TOP HEADLINES

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "concrete actions" would be taken following the drone incident at the Kremlin last Wednesday which he claimed the U.S. was behind.

• Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Russian "bureaucrats" had held back weapon supplies despite knowing the target date to capture Bakhmut was May 9, and threatened their withdrawal. "My lads will not suffer useless and unjustified losses in Bakhmut without ammunition," he said in a video.

• Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had instructed one of his deputy ministers to ensure troops had all the weapons they needed, state-owned RIA news agency later reported.

• A senior Ukrainian official said Russia was bringing Wagner mercenary fighters from along the front line to Bakhmut to capture it by Victory Day on May 9. "We are now seeing them pulling (fighters) from the entire offensive line where the Wagner fighters were, they are pulling (them) to the Bakhmut direction," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Ukrainian television.

• Ukraine's Armed Forces General Staff said in an evening report that Ukrainian forces repelled more than 30 attacks on the main sectors of the front line on Friday, with Bakhmut and Maryinka to the south seeing the heaviest fighting.

• Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk region, said on Telegram that Russian missiles had struck a heavy machinery manufacturing plant in the town of Kramatorsk and a home furnishing factory in the town of Sloviansk. He said there were no injuries in either attack.

• The pace of grain shipments from Ukraine under a UN-backed initiative has slowed as concerns grow over ships getting stuck if a deal is not renewed later this month. Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the United Nations failed to authorize any new ships on Friday under the deal.

IN DETAIL

Ukraine says Wagner group are reinforcing despite withdrawal claims 

Russia's main mercenary group announced plans to withdraw from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, but Ukraine said the fighters were reinforcing positions to try to seize it before Russia marks World War Two Victory Day next week.

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his men had been starved of ammunition and would expect the army to take their place in Bakhmut next Wednesday, jeopardizing what has long been Russia's main target in its attempt to carve up its neighbor.

"My lads will not suffer useless and unjustified losses in Bakhmut without ammunition," Prigozhin said in a video accompanying a written withdrawal announcement addressed to military leaders including President Vladimir Putin.

The announcement said "bureaucrats" had held back supplies despite knowing that Wagner's target date to capture the city was May 9, the day of the World War Two commemoration.

"If, because of your petty jealousy, you do not want to give the Russian people the victory of taking Bakhmut, that's your problem," Prigozhin added in the video.

State-owned RIA news agency later reported that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had instructed one of his deputy ministers to ensure troops had all the weapons they needed.

The battle for Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to other cities in Ukraine's Donbas region still beyond its control, has been the most intense of the conflict, costing thousands of lives on both sides in months of grinding warfare.

The Kremlin declined to comment on Prigozhin's statement.