TOP HEADLINES 

• The Kremlin says it has "nothing to say" over claims that the DPRK may supply weapons for Russia's military effort in Ukraine. 

• Amid ongoing fighting, Ukraine says it has regained territory on the eastern front.

• Russia claims to have shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones around Moscow. 

• Türkiye says it is in close contact with the United Nations on reviving the Black Sea grain deal, after presidential talks in the resort of Sochi ended without a deal.

• Cuba's foreign ministry says it has uncovered a human trafficking ring recruiting its citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine. 

• Russian army general Sergei Surovikin has allegedly been seen in public for the first time since the failed Wagner mutiny in late June. 

• UK intelligence claims that Moscow is planning to hold elections in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine within weeks.  

IN DETAIL 

The Kremlin says it has "nothing" to say over claims that President Putin is meeting the leader of the DPRK. U.S. intelligence reports suggest Kim Jong-un will hold talks with Putin in the city of Vladivostok, later this month, to discuss supplying arms to bolster Russia's military effort in Ukraine. 

 "We have nothing to tell you," Kremlin Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. Russia has previously indicated it is seeking greater ties with the DPRK. The Republic of Korea says Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed while on his trip to Pyongyang in July that the two nations hold joint naval drills.

Ukrainian troops say they have reached what Kyiv has called the "final layer" Russian military lines in the southern Zaporizhia region. Troops say they have taken control of  fighting positions around the town of  Verbove. The settlement is on the so-called  "Surovikin line" named after the former head of Russia's  aerospace forces. Ukraine says it has now taken back about 47 square kilometers of territory around the city of Bakhmut since starting its counteroffensive in early June. 

Surovikin himself has apparently been seen in public for the first time in months. An ally of the late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, he was sacked from his job as commander of the Russian aerospace forces in August, in the highest-profile dismissal of a military chief so far seen in the conflict. Pictures of the man known as "General Armageddon" have been released on social media, allegedly showing him walking with his wife in a Moscow suburb.  

Russia says it has shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones targeting the country's capital. The defense ministry says two drones were shot down over Moscow's Kaluga and Tver regions, and a third over the district of Istra. The city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin says a consumer services facility was damaged in the attack but no casualties are reported. Moscow's three airports Vnukovo, Sheremetevo and Zhukovksy were temporarily closed. 

Türkiye says it is in close contact with the United National on reviving Black Sea grain deal, after talks between President Erdogan and Russia's Putin ended without agreement. Speaking to reporters after the meeting in Sochi on Monday, Erdogan said he would discuss the issue with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a UN general assembly in two weeks' time. Moscow has refused to return to the original deal which collapsed in July, until its demands over the safeguarding of Russian agricultural exports are met.

The foreign ministry of Cuba says it has uncovered a human trafficking ring recruiting its citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine. The authorities in Havana say they are working to "neutralize and dismantle" the network. The Kremlin has not commented on the allegations.

Russia plans to hold elections in Moscow-controlled areas of Ukraine next week, according to the UK's Ministry of Defense. British intelligence says elections will be held between September 8 and 10, in parallel with those in the Russian federation, with over a thousand potential candidates identified. In a report the MoD said "an absence of independent candidates that are not members of the Kremlin-endorsed parties, indicates that these will not be free or fair elections."

More than 900 people were killed or injured by illegal cluster munition Ukraine last year, according to one monitoring group. The Cluster Munition Coalition says it has uncovered "extensive" use of stocks of old cluster munitions and newly developed ones.

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