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Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has captured two more areas in Bakhmut, the city where fighting has been concentrated for months, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said.
The death toll rose in a Russian missile strike in another eastern Ukrainian city, Sloviansk. Eleven people are now confirmed dead and 21 wounded. The missiles hit residential buildings on Friday, reducing parts of the apartment blocks to a tangled mess of metal and concrete.
Four people were killed and 10 wounded by Ukrainian shelling of a residential area in the Russian-controlled town of Yasynuvata, south of Sloviansk, the top Russian-installed official in the region said.The Reuters news agency could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
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.
Prisoners released
The Wagner Group sent at least 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war back to Ukrainian forces to celebrate Orthodox Easter, according to a video posted by the mercenary group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Economy
A new international economic support package of $115bn gives Ukraine more confidence that it could prevail in the war with Russia as expectations grow that the conflict could continue for longer than expected, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told Reuters.
Poland and Hungary have decided to ban imports of grain and other food products from neighbouring Ukraine to protect their local farm sectors, the two governments said after a flood of supply depressed prices across the region.
Belarusian furniture company Swed House, which sells items intended to look like those made by the Swedish giant IKEA, opened its first store in Moscow to a mixed initial reaction from consumers.
