Pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

A young woman was arrested in Sofia after setting fire to the Russian flag on Thursday afternoon. The incident occurred on Shipka Street, outside the Russian Cultural and Information Center.

Olena Semykina, the owner of a village shop in east Ukraine, voted for President Volodymyr Zelensky five and a half years ago, hoping the fresh-faced political newcomer would end the fighting unleashed by Russian proxy forces in 2014.

Ukraine said on Saturday that nine people were killed in the country's Donetsk and Kharkiv regions due to Russian airstrikes.

A statement by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that four people were killed and six others injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where it claimed Russia attacked settlements in the region's Bohodukhiv, Izium and Kupiansk districts during the day.

Ukrainian civilians were seen fleeing areas near the front line on Wednesday as Russian troops continued to advance in the eastern Donetsk region.

An air alert was declared once again last night in several areas of eastern Ukraine, according to local media reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the challenging situation on the eastern front, highlighting that over 100 clashes occurred in the last 24 hours. More than a third of these conflicts took place in the Pokrovsk area of the Donetsk region.

A court in Ukraine's Russian-controlled Donetsk region on Friday jailed a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission to Ukraine for "espionage" in a judgement condemned by the European security organization.

Prisoners from the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) have been coerced into frontline combat roles in Ukraine, despite promises of pardons and release, reports from "Важные истории" reveal. These individuals, recruited from DPR colonies, were initially assured that their convictions would be expunged and they would be pardoned after six months of service.

The Ukrainian army said on Thursday it had partially halted a Russian advance in the northeast, where Moscow has secured its largest territorial gains in 18 months over the last week.

Moscow launched a major ground assault across the border into the Kharkiv region last week, a surprise move that has further stretched Ukraine's outgunned and outmanned forces.

He stated that the Leningrad and Moscow military districts were formed.

Day 698 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours: