Europe

May 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's military and Russia's Wagner private army both reported fresh Russian retreats on the outskirts of Bakhmut, as Kyiv pressed on with its biggest advance for six months ahead of a planned major counteroffensive.

FIGHTING

* Ukraine's military said its troops had advanced in places by more than a mile. Some of its soldiers on the front line said Russian troops were pounding supply lines to try to halt the gains.

BRUSSELS, May 18 (Reuters) - NATO will step back to the future at its Vilnius summit in July, with leaders set to approve thousands of pages of secret military plans that will detail for the first time since the Cold War how the alliance would respond to a Russian attack.

The move signifies a fundamental shift - NATO had seen no need to draw up large-scale defence plans for decades, as it fought smaller wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and felt certain post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat.

NEAR BAKHMUT, Ukraine, May 18 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian military and Russia's Wagner private army both reported further Russian retreats around the city of Bakhmut on Thursday, as Kyiv pressed on with its biggest advance for six months ahead of a planned counteroffensive.

Ukrainian troops near the front line said Russia was bombarding access roads to slow the Ukrainian assault, which has shifted momentum after months of slow Russian gains in Europe's deadliest ground combat since World War Two.

LONDON (AP) — Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that the German lender should have seen evidence of sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein when he was a client, according to lawyers for women who say they were abused by the late financier.

FAENZA, Italy (AP) — Rescue crews worked Thursday to reach towns and villages in northern Italy that are cut off from highways, electricity and cell phone service following heavy rains and flooding, as farmers warned of “incalculable” losses and authorities began mapping out cleanup and reconstruction plans.

The death toll from rains that pushed two dozen rivers and tributaries to burst their banks stood at nine, with some people still unaccounted for, said Stefano Bonaccini, president of the hardest hit northern region of Emilia-Romagna.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired 30 cruise missiles against different parts of Ukraine early Thursday in the latest nighttime test of Ukrainian air defenses, which shot down 29 of them, officials said.

One person died and two were wounded by a Russian missile that got through and struck an industrial building in the southern region of Odesa, according to Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the region’s military administration.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Russia confirmed on Wednesday that a deal to allow Ukraine to export its grain safely across the Black Sea, despite Russia's war in Ukraine, had been extended for two months, Reuters reports.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the deal had been extended to help countries in need, but added that Russia's overall assessment of the situation regarding the deal had not changed.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have held a phone call, reaffirming their determination to boost relations between the two countries, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The parties reaffirmed their determination to further boost allied Russian-Kazakh relations and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas," the statement reads.

According to the Kremlin, Putin also wished Tokayev a happy 70th birthday.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: The conclusion of the agreement between Russia and Iran on the joint construction of the Rasht-Astara railway section is a landmark moment for the entire global transport infrastructure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the signing ceremony of the relevant agreement on Wednesday. The ceremony was held via a video link.

The Russian leader thanked Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for his personal involvement in the project. "This is indeed a great event for the region, for the entire world transport infrastructure, for our countries," Putin stressed.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Reckless NATO expansion and the bloc’s absorption of neutral countries will undermine any prospect for dialogue on European security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference following Moscow talks with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleinik on Wednesday.