Ukraine

KYIV, April 18 (Reuters) - Russian forces are stepping up their use of heavy artillery and air strikes in the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces said on Tuesday.

Fighting in and around Bakhmut has for months been the epicentre of the war in Ukraine.

"Currently, the enemy is increasing the activity of heavy artillery and the number of air strikes, turning the city into ruins," General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited command posts of the Kremlin’s forces fighting in Ukraine, officials said Tuesday, as the war approaches its 14th month and Kyiv readies a possible counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons.

A video released by the Kremlin and broadcast by Russian state television showed Putin arriving by helicopter at the command post of Russian forces in southern Ukraine’s Kherson province and then flying to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard in Luhansk province, which is in the east.

KYIV, April 17 (Reuters) - Kyiv aims to re-open food and grain transit via Poland as "a first step" to ending import bans at talks that began in Warsaw on Monday as countries halted grain from Ukraine to protect their local agriculture markets.

The talks were likely to continue into Tuesday, a source close to the negotiations said in the afternoon.

Poland and Hungary announced bans on some imports from Ukraine on Saturday. Slovakia said on Monday it would do the same and other countries in central and eastern Europe said they were also considering action.

DONETSK, April 16. /TASS/: A civilian resident of Donetsk was killed and six wounded when Ukrainian troops shelled the city’s Transfiguration Cathedral during Easter Vigil on Sunday, the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said.

"For the time being, one person was reported as dead and six - as injured," Pushilin wrote on his Telegram channel. "Fire broke out when a Ukrainian projectile hit a kindergarten. Damage was reported at the Roofed Market, [at] nearby shops and a pharmacy."

KIEV, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Wednesday he discussed military support for his country with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

"We discussed in detail the urgent needs of Ukraine for the successful conduct of another counteroffensive operation to liberate Ukrainian lands," Shmyhal, who is on a visit to the United States, wrote in a Telegram post.

In particular, Ukraine needs air defense, heavy artillery and equipment, mortars and ammunition for them, Shmyhal said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine launched an investigation Wednesday into a gruesome video that purportedly shows the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier, in the latest accusation of atrocities said to have been committed by Russia since it invaded in February 2022.

The video spread quickly online and drew outrage from officials in Kyiv, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as international organizations. The Kremlin called the footage “horrible” but said it needed to be verified.

KYIV/MOSCOW, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UK is among a number of countries with military special forces operating inside Ukraine, according to one of dozens of documents leaked online.

It confirms what has been the subject of quiet speculation for over a year.

The leaked files, some marked “top secret”, paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including sensitive details of Ukraine’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.

The US government says it is investigating the source of the leak.

KYIV, April 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine compared Russia on Wednesday to Islamic State and called on the International Criminal Court to investigate after a video emerged online showing apparent Russian soldiers filming themselves beheading a Ukrainian captive with a knife.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity or provenance of the video on social media, which showed a man in uniform beheading a man who wears the yellow arm band used by Ukrainian soldiers.

KIEV, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Ukraine's economy will fall by 3 percent this year compared with a 30.3 percent contraction in 2022, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Tuesday, citing the fund's newly released report.

Inflation in Ukraine will slightly go up, with consumer prices rising to 21.1 percent this year compared with 20.2 percent in 2022, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — Huddled in the back of a café near the train station where a missile killed dozens of people a year ago, Nastya took slow, deliberate breaths to calm herself. Overnight, her neighborhood had been bombed again, and she just couldn’t take any more.