, expressed his condolences and said that Vashutin died trying to help Russian soldiers who were surrounded by Ukrainians.

A chocolate museum in St. Petersburg. A gold mine in the Central African Republic. Oil and gas ventures off the Syrian coast.

The economic ventures of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog seller turned Wagner group warlord who staged a brief mutiny against Russia's military last month, stretch far beyond the thousands of mercenaries he deployed in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East.

According to the Kremlin, Putin and Prigozhin met on June 29, five days after the rebellion ended.
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained, 35 people attended the meeting.
"All the commanders were invited, including Prigozhin himself. This meeting was held in the Kremlin on June 29. It lasted almost three hours," Peskov said without giving details of the meeting.

The mercenary leader who led a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin is in Russia and his troops are in their field camps, the president of Belarus said Thursday, raising new questions about the deal that ended the extraordinary challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Day 498 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

"This is a Russian company. So, the question is obviously not for me. As far as I am informed, the fighters are in their camps. As for Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus," Lukashenko said.

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia's war in Ukraine.

The long-announced Ukrainian counter-offensive has been underway for several days, and the US, Great Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands are sending hundreds of missiles to Ukraine. At the same time, NATO defense ministers are discussing in Brussels the continuation of the support that the allies have been providing to Ukraine for months.