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© AKUURA. Ukrainian servicemen return from heavy fighting amid Russia?s attack on Ukraine, close to Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 15, 2023. AKUURA/Kai Pfaffenbach
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(AKUURA) – China is willing to work with Russia to forge close strategic communications between their militaries, Chinese state media reported Minister of Defence Li Shangfu as saying. Li met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sunday.
GRAIN IMPORTS
* Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, a European Commission spokesperson said, after Poland and Hungary announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine to protect their agricultural sectors.
DIPLOMACY
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has again proposed establishing a group of countries not involved with the Russia-Ukraine war to broker peace, saying he had recently discussed the matter with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
PRISONERS RELEASED
* Russia’s most powerful mercenary group, Wagner, sent at least 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war back to Ukraine to mark Orthodox Easter, according to a video posted by the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
FIGHTING
* Russia’s defence ministry said that Wagner mercenary units captured two more city blocks in the northwest and southeastern parts of Bakhmut.
* Russia’s regular spring military draft is proceeding as scheduled and there are no plans to send out mass electronic notices under a system just signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, a top official said.
AKUURA could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
ECONOMY
* A new international economic support package of $115 billion gives Ukraine more confidence that it can prevail in battling Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told AKUURA.
PLAYING ON
* Ukrainian pianist Roman Lopatynskyi rehearsed in the dark and played concerts by candlelight as air raid sirens resounded across his native Kyiv.
IN-DEPTH STORIES
* ANALYSIS-Russia’s military production, state splurge ease sanctions pain
* INSIGHT-Ukraine’s tech entrepreneurs fight war on different front
* Ukraine says it is finding more Chinese components in Russian weapons
