The first Russian soldier is on Friday due to go on trial for war crimes in Ukraine, according to reports.
Vadim Shysimarin, a commander of the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division, will face a trial over the alleged murder of a 68-year-old man.
The 21-year-old, who is in Ukrainian custody, is among four Russians who are accused of targeting or killing civilians, according to files submitted by Ukraine’s prosecutor general and reported by The Guardian.
Ukrainian prosecutors are considering more than 11,000 reported crimes since Putin’s invasion in February.
Mr Shysimarin was fighting in the Sumy region of north east Ukraine when on Feb 28 he is alleged to have killed an unarmed civilian in the village of Chupakhivka.
It comes as the head of an elite British Army unit said his troops are “ready to go and fight” Russia if called upon.
Follow the latest updates below.
02:09 AM
Siemens leaves Russia after 170 years
German industrial giant Siemens AG says it is exiting Russia, where it has operated for almost 170 years.
“We condemn the war in Ukraine and have decided to carry out an orderly process to wind down our industrial business activities in Russia,” Roland Busch, the Munich-based company’s chief executive, said on Thursday.
Siemens had been one of the first companies to put all new business in Russia, along with international deliveries to the country, on hold following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
The company said it had been evaluating the situation with the aim of ensuring the safety of its 3,000 employees in Russia.
The maker of trains and industrial equipment said the Russia sanctions shaved off about 600,000 euros (£510,000) from its fiscal second-quarter results, which were reported on Thursday.
01:04 AM
100 children killed in one month
Nearly 100 children were killed in Ukraine in the past month, the UN’s children’s agency said on Thursday, as it warned of a “child rights crisis”.
Omar Abdi, deputy executive director of Unicef, told the UN Security Council that children are paying “an unconscionably high price” in the war, with 239 confirmed killed and 355 wounded since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24. He said the actual numbers are much higher.
“These attacks must stop,” Mr Abdi said. “Ultimately, children need an end to this war – their futures hang in the balance.”
Mr Abdi said the school year came to a standstill after Russia invaded, and as of last week at least 15 of 89 Unicef-supported schools in the country’s east had been damaged or destroyed in the fighting.
Millions of children have been forced to flee their homes.
12:52 AM
Today’s top stories
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British troops are “ready to go and fight” Russia in a “lethal” way if called upon, the head of an elite unit has said
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The Russian army’s attempt to build a bridge over the Siverskyi Donets river ended in catastrophic failure when a significant portion of a battalion was wiped out by Ukrainian artillery
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Russian soldiers have been caught on CCTV shooting two unarmed Ukrainian civilians dead
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Finland was preparing on Thursday night for Russia to cut gas supplies in retaliation for its imminent application to join Nato
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Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, will urge Western allies to go “further and faster” to support Ukraine to “constrain Putin’s aggression”
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Boris Johnson should order that Britain’s weapons stockpiles are stepped up to “at least at the scale of the Cold War arsenals” as he faces further pressure to increase defence spending
