off-the-wire

Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Kyiv says borders must be restored, must join NATO

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
(.) April 13 (Reuters) - All Ukrainian cities and Crimea must be part of Ukraine again and a real peace will come by restoring the country's borders, Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Thursday. "There is no difference between...any Ukrainian city, they all must and will be Ukraine again," he said, speaking via a video link at a Black Sea security conference in Bucharest.


POLITICS/DIPLOMACY
* Ukrainian membership of the NATO military alliance is the only option for the country's future security, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday.
* The person who leaked U.S. classified documents prompting a national security investigation is a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked on a military base, the Washington Post reported.
* The Black Sea will never be a "NATO sea", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday after Ukraine's foreign minister urged the Atlantic alliance to play a bigger security role in the region.
* Norway's foreign ministry said on Thursday it would expel 15 Russian embassy officials who it said were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions.


* Hungary's government will quit the Russia-controlled International Investment Bank (IIB), the Economic Development Ministry said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Washington imposed sanctions on three officials of IIB in Budapest, including a Hungarian.


BATTLEFIELD
* Ukraine and Russia traded barbs over how much invading Russian forces control the city of Bakhmut, for months the focal point of Moscow's bid to advance through eastern Ukraine.
* Hundreds of cemeteries near front lines will be closed to Ukrainians wanting to pay their respects at graves of their relatives for Orthodox Easter this weekend due to the danger of land mines and unexploded ordnance.
* As many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in a conflict that may last well beyond 2023, according to purported U.S. intelligence documents posted online.


ECONOMY
* Russia on Thursday said there would be no extension of the UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 unless the West removed a series of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertiliser.
* The U.S. Commerce Department said it was imposing export controls on more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and other countries for supporting Russia's military and defence industries.


IN-DEPTH STORIES
* ANALYSIS-Russia's military production, state splurge ease sanctions pain
* INSIGHT- Ukraine's tech entrepreneurs fight war on different front (Compiled by Reuters editors)

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