TOP HEADLINES

• At least 12 people were killed, including two 14-year-old twin sisters, following a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Three children were found among the dead, while 60 more people were wounded. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine has since arrested a man suspected of helping Moscow carry out the attack, accusing him of committing treason. The prosecutor general's office say he was in the area filming cars with military licence plates to send the footage to Russian special services. READ MORE BELOW

• EU leaders will on Thursday debate the repercussions of the aborted mutiny in Russia as they pledge further support for Kyiv in the Ukraine conflict. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will also be in attendance to discuss what role the bloc could play in providing more military aid to Kyiv. READ MORE BELOW

• President Vladimir Putin met with a crowd of well wishers in Russia's southernmost city of Derbent, a rare walkabout that comes just days after Wagner mercenaries attempted to topple Moscow's military leadership by taking control of a Russian city and marching on the capital.

• Russia is opening criminal cases against 160 foreign mercenaries it claims are operating on behalf of Ukrainian forces in the country, according to the state-run Tass new service.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the failed mutiny last weekend had weakened President Vladimir Putin but the implications for Russia's assault on Ukraine remained unclear. "He is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts," Scholz said.

• Ukrainian forces are advancing "slowly but surely" on the front lines in the east and southeast of the country as well as around the flashpoint of Bakhmut, according to senior military officials.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged NATO to send Ukraine a clear signal at a summit next month that it can join the military alliance when the Ukraine conflict ends.

• While Denmark supports EU membership for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the western Balkans, Finance Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen says that "geopolitical circumstances" did not justify admitting such countries without them carrying out necessary reforms first.

• Poland expects the EU to help finance the strengthening of its eastern border, according to one minister, after Warsaw announced it was tightening security due to concerns over the presence of the Wagner mercenary group in Belarus.

• In a new verbal slip-up, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Vladimir Putin was "losing the war in Iraq" when he meant to say Ukraine. It was the second slip-up in 24 hours after the U.S. leader accidentally referred to China when he meant India at a campaign fundraising event.

IN DETAIL

Deadly Kramatorsk attack, EU leaders meet

Ukraine has arrested a man suspected of committing treason by helping Russia carry out a missile strike on a busy restaurant that killed 12 people in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.

The prosecutor general's office said on Thursday an employee at a local gas transportation company helped Moscow target the restaurant by filming cars with military licence plates in its parking lot and sending the footage to Russian special services.

Twelve people were killed and 60 hurt when a Russian missile hit the restaurant on Tuesday evening, bringing it to rubble.

"Anyone who helps Russian terrorists destroy lives deserves the maximum punishment," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.

The suspect had been informed that he is suspected of committing treason, an offence that carries a possible life sentence. 

Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said rescue operations had been called off in Kramatorsk and urged people to leave for safer areas.

The 12 dead included a victim whose body was pulled out of the rubble early on Thursday and three children. Twin sisters aged 14 were listed among the dead.

Asked about the attack on Kramatorsk, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia attacked only military targets, not civilian ones. Russia's defense ministry later said a temporary Ukrainian army command post had been struck in Kramatorsk.

Over in Brussels, EU leaders are meeting to discuss further support for Ukraine and to debate the repercussions of the aborted mutiny in Russia by Wagner mercenaries.

The summit in Belgium will also see the leaders talk with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as they consider what role the EU can play in the West's support for Ukraine.

That includes how the bloc can provide long-term Western assurances to Kyiv that it will continue providing weapons, equipment, ammunition, training and other military aid.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said the leaders were certain to discuss Saturday's dramatic mutiny at the summit, even though it is not on the agenda or mentioned in drafts of its written conclusions.

"It will definitely come up," she told reporters in Brussels on the eve of the two-day meeting, a regular gathering that will also discuss migration, relations with China and other issues.

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