TOP HEADLINES

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is targeting systematic corruption in medical exemptions to people avoiding military service, saying the system has been subject to bribes and mass departures abroad. READ MORE BELOW

• Two Ukrainian "saboteurs" were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official said Thursday. READ MORE BELOW

• Russia's Battlegroup West repelled six counterattacks by Ukrainian troops in the Kupyansk area in the last 24 hours, said the battlegroup's spokesman Yaroslav Yakimkin. (TASS) 

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov's ministry said.

• Ukrainian drones attacked more targets in Russia late on Wednesday, a night after drones struck six regions deep within Russia.

• A newly-released video of Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show him in Africa days before his death, increasing speculation about his wellbeing and possible threats to his security.

• Russian air defenses on Thursday morning shot down a drone approaching the city, Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, wrote on Telegram.

• Over 40 flights were delayed on Thursday morning at Moscow's Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, citing a flight tracking website, with no reason given for the delays, reported the Kommersant daily.

• EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged member countries to order more ammunition for Ukraine, as figures showed the bloc is a long way from a March target of giving Kyiv a million artillery shells within 12 months.

• Six Ukrainian servicemen were killed aboard two helicopters while they were "carrying out missions" in eastern Ukraine, the military said.

• The chief official in Crimea, absorbed by Russia in 2014, said anti-aircraft units had downed a cruise missile fired at the peninsula on Wednesday.

IN DETAIL

Zelenskyy slams corruption in military medical exemptions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is targeting what he described as systematic corruption in medical exemptions to people avoiding military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.

Ukraine has made a crackdown on graft a priority as it presses on with a counter-offensive 18 months into the conflict. Uprooting corruption is also a key element in the country's bid to join the European Union.

Zelenskyy said the National Security and Defense Council had considered data showing the extent of false exemptions, bribe-taking and flights abroad. The investigation of dubious medical exemptions was still being conducted, he added.

"There are examples of regions where the number of exemptions from military service due to medical commission decisions has increased tenfold since February last year," Zelenskyy said. "It is absolutely clear what sort of decisions these are. Corrupt decisions."

He said the investigation had exposed corrupt practices in different regions and by officials in different positions, involving bribes ranging from $3,000 to $15,000. Zelenskyy said a separate analysis was needed to determine the numbers of people who had fled abroad, largely on the basis of medical commission decisions.

The president has recently dismissed all the heads of Ukraine's regional army recruitment centers.

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Ukrainian 'saboteurs' killed

Two Ukrainian "saboteurs" were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official said. Russian regions bordering Ukraine have reported repeated shelling and attacks from Kyiv's forces, including occasional cross-border incursions.

Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said that a group of Ukrainian special forces tried to carry out a series of "terrorist acts on military and energy infrastructure facilities" on Wednesday.

"In the course of operational and combat measures in the Navlinsky district, two militants were liquidated, five were detained, three of whom were wounded," he said in a post on social media.

The Navlinsky district is some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Bogomaz said that the group used US-made automatic rifles and NATO-standard ammunition and grenades to carry out the attack, sharing an image of what appeared to be seized weapons.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed it had "suppressed" Wednesday's border incursion in a statement, and said it was looking at "criminal proceedings"

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