Ukraine announced it had detained two Ukrainian security officials who they claim were involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The Belarusian maneuvers began a day after Russia announced plans to hold similar drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in what it cast as a response to statements by Western officials signaling possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. It was the first time such an exercise had been publicly announced by Moscow.