TOP HEADLINES

• A Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine has killed nine people, including three children, and injured at least 56. MORE DETAILS BELOW

• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "wipe out" mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to what the Kremlin cast as a mutiny that pushed Russia towards civil war. MORE DETAILS BELOW

• A lack of leadership by countries such as Germany and France and narrow industrial interests keep Europe from boosting defense cooperation as warranted by the Ukraine conflict, a report by the Munich Security Conference stated.

• NATO is ready to defend itself against any threat from 'Moscow or Minsk', alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said, after Belarus welcomed Wagner rebel leader Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile.

• The U.S. imposed sanctions aimed at disrupting gold mining activities that fund the Wagner Group in Africa, vowing to hold the mercenaries accountable for abuses days after they staged a mutiny in Russia.

• Russia's National Guard may be equipped with tanks and armored vehicles, it said, after the army announced it was receiving military hardware from Wagner mercenaries following their failed uprising.

• The U.S. said it let Moscow send an airplane to Washington to pick up diplomats despite a ban on commercial flights and called for reciprocal treatment.

• The liberation of a group of villages under Russian occupation in recent weeks were "not the main event" in Kyiv's planned attack, Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine defense minister, told the Financial Times.

• The U.S. will provide Kyiv with a new military package worth up to $500 million, the Pentagon has announced.

• General Sergey Surovikin, deputy commander of Russia's military operations in Ukraine, had advance knowledge the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning a rebellion against Moscow's defense officials, according to the New York Times.

• Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sweden still wanted to join NATO before or at its summit in Vilnius next month, although it was not certain it would be able to do so by then.

IN DETAIL

Restaurant in Ukraine attacked by Russian missiles

A Russian missile strike on a restaurant in the center of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine killed nine people, as Kyiv downplayed the impact of the Wagner mutiny on fighting.

Three children were among the dead at the Ria Pizza restaurant, while at least 56 people were injured in the attack.

The eatery is popular with both soldiers and journalists in the town of Kramatorsk, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the east.

"Search and rescue operations and debris removal are ongoing," Ukraine's state emergency service said.

Days after Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin's aborted rebellion, widely seen as the biggest threat to Kremlin authority in decades, Kyiv said the mutiny's influence on fighting was minimal.

"Unfortunately, Prigozhin gave up too quickly. So there was no time for this demoralising effect to penetrate Russian trenches," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN.

Lukashenko: I stopped wipeout

As Belarus welcomed Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to shore up his authority by thanking regular troops for averting a civil war.

Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

While describing his Saturday conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the Russian criminal slang phrase for killing someone, equivalent to the English phrase to "wipe out."

"I also understood: a brutal decision had been made (and it was the undertone of Putin's address) to wipe out" the mutineers, Lukashenko told a meeting of his army officials and journalists, according to Belarusian state media.

"I suggested to Putin not to rush. 'Come on,' I said, 'Let's talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.' To which he told me: 'Listen, Sasha, it's useless. He doesn't even pick up the phone, he doesn't want to talk to anyone'."

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