Surovikin, 55, was appointed on Saturday, after Moscow’s forces were pushed back by Kyiv in recent weeks in a series of embarrassing setbacks, and hours after the Kerch Bridge blast.

Olga Valeyeva, 34, posted a video of her and a friend singing Chervona Kalyna, an anthem of Ukrainian resistance, to Instagram. As a result, she was fined £600 and her friend jailed for ten days.

Scaffolder Andrew Hill, 36, was freed last month as part of a deal that also saw fellow British prisoners of war Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner released and is now back home.

The EU said it suspected sabotage caused the damage to the pipelines in Swedish and Danish waters. The White House dismissed Russian allegations it was behind the incidents.

Anti-war protesters in Russia placed a message about Vladimir Putin’s shameful war on the grave of his parents in St Petersburg, as anger over the war in Ukraine grows following the mobilisation.

In the mainly Muslim area of Dagestan, videos shared to social media show women in head scarves chasing police away from a rally.

A rights group claimed that around 730 people were detained at protests against the mobilisation order today, just days after Putin ordered Russia’s first military draft since World War Two.