TOP HEADLINES

• The governor of Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine said he was ready to meet Russian pro-Kyiv fighters that have claimed responsibility for attacks on the area after they offered a meeting with officials to exchange prisoners. "The only thing stopping me from negotiating with them is our guys that are in their hands, maybe they are already dead," Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. "But if they are not, then from 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) to 6:00 pm at the car border point in Shebekino. I guarantee safety."

• Kyiv said Russian missiles had struck an airfield near the city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine. "Six missiles and five attack drones" were launched by Russia, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said on television. "Unfortunately not all of them were destroyed. Of the six, four were destroyed by air defense and two hit the operational airfield near Kropyvnytskyi," he said, giving no further details. 

• An airstrike hit a residential district in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring 22 others, officials said. The attack, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed on Russia, partially destroyed a pair of two-storey buildings as well as 10 private homes, a shop and a gas pipeline, according to the region's governor.

• Residents evacuated from the Belgorod region's zones bordering Ukraine, including those from the town of Shebekino, are seen settled in a temporary shelter set up at the Belgorod Arena in the regional capital of Belgorod. READ MORE BELOW

• The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense shelling. Thousands have fled villages in southwestern Belgorod after days of attacks that came after an armed incursion from Ukraine. 

• Five drones were shot down and four were jammed and did not hit their targets in Dzhankoi in Crimea, a Russian-installed official in the peninsula that Moscow absorbed from Ukraine in 2014 said.

• Ukraine's defense minister dismissed a plan proposed by his Indonesian counterpart to end the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow, calling it a "strange" proposal. Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto pitched the idea at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore where he was a speaker. The plan included an "immediate cessation of hostilities, "a ceasefire "at present positions," and demilitarized zones that would be guaranteed by observers and United Nations peacekeeping forces.

• Ukraine is ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia but fears large casualties due to Moscow's superior air power, President Volodydmyr Zelenskyy said in comments. "A large number of soldiers will die" if Kyiv is not given the weapons to counter Russian air power, Zelenskyy said. 

• The president of Kyrgyzstan said his ex-Soviet republic was ready to work with the EU, which hopes to tighten ties with a region Russia sees as its sphere of influence. This comes at a time when many in the region are questioning their long-standing ties with Russia and are seeking economic, diplomatic and strategic assurances elsewhere.

IN DETAIL

'More than 4,000 people' in temporary housing in Belgorod region

Russian authorities called on residents of an area on the Ukraine border to leave their homes as Ukrainian shelling intensified this week. 

The district of Shebekino in the western Belgorod region on the Ukraine border has been hit by daily shelling, killing several civilians and forcing villagers to flee. 

The governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, urged residents to cooperate with authorities and evacuate from the area. 

"I ask that in the villages of, first of all, the Shebekino district that has been shelled, to listen to the position of authorities and leave - temporarily leave - their homes," Gladkov said on Telegram. 

He said the goal was "to safeguard what is most important: your life and the lives of your close ones."

He said it was another "not calm night" in the district with "a lot of damage."

Gladkov spoke a day after two women were killed in border villages by shelling. 

He said "more than 4,000 people" from border areas were currently in temporary housing in the Belgorod region. 

He said authorities would take minors from border villages and the children of mobilized soldiers fighting in Ukraine to youth camps. 

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