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As Russian troops advance gradually in eastern Ukraine, Africa appeals to President Vladimir V. Putin for relief from the growing food shortages created by ...

In West Africa, one of the most visible effects of the war so far has been on bread prices that were already on the rise. Millions of tons of grain remain stuck in Ukraine; Mr. Putin has suggested that this would change if the West lifted sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion. Aid organizations have also warned that diverting aid from African populations in favor of Ukrainian refugees will only make things worse on the continent. “Every new embassy that returns to our capital is a testament to the faith in our victory.” Prominent in those efforts are the vivid presentations that the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has made to other nations’ leaders, and his nightly addresses to his compatriots. The European Parliament has banned lobbyists for Russian companies from its premises, its president Roberta Metsola said in a tweet. At a news conference alongside Mr. Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Mr. Sall also said Western sanctions on Russia had compounded Africa’s lack of access to grain. “Our countries, even if they are far from the theater,” Mr. Sall said, “are victims of this crisis.” On Friday, Chad, a landlocked nation of 17 million people, declared a food emergency and the United Nations has warned that nearly a third of the country’s population would need humanitarian assistance this year. On Friday, fighting continued to rage in Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of the Donbas not under Russian control. Capturing the industrial Donbas region could give Mr. Putin a victory to herald to the Russian people and a land bridge to Crimea. That has emboldened Mr. Putin’s negotiating position in any future peace talks and has expanded Russia’s capacity to launch attacks in the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a somber, defiant video asserting that “victory will be ours.” In the Donbas area of Ukraine, Russian forces ...

The United Nations recorded 4,183 confirmed civilian deaths across Ukraine from the time of the Russian invasion through Thursday, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. That official toll omits areas, including those occupied by Russian forces, where counting the number of Ukrainian victims isn’t possible. Most of them were killed by small arms, not during explosions,” Mr. Nebytov said on a national news broadcast, according to online newspaper Ukrainian Pravda. The Kyiv city military administration said separately that 95 civilians, including four children, had been killed by Russian missile strikes on Kyiv since the invasion began on Feb. 24. The bodies of 1,314 civilians have been found so far in the region around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, regional Police Chief Andriy Nebytov said, according to local reports, as efforts to recover victims of the Russian occupation continued.

When Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February, the Russian president vowed his forces would not occupy the country. But as the invasion ...

Oleg Kryuchkov, an official in Russia-annexed Crimea, said this week that the two southern regions have switched to Russian internet providers. Kryuchkov also said that both regions are switching to the Russian country code, +7, from the Ukrainian +380. An office of Russia’s migration services opened in Melitopol, taking applications for Russian citizenship from residents of the captured southern regions through a fast-track procedure. Russian forces captured much of Kherson and neighboring Zaporizhzhia early in the war, gaining control over most of Ukraine’s Sea of Azov coast and securing a partial land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russian flags were raised, and Russian state broadcasts that promoted the Kremlin’s version of the invasion supplanted Ukrainian TV channels. Ukrainian officials warned that Russia might stage a referendum in Kherson to declare the region an independent state. “Hundreds of pro-Ukrainian activists, including my friends, are being held in the basements of security services,” Kobernyk said by phone. Initially, at least, annexing more land from Ukraine was not believed to be the main goal of the invasion. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said it will be up to the people living in seized areas to decide their status. U.S. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, said he believes “there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement” to end the war. Residents there and in Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region are being offered expedited Russian passports. The Kremlin-installed administrations in both regions have talked about plans to become part of Russia.

US general in Finland to back Nato bid; 14 million Ukrainians displaced in conflict, says UN; Macron says Putin isolated after 'historic error'

Vladimir Putin says exporting grain from Ukraine is “no problem”, after Moscow’s invasion raised fears of a global food crisis. Most importantly, our people, the people of our country, are here. “The armed forces of Ukraine are here. A driver transporting two Reuters journalists in eastern Ukraine was killed and the two reporters lightly wounded on Friday, a company spokesperson said. Ukrainian forces have recaptured around 20% of the territory they lost in Sievierodonetsk since Russia’s invasion,accordingto Ukrainian officials. Leading US general Mark Milley met Finnish president Sauli Niinisto on Friday to pledge US support for Finland’s and Sweden’s Nato membership bids, which Turkey is blocking.

And Moscow has released scant information about casualties among its forces and allies, and given no accounting of civilian deaths in areas under its control.

The African Development Bank has reported a 45% increase in continental prices for the grain, affecting everything from Mauritanian couscous to the fried donuts sold in Congo. And the Russian Central Bank said last week that annualized inflation came in at 17.8 percent in April. And we know what is needed the most: An end to this war.” This war has no winner,” he told reporters in Geneva via video from Kyiv on Friday. “Today we mark a tragic milestone. In some places — such as the long-besieged city of Mariupol, potentially the war's biggest killing field — Russian forces are accused of trying to cover up deaths and dumping bodies into mass graves, clouding the overall toll. Zelenskyy accused Russia this week of stealing at least a half-million tons of grain during the invasion. Developing countries are being squeezed particularly hard by higher costs of food, fuel and financing. It blames a backlog of shipments on Russian blockades or capture of key ports. Evgeny Gontmakher, academic director of European Dialogue, wrote in a paper this week that Russia currently faces over 5,000 targeted sanctions, more than any other country. Those images tell just a part of the overall picture of Europe's worst armed conflict in decades. That's down from over 8 million in an earlier count. In Mariupol alone, officials have reported over 21,000 civilian dead.

