The Russian invasion.

Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, file photo. AP  

 

The Russian invasion. The outside world's response  

Sources: Saudi Arabia hosts peace talks on Ukraine  

 

About 30 countries have been invited to peace talks on Ukraine in early August, according to information provided to the Wall Street Journal.  

 

Saudi Arabia will host the meeting and according to the newspaper, the ambition of the US and European countries is to secure wider support for Ukraine's peace demands. The hope is to later have a summit, where decisions are made on a number of principles for future talks between Moscow and Kyiv - to Ukraine's advantage.  

 

Russia is not invited to the talks in Riyadh and will not be part of a possible summit either. It is justified by Moscow annexing Ukrainian territory and urging Kyiv to accept it as "a new reality".  

 

The choice of Saudi Arabia as the host is described as an attempt to get China, a country it is close to, to participate. 

 

Polish border guard, stock image. Michal Dyjuk / AP  

 

Wagner move worries Poland - warns of "hybrid attack"  

 

Soldiers belonging to the Russian paramilitary Wagner group are getting closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno, near the Polish border. This is stated by the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck according to Reuters.  

 

The deputy interior minister of the neighboring country of Lithuania, Arnoldas Abramavicius, expressed during Friday that it may be appropriate to close the borders to the country. This is because it is feared that the Wagner group will engage in "hybrid warfare", writes the BBC. Either by claiming to be migrants themselves, or facilitating others to enter the countries to create "some kind of disorder".  

 

Grodna is located on the so-called "Suwalki Corridor", where the distance between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus is the smallest.  

 

Oleksandr Syrskyy gives instructions to his soldiers. Roman Chop / AP  

 

Weekend Interviews  

Ukraine's army chief: Quick results are impossible  

 

Oleksandr Syrskyj led the defense of Kyiv at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion last year and masterminded Ukraine's surprise and successful counterattack in Kharkiv last summer. Now he has become head of military operations in eastern Ukraine. The BBC meets him at an undisclosed location at the front where he talks about the difficult road ahead for the nation. 

 

- We would like to get very quick results, but in reality it is practically impossible, says Syrskyj.  

 

Although, according to him, the counter-offensive will take time and require many lives, he believes that Ukraine has an advantage that Russia lacks. 

 

 - The unity of our military leadership and our soldiers' trust in each other.