Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit approximately 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday.

He said in an audio message on Telegram that Wagner recruitment centres, which he said last week had opened in 42 Russian cities, were hiring on average 500-800 people a day.

Prigozhin has been directing Russia’s operations in the key town of Bakhmut in one of the war’s longest and fiercest battles.

A deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports that was due to expire on Saturday has been renewed, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said, while a Ukrainian government minister said the extension had been agreed for 120 days.

“The deal for the grain corridor was due to expire today. As a result of our talks with the two sides, we have secured an extension to this deal,”  Mr Erdogan said in a speech in the western city of Canakkale, without specifying the length of the agreed extension.

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the deal had been extended for 120 days.

The pact was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey in July – and renewed for a further 120 days in November – to combat a global food crisis that was fueled in part by Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea blockade.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on Saturday on a visit to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, Russian state media reported.

We’ll have more on this story as it comes in.

Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk‘s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.

The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.

Russia, China and Iran have completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery fire at targets on the sea and in the air, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday.

The exercises, off the Iranian port of Chabahar, took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a three-day state visit starting on Monday.

Russia has continued to stage military exercises with partners, especially China, despite the strain on its armed forces from the year-long war in Ukraine, where it has failed to achieve any major advance since last summer.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it showed that “nobody is above the law”.

The ICC on Friday called for Mr Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbour last year.

“The International Criminal Court is the right institution to investigate war crimes … The fact is that nobody is above the law and that’s what’s becoming clear right now,” Mr Scholz said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday.

The extension of a deal enabling Ukraine to export grain is crucial to ensuring global food supplies and keeping prices from spiralling, the United Nations’ humanitarian chief has said, on the eve of the agreement’s expiration.

Russia’s UN ambassador reiterated that Moscow is ready to extend the deal – but only for 60 days, just half the 120 days in the agreement.

The original 120-day agreement was renewed last November and expires on Saturday.

It would be automatically extended for another 120 days unless one of the parties objects – and Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said Russia has formally objected.

UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths said it was vital for the UN-Russia memorandum to be fully implemented.

Mr Nebenzia said “the memorandum is simply not working” and the UN has to recognise it has “no leverage to exempt Russian agricultural export operations from Western sanctions” and its efforts have not produced results.

Britain has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said it was essential that those at the top of the regime in Moscow were held to account for the atrocities which have taken place since the invasion a year ago.