TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine's armed forces said the village of Andriivka near the frontline town of Bakhmut has been 'liberated', a day after claims it had been retaken were dubbed premature.

• Moscow has 'neutralized' hundreds of foreign spies in recent years, according to Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council.

• A ship has left port in Ukraine's Odesa, a lawmaker said on Friday, posting photographs on Telegram of the vessel in the water. It would be the fifth boat to depart since Moscow withdrew from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal in July and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine is widely using cluster munitions, as reported by Russian news agency RIA.

• Russia is ready to meet with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the papal envoy for the Ukrainian settlement and the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, according to TASS.

• Ukraine said it attacked two Russian patrol ships and destroyed a sophisticated air defense system in the west of Crimea, ramping up its strikes to challenge Moscow's dominance in the Black Sea region.

• Russia said on Thursday it was expelling two U.S. diplomats whom it accused of working with a Russian national charged with collaborating with a foreign state.

• Romania has imposed additional flight restrictions in parts of its air space along the border with Ukraine, the defense ministry said.

• Moscow sentenced a soldier to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony for deserting his unit to avoid fighting in Ukraine. 

• Detained Ukrainian business magnate Ihor Kolomoisky, already facing fraud charges, has been served with notice of a third set of allegations, a Ukrainian official said.

• A court in Russia has convicted a Russian man of treason and sentenced him to 12-and-a-half years in jail for sending missile components to the U.S. at the behest of the U.S. intelligence services, Russian news agencies have reported.

IN DETAIL

Village near Bakhmut 'liberated' after confusion over claims

Ukraine's armed forces said the village of Andriivka near the key frontline town of Bakhmut had been "liberated", a day after claims it had been retaken were dubbed premature.

But Ukraine's General Staff said Friday that the village was back under Ukrainian control.

"In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy does not stop trying to break through the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Bogdanivka," it said on Facebook.

"In turn, the defense forces had partial success in the Klishchiivka area during offensive operations. In the course of the assault, they liberated Andriivka in Donetsk region, inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment, and entrenched at the occupied frontiers."

The 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, fighting in eastern Ukraine, said it had led a "lightning operation" and "practically liquidated the whole of (Russia's) 72nd infantry brigade."

Andriivka is around 14 kilometers south of Bakhmut, with an estimated pre-war population of fewer than 100 people.

Kyiv began pushing back against Moscow's forces in the south and east of the country in June after building up Western weapons and recruiting assault battalions. 

Deputy defense minister Ganna Malyar had announced on Thursday that the village of Andriivka was "ours", saying Kyiv's forces were "moving forward in the Bakhmut sector." Ukrainian troops fighting there had contradicted her. Malyar later clarified the situation, blaming the announcement on a "communication breakdown."

Hundred of spies 'neutralized'

A top Russian security official said in an article published on Friday that Moscow had "neutralized" hundreds of foreign spies in recent years.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, revealed the analysis in an article written in Russia's foreign intelligence agency's house magazine.

"In recent years, hundreds of employees of foreign intelligence services, as well as other persons involved in organizing intelligence and subversive activities against our country and our strategic partners, have been identified and neutralized," he said.

Patrushev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and is seen as a key advocate of hardline, hawkish policies within the Kremlin.

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