Ukraine-Russia war – live: Kyiv says it has sunk warship in blow for Putin as drones hit Zelensky’s hometown

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov has suspended a senior official while authorities investigate suspected corruption in the procurement of wepoans, his ministry said on Friday.

Umerov took office last year on a pledge to clean up graft inside the ministry as Ukraine‘s Western partners weighed sending more military aid to Kyiv following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Toomas Nakhkur, who led the defence ministry’s department for technical policy and weapons development, was suspended after being named an official suspect in an unspecified criminal case, the ministry wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said last week it had uncovered a scheme by current and former officials as well as businessmen to embezzle around $40 million (£32m) by securing advance payment for artillery shells that were never provided.

Mr Umerov’s predecessor was dismissed last September following several corruption scandals at the defence ministry even he had strong relations with Kyiv’s Western allies.

It is clear that the country’s president would like to replace his most popular commander but that is proving more difficult than it looks, writes Askold Krushelnycky. With key Western allies still unable to agree to fresh aid and Russia stepping up both air and ground attacks, the clash has boiled over at a bad time

Russian officials have claimed there are irregularities with anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin’s 100,000 signatures, which are necessary for him to run in the presidential election against Vladimir Putin in March.

The comments, likely untrue, suggest the Kremlin will block Mr Nadezhdin, the only anti-war candidate left, from running in the race.

Mr Nadezhdin this week presented the electoral commission with signatures from more than 100,000 supporters across Russia as part of his bid to get his name on the ballot paper for the March 15-17 election.

But Nikolai Bulayev, deputy chairman of the commission, said some of the purported signatures were those of dead people.

“When we see dozens … of people who are no longer on this earth, and they gave signatures, the question arises about the decency of the ethical standards being applied, including by the person who collected the signature,” he said. “And the candidate to some extent is directly involved in this.”

Nobody expects Nadezhdin, 60, to win even if he is allowed to participate, given Putin’s long dominance and control of the state.

But his campaign has captured people’s attention because of his outright opposition to what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The commission will announce next week which candidates have been cleared to run.

You can read more about who Mr Nadezhdin is and why he is trying to challenge Putin below.

Below are some of the latest photos from Ukraine

A Russian court on Thursday ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending her trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and faces charges of not registering as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military.

Today’s angry protest by farmers outside the European parliament in Brussels was the latest outbreak of public unrest to captivate the continent – but rather than being evidence that EU cooperation is fraying, the problem lies with ailing national governments, says Mary Dejevsky

“All musicians of the Bi-2 group have safely left Thailand and are heading to Tel Aviv,” read the post on Facebook. No further details were provided.

Thailand’s National Security Council, chaired by prime minister Srettha Thavisin, took charge of the case on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss the conflict in Ukraine with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan during his upcoming visit to Turkey, the RIA news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Friday.

Peskov declined to say when exactly Putin would make the visit. A Turkish official told Reuters this week that it would take place on 12 February.

RIA also quoted Peskov as saying Turkey was coming under unprecedented pressure from the “Anglo-Saxons” – meaning the United States and Britain – over its ties with Russia, but that Ankara was preserving its independence.

Russian schoolchildren will learn about drone technology for military and industrial purposes at craft lessons, the Tass news agency cited a senior official as saying on Friday.

Deputy Education Minister Tatyana Vasilyeva also told parliament that students would spend more time studying technical drawing, a skill needed for work with blueprints.

Drones, ranging from handheld gadgets to fully fledged aircraft size, have become one of the key weapons in the Ukrainian conflict.

The French foreign ministry has said that two French volunteer aid workers were killed in a Russian drone attack in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, confirming reports from the regional governor and other officials.

Three other French nationals were injured, the ministry added.