Ukraine

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as “blackmail.”

A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv’s staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news.

KYIV, April 26 (Reuters) - As Russian forces tightened their siege of Mariupol and missiles rained down, Mykhailo Puryshev drove into the city six times last month to evacuate its citizens, somehow surviving despite his red van being all but destroyed.

The 36-year-old Ukrainian, who once ran a nightclub in the city, said he evacuated more than 200 people on his six perilous trips and others began to join him in convoy into his hometown.

TORETSK, Ukraine (AP) — War has again drawn near to Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. Even the sudden crackling of a plastic water bottle puts residents on edge.

“Anything that is happening, any noise, if our neighbors bang the door, a metal door, you are shocked,” said resident Andriy Cheromushkin. “You feel so helpless.”

Half of the more than 32,000 residents have fled. Many who remain lack money and basic resources. Depression is growing, along with anger.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated” as his country unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive.

Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Russian forces had taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region after days of street-to-street fighting.

Lviv, Apr 26 (AP) The British Defense Ministry says Russian forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna.

Street-to-street fighting had been going on for days in the city in Ukraine's Luhansk region, with civilian evacuations there made impossible by the war.

April 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine denied on Monday reaching an agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, and pushed for the United Nations to be the "initiator and guarantor" of any such deal.

Russia had said earlier on Monday that it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the huge Azovstal steel plant where they are holed up with Ukrainian fighters and are under Russian attack. 

KYIV, April 25 (Reuters) - The United States will reopen its embassy in Ukraine soon, its top diplomat said on Monday after he and the U.S. defense secretary visited Kyiv, promising more military aid and hailing its success in pushing back Russia's invasion.

Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the fact they were able to come to Ukraine's capital was proof of its tenacity in forcing Moscow to abandon an assault on Kyiv last month.

KIEV, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met in Kiev to discuss Washington's assistance for Ukraine, the presidential press service said Monday.

The parties discussed defense assistance, strengthening sanctions on Russia, financial support for Ukraine and security guarantees, according to a statement on the Ukrainian presidential website.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a string of attacks against Ukrainian rail and fuel facilities Monday, striking crucial infrastructure far from the front line of its eastern offensive.

Meanwhile, two fires were reported at oil facilities in western Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border. It was not clear what caused the blazes.

As both sides in the 2-month-old war brace for what could be a grinding battle of attrition in the country’s eastern industrial heartland, top U.S. officials pledged more help to ensure Ukraine prevails.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s leader petitioned for more powerful Western weapons as he prepared to meet with top U.S. officials in the war-torn country’s capital Sunday and Russian forces concentrated their attacks on the east, including trying to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops holding out in the battered port city of Mariupol.