Ukraine

ON A TRAIN FROM SUMY TO KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Tuesday that unless his nation wins a drawn-out battle in a key eastern city, Russia could begin building international support for a deal that could require Ukraine to make unacceptable compromises. He also invited the leader of China, long aligned with Russia, to visit.

If Bakhmut fell to Russian forces, their president, Vladimir Putin, would “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” Zelenskyy said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

OKHTYRKA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president visited the Sumy region in northern Ukraine on Tuesday, continuing his tour over recent days of areas of the country that have felt the brunt of Russia’s full-scale invasion and as the stage increasingly looks set for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with officials and local people in two cities in the region, which borders Russia. It was partially occupied by Russian forces after the war started more than a year ago. The Russians withdrew from the region by early April.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — “Attention. Air raid alert,” the voice says with a Jedi knight’s gravitas. “Proceed to the nearest shelter.”

It’s a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of “Star Wars,” urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.

KYIV, March 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine's ground forces commander said on Monday his troops were continuing to repel heavy Russian attacks on the eastern city of Bakhmut and that defending it was a "military necessity".

Ukraine's military said Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi had acted during a visit to the eastern front line to solve "problematic issues that prevent effective execution of combat tasks" and taken "operational decisions aimed at strengthening our capabilities to deter and inflict damage on the enemy."

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Flak jackets are piled up at Ukraine’s Zaporizhstal steel plant, and anti-tank traps guard the entrance. Whenever air raid sirens sound — and they go off every day — most workers head to one of the 16 bomb shelters scattered across the sprawling grounds.

But some keep working — braving not only the intense heat and sparks flying from blast furnaces forging steel used in everything from railway cars to household appliances, but the threat of shelling — to keep the molten metal moving.

MELITOPOL, March 26. /TASS/: A visit by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) and the rotation of the agency’s inspectors are expected to take place on March 29, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the director general of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company, said on Sunday.

"We are meeting an IAEA delegation of 18 led by Grossi at the Zaporozhye NPP on Wednesday. Concurrently, the IAEA inspectors will be rotated," he told TASS.

KYIV, March 26 (Reuters) - A top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russian plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would destabilise that country, which he said had been taken "hostage" by Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the decision on Saturday, sending a warning to NATO over its military support for Ukraine and escalating a standoff with the West.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top security official on Sunday denounced the Kremlin’s plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus, saying that Russia was taking its ally as a “nuclear hostage.”

But Moscow said it was making the move in response to the West’s increasing military support for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the plan in a television interview that aired on Saturday, saying it was triggered by a U.K. decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The courtyards of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra have been busy with more than just the usual worshippers, going to and from its churches in the sprawling monastic complex that is Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site.

Also busy Friday were people in civilian clothes, loading cars with plasma televisions, furniture and other items from the buildings — helping the resident monks remove belongings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, or UOC, before a threatened government eviction on March 29.

KIEV, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine expects to yield 45 million tons of grain and legumes in 2023, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.

"As in the previous year, Ukraine will be fully provided with grain and food," Shmyhal was quoted as saying by the government press service.

In particular, Ukraine's wheat harvest is estimated at 16.6 million tons this year with domestic consumption of about 5 million tons, Shmyhal said.

The Ukrainian government, he said, is helping farmers to ensure the smooth run of the ongoing spring sowing campaign.