Russian president Vladimir Putin has increased the authorised strength of the country’s armed forces to 1.51 million service personnel, according to a newly signed decree.

The decree raises the authorised number of service members by 7,360 troops.

The document sets the total staffing level of the Russian Armed Forces at 2,399,130 personnel, including 1,510,000 servicemen.

The move represents a modest increase from the previous decree, signed on 4 March, which set the number of service members at 1,502,640.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the European Union’s decision to open the first negotiating cluster in Ukraine’s accession process, calling it a significant show of political and moral support for the country.

In a post on X, Zelensky thanked Ukrainians fighting and working for the country, as well as EU leaders for what he described as a “strong step for the sake of Europe”.

“Ukraine is defending itself and, in doing so, all of Europe – the idea that European nations can live united, free, and in peace,” he wrote.

The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv had fulfilled the commitments required of it and stressed the importance of the EU honouring its own pledges. He described the opening of the first cluster of accession talks as an important milestone for Ukraine and its people.

Zelensky also thanked European partners for their continued military, financial and political support, saying it had helped save lives and demonstrated “true leadership”.

He added that preparations had also been completed to open the next negotiating clusters and congratulated Moldova, which is advancing on its own EU membership path alongside Ukraine.

Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries agreed ⁠on Friday to advance membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova, with the first phase of negotiations set to begin on Monday.

Even as Ukraine continues to fight Russia’s invasion, president Volodymyr Zelensky has made EU membership a key strategic goal to anchor his country in Europe’s political mainstream.

Zelensky, writing on Telegram, thanked the EU and ⁠its leaders “for this strong step for Europe”. He also ​congratulated neighbouring ⁠Moldova.

“Ukraine is carrying out what is necessary and it is important that the EU is also keeping its word,” he wrote.

He said the opening of the first ⁠cluster of areas to be discussed in the negotiations “is significant political and moral support for our ​state and ⁠our people”.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu was ‌quoted by Moldovan television as telling Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, that her country “has done the necessary work. And we will continue to implement reforms.”

EU leaders agreed to open accession ‌talks with Ukraine and Moldova in December 2023 but negotiations ‌could not start in earnest due to opposition from the previous Hungarian government to Kyiv’s membership bid.

But a new government in Budapest reached an agreement with Kyiv this month on the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, paving the way ⁠for Hungary to lift its block on the first phase of membership talks.

“Today, the European Union took a major step forward,” European Council president Antonio Costa ‌and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement.

“At the ​first Intergovernmental Conference on Monday, we will open the cluster on fundamentals; the ‌backbone of the accession process,” they said.

The governor of Russia’s border region of Bryansk said one person was killed and another injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on Friday, while the Russian defence ministry reported that air defence units had shot down 185 drones over a 12-hour period.

Bryansk Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said one person was killed in a village near the Ukrainian border.

The region’s operational headquarters, quoted by Russian news agencies, said air defence units had destroyed 62 drones, although it did not specify the timeframe.

In a post on Telegram, Russia’s defence ministry said 185 drones had been intercepted between 8am and 8pm local time (0500-1700 GMT) across around a dozen regions, most of them in central Russia.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a series of updates on Telegram throughout the day, saying drones heading towards the Russian capital had been shot down and that specialists were examining debris at the impact sites.

An unofficial tally compiled by Russian news agencies indicated that 27 drones targeting Moscow had been destroyed during the day.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday said its staff had reached ⁠an agreement with Ukraine following a review of the war-torn country’s $8.1 billion ⁠loan program, ​paving ⁠the way for disbursement of $690 million, ⁠pending board approval.

The IMF ​said ⁠Ukraine met ‌all quantitative performance criteria and indicative targets by ‌the end of ‌March, but implemented two structural benchmarks with a ⁠delay and missed one.

To keep the program on track, IMF staff and Ukrainian authorities agreed to a revised timeline for ‌implementing reforms, corrective actions ​to address ‌slippages and ⁠additional policy commitments, the ⁠IMF said in a statement. ‌It ​gave no details.

Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 ⁠countries agreed on Friday to advance ⁠membership talks ​with Ukraine ⁠and Moldova, with ⁠the first ​phase ⁠of negotiations expected ‌to begin on Monday.

The ‌Cyprus rotating presidency ‌of the Council ⁠of the EU said in a statement that it will convene the first ‌accession conferences ​with Ukraine ‌and ⁠Moldova on ⁠Monday.

The governing body of world chess has suspended Russia – for decades the dominant force in the game – after a successful ⁠legal challenge by Ukraine.

An international tribunal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in March upheld a complaint by Ukraine that Russia’s chess federation had usurped control of the game in areas of Ukraine captured by Russian forces since 2022. It gave Russia 90 days to relinquish control of chess bodies in five regions of Ukraine and stop holding tournaments there.

But on Wednesday the International ⁠Chess Federation (FIDE) – which is headed by Russia’s former deputy prime minister ​Arkady ⁠Dvorkovich – said Russia had not complied with the deadline and it had therefore decided to “impose the sanction of temporary suspension of (Russia’s) membership… with immediate effect”.

NATO’s top military officer is weighing alternative plans to defend Europe should it come under attack from Russia, after the United States announced that it is cutting the number of aircraft and warships that it would provide in a security crisis.

The so-called NATO Force Model is Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets that commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.

But last month, the Pentagon warned its NATO allies that it would be scaling down its commitment to focus on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

European countries and Canada had waited impatiently for over a year for the Trump administration to detail its plans after it warned that Europe is no longer a top U.S. security priority. They knew cuts were coming, but not how big, fast or what kind.

US General Alex Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander, said that “the United States is still committed to providing limited but critical capabilities to the alliance.”

“We need to focus on things that we can acquire quickly, that we can field quickly, and that we can scale rapidly and sustain over time, and that goes for long-range fires” as well as drones, Grynkewich said at the ILA Berlin Air Show on Thursday.

“Those sorts of things can help us mitigate the near-term risk should we find ourselves needing to deter and defend,” he added.

Members of the Wagner mercenary group have taken part in an operation to guard Russia’s shadow fleet through the English Channel, according to reports.

Russian mercenaries and former operatives for Russian intelligence have been identified among the 83 security guards on board Russian tankers, according to an investigation by The Times in partnership with outlets across Europe.

Their findings came days after Britain and France intercepted a sanctioned Russian oil tanker suspected of flying a false flag in the Atlantic.

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