Ukraine updates: Moscow claims advance in Bakhmut

The Kremlin says that relations with European countries are at the lowest possible level and that each wave of expulsions of Russian diplomats reduces the space available for diplomacy.

Moldova, Sweden and Norway have all expelled Russian diplomats, prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow.

The head of Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries says he was joking when he said his men would suspend fire in Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces to show the city to visiting US journalists.

Earlier on Thursday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s founder, said in an audio message published by his press service: “A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home.”

However, in a later audio message, Prigozhin said: “Guys, this is military humour. Humour, and nothing more… It was a joke.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says it has rejected a request from the United States embassy to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in response to Washington’s refusal to grant visas to a group of Russian journalists.

The ministry said it had summoned a senior US diplomat to hand over a note of protest against a decision on Russian journalists meant to accompany Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the United Nations in New York this week.

The move particularly angered Moscow because it was its turn to chair the UN Security Council.

“It was particularly emphasised [to the US diplomat] that such sabotage, intended to prevent normal journalistic work, would not go unanswered,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

Gershkovich was arrested last month and accused by Russia of espionage, a charge he has denied.

A deserter from Russia’s Wagner group was convicted of being involved in a bar fight and carrying an air gun in Norway.

He was also acquitted of committing violence against a police officer.

Andrey Medvedev, 26, was handed down a suspended sentence of 14 days with a probation period of two years.

“I want to thank the court for a fair ruling,” Medvedev told the Reuters news agency, adding he was looking to the future.

“I am studying Norwegian and I hope I will get asylum.”

Medvedev crossed the Russian-Norwegian border in January and spoke about his time fighting in Ukraine.

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Issues with Ukrainian exports to central Europe will happen again unless the EU sets out a clear position on its food import policy for the next five years, Ukrainian producers said.

Some EU member states have imposed temporary bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, after an excess affected the local market and angered farmers.

“The main problem for most European countries is agrarian Ukraine, which will enter the EU with 30 million hectares [74 million acres] of land,” said Alex Lissitsa, who heads the association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club”.

“They [EU] don’t know what to do with subsidies and they don’t know what to do with the domestic market.”

Lissitsa said Kyiv must negotiate with Brussels rather than with separate states and that a long-term solution was needed that would last five years when EU membership talks are expected.

Russia’s Defence Ministry says its forces have taken four blocks in northwestern, western and southwestern Bakhmut, Tass news agency reported.

According to Tass, the ministry’s official representative, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, told journalists, “In the Donetsk direction, the assault detachments captured four quarters in the northwestern, western and southwestern parts of the city of Artemovsk [Bakmut].”

“Airborne troops pin down the enemy on the northern and southern outskirts of the city and support the actions of the assault detachments,” Konashenkov said.

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 428 of the war.

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Russia will prevent a nuclear escalation with the West over Ukraine, but its patience should not be tested, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“We will do everything to prevent the development of events according to the worst scenario, but not at the cost of infringing on our vital interests,” Zakharova told a regular news conference.

“I do not recommend that anybody doubt our determination and put it to the test in practice,” she added.

Her comments follow a series of warnings by senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, that Western military support increases the risks of a nuclear conflict.

“They [the United States] continue to deliberately infringe on our fundamental interests, deliberately generate risks and raise the stakes in the confrontation with Russia,” said Zakharova.

The head of Russia’s Wagner Group says it will suspend artillery fire in Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces to safely show the city to visiting US journalists.

In an audio message published by his press service on Telegram, Yevgeny Prigozhin said, “A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home.”

He also warned the Ukrainian side not to try to bring in any extra forces under cover of the journalists’ visit.

NATO members and their partners have provided Ukraine with 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says.

“In total we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades. This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” Stoltenberg said.

NATO member countries have also provided anti-aircraft systems and artillery, and Poland and the Czech Republic have given Ukraine Soviet-built MiG-29 aircraft.

Stoltenberg warned that “we should never underestimate Russia” and said a NATO summit in Lithuania would set out plans for a “multiyear programme of support” for Ukraine.

A Russian court has fined the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, two million roubles ($24,510) for not deleting “banned content” related to the Russian military, Interfax reported.

It said this was the seventh fine imposed on Wikimedia in 2023 for not removing prohibited information.

The fines now total 8.4 million roubles.

The latest fine was for not removing an article about a military unit that contained “classified military information”.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says he has invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine and discussed Kyiv’s formula for peace during talks at the Vatican.

Shmyhal also told a news conference in Italy that a phone call between the leaders of China and Ukraine on Wednesday had been very productive and could prove a very positive beginning for future relations.

In December, Zelenskyy set up a 10-point peace plan which includes securing grain exports and restoring Ukraine’s territories.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Moscow does not consider the implementation of the Black Sea grain deal to unblock Ukrainian and Russian agricultural exports to be satisfactory.

“[The deal] is not a buffet you can pick and choose from,” Zakharova said.

Moscow has previously said parts of the deal were not being honoured.

The Kremlin says it welcomes anything that could end the Ukraine conflict when asked about a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was familiar with the details of what the two leaders had discussed and that their stances on the conflict were well known.

Asked if Russia and China had discussed restoring Ukraine to its 1991 borders during a recent visit to Moscow by the Chinese leader, Peskov said: “There was no discussion of that.”

One person was killed and 23 were wounded in a Russian missile attack on an apartment block and houses in Mykolaiv, Ukraine says.

“At night, Russia bombarded Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

“The high-precision weapons were aimed at private houses, a historic building, and a high-rise building. For now, we know about one dead and 23 wounded, including a child.”

Kyiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said emergency services put out several fires caused by the missile debris.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces says fighting has gripped Bakhmut and nearby areas after Russian troops failed to advance on two villages to the northwest.

On Wednesday, Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, told national television that in the past 24 hours, Russian troops had attacked 324 times using artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

“The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmut to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortifications,” Cherevatiy said.

The remains of a “military object” have been found in a forest in northern Poland.

The defence and justice ministries did not identify the object found near the city of Bydgoszcz, or say how long it had been there.

“The Military Department of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdansk, under the supervision of the National Prosecutor’s Office, initiated proceedings regarding the remains of an aerial military object found in a forest several kilometres from Bydgoszcz,” Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said on Twitter.

The area where the object was found is hundreds of kilometres from Poland’s borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has “welcomed” a call between China’s President Xi Jinping and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

But the discussion did not change the fact that China had still not condemned Russia for invading Ukraine, he said.

On Wednesday, Xi spoke to Zelenskyy for the first time since the war, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv, which had publicly sought such talks for months.