Rebels in eastern Congo entered the provincial capital of Bukavu on Friday evening and will continue operations there on Saturday, Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes the M23 rebels, told Reuters.
The Congolese army called on deserters to rejoin their units on Thursday, as rogue soldiers fired guns and looted parts of the eastern town of Lubero after fleeing nearby clashes with advancing Rwandan-backed rebels.
Egypt, the biggest buyer of Russian wheat, aims to create a global grain trading and storage hub, Supply Minister Sherif Farouk said on Friday, speaking at a grains event in the Russian city of Sochi.
Russian crude oil production dropped around 5% year-on-year last month to 8.7 million barrels per day, 10% below May's target, due to Ukrainian strikes on its energy infrastructure, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia was ready to resume peace negotiations with Ukraine from the point where they left off.
In Russia's grain belt, farmers fret they will be unable to harvest their crops as a fuel crisis sparked by Ukraine's drone attacks on oil refineries and depots disrupts daily life.
The Russian Athletics Federation said on Thursday it had lodged an appeal with sport's highest court over the World Athletics Council's decision to extend the suspension of Russian athletes from international competitions.
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Saturday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might be reached if the sides froze the conflict and resumed negotiations.
Russia's human rights commissioner published on Wednesday a list of 224 Ukrainian prisoners of war that she said Moscow was ready to exchange but that Kyiv had rejected, part of a dispute over which side is hampering exchange efforts.
Russian troops have taken control of 19 settlements in southeastern Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions over their summer campaign, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday.
