Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu paid a rare visit to Russia's forces deployed in Ukraine, the country's defence ministry said on Saturday.
Russia's top military chiefs have visited the front lines in Ukraine only sparingly since tens of thousands of Russian forces invaded the neighbouring country a year ago in what Moscow calls a "special military operation".
"The Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, inspected the forward command post of one of the formations of the Eastern Military District in the South Donetsk direction," his ministry said in a statement published on messaging app Telegram.
In a video released by the ministry, Shoigu is seen awarding medals to Russian military personnel and touring a ruined town with the district's commander, Colonel-General Rustam Muradov.
Shoigu, who has served as defence minister since 2012, has received harsh criticism from pro-war advocates for his performance in the conflict.
Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, whose militia has played a significant role in Russia's war effort in Ukraine, accused Shoigu and others last month of "treason" for withholding supplies of munitions to his militia.
The funeral ceremony for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and their companions who were killed in a helicopter crash, began in the city of Tabriz on Tuesday morning.
Israeli forces raided Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday in an operation that the Palestinian health ministry said killed seven Palestinians, including a doctor, and left nine others wounded.
Recovery teams refloated the huge cargo vessel in the Port of Baltimore two months after the boat crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge and caused the span to collapse.
An infected blood scandal in Britain was no accident but the fault of doctors and a succession of governments that led to 3,000 deaths and thousands more contracting hepatitis or HIV, a public inquiry has found.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.