Ukraine - Russia war: latest news live | Russia detains a former official of its secret services critical of Putin | International

What has happened in the last hours

These are the most important news at 8:00 p.m. on the 513th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

Russia detains the former Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic. Russian authorities have arrested Igor Girkin, a former defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and a former KGB agent. Girkin, who goes by the nickname Strelkov the Gunslinger, is a prominent all-Russian nationalist who, in recent months, has been highly critical of the military drift of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Moscow's management of it. He is in pretrial detention until September 18 and faces five years in prison for "incitement to extremism."

Putin threatens to attack Poland if it attacks Belarus and NATO claims to be ready to support Warsaw. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Poland of having territorial ambitions over areas of the former Soviet Union and has assured that any military action by the Warsaw government against its neighbor Belarus will be considered an attack on Russia and will be responded to "with all means" at its disposal. The security committee of the Government of Warsaw decided last Wednesday to mobilize military units in the east of the country in view of the activity carried out in Belarus by the Russian mercenary group Wagner in the territory of that Russian-allied state.

Russia says it is in talks to export food to Africa. Russia is negotiating the export of food to African countries after abandoning the Black Sea grain initiative, but has not yet signed any contracts, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said at a press conference on Friday. Vershinin has assured that Russia maintains its plans to compensate those countries for the grain they will not receive, now that his country has abandoned the agreement, which guaranteed a safe corridor for ships exporting grain from Ukraine, despite the conflict with its neighbor.

Two children are killed in a Russian bombing raid on Donetsk. Around three in the afternoon, the Russians bombarded the town of Druzhba, in the Toretsk community, with artillery, and one of the projectiles hit a patio where the minors were. The victims are two siblings: a 10-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. In addition, an elderly woman was injured in the same town during the bombardment and was taken to hospital.

Maritime traffic in the Black Sea falls 35% after warnings to Russia and Ukraine. The number of vessels seeking to pick up cargoes of grain from the Black Sea area has fallen 35% this week from the previous week according to analysis by commodity and maritime data platform Shipfix. The drop coincides with growing uncertainty about whether commercial traffic could be affected as Russia continues to pound Ukraine's food facilities.