Russia has stepped up its military withdrawal from Syria, removing vehicles and containers from its key Tartous port on the country's Mediterranean coast, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

A ministry statement said 11 of the 17 drones were downed between 7:50 p.m. and 10 p.m. Moscow time (1650 GMT and 1900 GMT) over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold a chunk of territory since staging a cross-border incursion last August.

An oil refinery in Russia's southern Volgograd region caught fire after an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, but the blaze has now been put out, the regional governor said on Friday.

Mr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said he put Ukraine’s new commander of ground forces, Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, in charge of the Khortytsia operational-strategic group, whose area of responsibility includes much of Ukraine’s eastern front.

The flight, which lasted for more than eight hours, saw the Russian aircraft being escorted by planes from other countries

Oleksandr Syrskyi credited Ukraine's attacks on "industrial enterprises" that manufacture ammo, missile parts, and other weapons deep inside Russia.

North Korean troops are no longer fighting on Russia’s behalf in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, according to reports. Pyongyang signed a mutual defence agreement with Moscow last year, promising to defend one another if a third party were to attack.

Ukraine has launched its second major drone attack in a week against Russian oil refineries hundreds of miles from its borders.

Kyiv launches fresh drone assault on Putin's oil refineries inside Russia - Volgograd governor Andrei Bocharov says a fire temporarily broke out after a Ukrainian drone attack

“We confirmed that Russian military bombers and fighter jets flew over the high seas of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan yesterday, and we scrambled Air Self-Defence Force fighter jets” in response, Mr Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.