Moscow says west ‘playing with fire’ over Ukraine – as it happened

The country's foreign ministry said the supply of long range weapons to Ukraine by the UK and US had led to an escalation in the conflict

A long-range Ukrainian strike on the Moscow-controlled Belbek airbase in occupied Crimea destroyed three Russian warplanes and a fuel facility near its main runway this week, US commercial satellite company Maxar said.

The company cited satellite imagery taken on Thursday as showing that two MiG-31 fighter jets and an Su-27 fighter jet had been destroyed. It said one MiG-29 fighter aircraft also appeared to have been damaged.