Ukraine Russia breaking news today: Putin’s soldiers advance to Bakhmut centre as United States probes Nato war strategy leakage

Russian forces have highly likely took the centre of the increasingly objected to city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and are threatening a crucial supply path for Ukrainian forces to the west, British intelligence said on Friday.

Asked to talk about the report, a Ukrainian military command spokesperson informed Reuters the scenario was tough in Bakhmut which Russian forces were focusing all efforts to take the city however were not having “strategic success”.

The months-long fight for Bakhmut, among the last metropolitan centres in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk province yet to fall to Russian forces, has proven one of the bloodiest of the war.

The British report, if confirmed, indicates that Ukrainian forces are under severe pressure, two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said they would withdraw if at risk of encirclement.

Donetsk is one of four provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia is seeking to fully occupy. It declared them annexed last year after failing to seize the capital Kyiv in an attempt to overrun Ukraine early in the war.

It was a month into Vladimir Putin’s intrusion of Ukraine. Russian forces had actually withdrawn from around Kyiv and in their wake Bel Trew and her group found a body by an abandoned Russian camp.

His hands were connected. He had actually been burned and shot in the back. Soldiers said he was a teen.

As Bel searched for out who he was and what had actually occurred, she discovered a headache world: a country having a hard time to discover countless its missing out on and to recognize its dead.

The Biden administration is examining the leakage of classified war files about trick American and Nato prepare for boosting the Ukrainian military ahead of an awaited spring salvo versus Russian forces, senior authorities said.

“We are aware of the reports of social media posts and the department is reviewing the matter,” said Sabrina Singh, the deputy press secretary at the Pentagon, reported The New York Times.

The five-weeks-old files supposedly reveal information of Ukraine’s requirements ahead of a prepared counteroffensive to recover area taken by Russia because the full-blown intrusion in 2015, along with how the United States and Nato may satisfy them.

They appeared on both Twitter and Telegram, a messaging platform that is extensively utilized in Ukraine and Russia.

* Turkey is worried about the prospective augmentation of the dispute in between Russia and Ukraine in the spring, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a joint press conference with his Russian equivalent Sergei Lavrov.

* China’s Xi Jinping revealed desire on Thursday to talk to Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, the head of the European Union said, after French President Macron advised Beijing to talk sense to Russia over the war in Ukraine.

* The Kremlin said it had actually followed what it called “important talks” in between Xi, Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, however included that China would not alter its position on the Ukraine dispute under external impact.

* A leading Ukrainian main dismissed talks with Moscow about area up until it withdraws all soldiers, pressing back on an associate who had actually promoted the concept of settlements to deal with the Russian profession of the Crimean peninsula.

* Russia and Turkey concurred throughout talks in Ankara that challenges should be raised to make sure freer Russian fertiliser and grain exports, and allow a UN-brokered deal making sure Black Sea deliveries of Ukrainian grain to be extended beyond next month.

A leakage of categorized files detailing secret U.S. and NATO prepares to help Kyiv appeared like a Russian disinformation operation to plant doubts about Ukraine‘s planned counter-offensive, a Ukrainian presidential official said on Friday.

Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that the leaked data reported by the New York Times on Thursday contained a “very large amount of fictitious information” and that Russia was trying to seize back the initiative in its invasion.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the United States of blocking meetings of the Quartet on the Middle East – comprised of Russia, the United States, European Union and United Nations.

Speaking at a news conference in Turkey where he was on a visit to discuss the Black Sea grain deal, Ukraine crisis and energy cooperation with Ankara, Lavrov also said he did not rule out a possible face-to-face meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at UN headquarters if there was a “serious proposal” for dialogue.

Turkey is concerned about the potential intensification of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the spring, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

In a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara, Cavusoglu said Turkey would continue with its efforts to bring an end to the war with negotiations.

Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man who was charged with discrediting the country’s army after his child Masha drew an anti-war image, is being kept in Belarus, Russian state-owned news firm TASS reported, pointing out the Russian embassy in the nation.

Ukraine said on Friday that Russia was focusing all its efforts on catching the eastern city of Bakhmut where it explained the scenario as “difficult” however said it was holding out regardless of Russia‘s numerical superiority.

Eastern Military Command spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Reuters that Ukraine controlled the situation in Bakhmut, understood Russian intentions and that Moscow had tactical success in some places, but was paying a high price for it.

Xi Jinping wants to talk to Ukraine, the head of the EU said on Thursday, after Emmanuel Macron said he was “counting on China” to factor with Russia over the year-long war.

China’s president revealed desire to talk to Volodymyr Zelensky, Ursula von der Leyen said, if the “conditions and time are right”.