It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin met the head of the African Union to discuss the emerging global food crisis exacerbated by the conflict. UN crisis ...

Mr Stoltenberg said he had a "constructive phone call" with Mr Erdogan, calling Turkey a "valued ally" and praising Turkish efforts to broker a deal to ensure the safe transportation of grain supplies from Ukraine amid global food shortages caused by Russia's invasion. Asked if Ukraine should give up territory in exchange for peace, the president said, "It's their territory" and "I'm not going to tell them what they should and shouldn't do". He appealed to the world community to find ways to get food out of Ukraine by land or sea while the war rages. They imported 44 per cent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to UN figures, and wheat prices have soared around 45 per cent as a result of the supply disruption, according to the African Development Bank. World Food Programme figures show 1.7 billion people worldwide are facing increased poverty because of the grain blockade and rising food prices, while the number facing "acute hunger" is set to rise by 47 million. "It's of absolute necessity that they [Western partners] help to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grains, but also that Russia is able to export fertilisers, food products, but mainly cereals." "We will facilitate the peaceful passage and guarantee the safety of arrivals to these ports, as well as the entry of foreign ships and their movement through the Azov and Black seas, in any direction," Mr Putin pledged, in remarks carried on Russian state TV. The chairman of the African Union, Senegal's President Macy Sall, told Mr Putin in a meeting that the fighting in Ukraine and Western sanctions had worsened food shortages. "I have come to see you, to ask you to be aware that our countries, even far from the threatre [of war], are the victims of this economic crisis," Mr Sall said to Mr Putin. - Nearly a third of the population of Ukraine has been forced to flee the fighting Nearly 14 million people — a third of the population — had been forced to flee the fighting, and another 15 to 16 million stayed home but had lost their livelihoods, he said. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin met the head of the African Union to discuss the emerging global food crisis exacerbated by the conflict.

It's day 100 of Russia's war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin is still calling its "special military operation."

However, while in theory output will be higher in the future, OPEC+ has been struggling to meet production quotas. Russia is starting military drills in the Pacific involving some 40 ships and 20 aircraft. If we have something concrete to announce, we will do so." It's day 100 of Russia's war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin is still calling its "special military operation." Among those objectives was the aim to seize Kyiv and Ukrainian centers of government. "We've seen a lot of positive statements coming from various capitals," Dujarric said.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured 20 percent of territory lost in Severodonetsk, Luhansk regional governor says.

“If the work of the Russian media – operators and journalists – is not normalised in the United States, the most stringent measures will inevitably follow,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. The risk of a severe food crisis is particularly felt in the developing world, he warned. We appreciate the support of our foreign partners & ask for reinforcement of arms supply, artillery & MLRS, aircraft & air defence systems. “I must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick to a healthy head. I want to thank our military, volunteers and the entire Ukrainian nation. 100 days of resistance, bravery and fortitude.

Macron has sought to maintain a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February. His stance has been repeatedly ...

( Here’s how the war has changed in the last 100 days) Sergiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk province, told national television that Ukrainian troops had retaken 20% of the territory they had lost in Sievierodonetsk. Russia still controls around a fifth of the country, about half seized in 2014 and a half captured since launching its invasion on February 24. Russia Ukraine War Live, Mariupol Fall to Russia: Moscow said the Western weapons will pour “fuel on the fire,” but will not change the course of what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of dangerous nationalists.

Kyiv's mayor called the past few months “a time of courage and perseverance.” Analysts and officials say no end to the conflict is in sight.

He said that Russian forces maintained their grip on a highway that had acted as a conduit both for people seeking to flee the city as well as for incoming supplies. The United States, Britain and Germany all said this week they would supply Ukraine with missile systems that the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky had sought to offset Russia’s advantage in long-range artillery. Mr. Putin has even used the looming grain shortage to cast the United States and its allies in bad light, he said. António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, marked the 100th day of war in Ukraine by calling for a halt to violence, access for humanitarian aid and protection and evacuation of civilians. At the same time, Mr. Sall told Mr. Putin, whom he called his “dear friend Vladimir,” that Western sanctions on Russia had compounded Africa’s lack of access to grain — an argument Moscow has been making. The sooner the parties engage in good-faith diplomatic efforts to end this war, the better for the sake of Ukraine, Russia and the world,” said Mr. Guterres in a statement on Friday. He said the U.N. stands ready to help in those efforts. “If I leave, I will not be able to return to the village, I will not be able to look people in the eye.” In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine also used the 100th day of war as a way of focusing on how numbers have come to define the war: the number of those killed or wounded, or the number of attacks launched against the country. “I have fields and machines and diesel but I do not have the workers,” he said. He had previously said that most of the industrial city had been taken over by the Russians. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, warned this past week that the conflict had become a “war of attrition” and advised allies to be prepared for “the long haul.” “They want to be eating grass,” he said as he walked down the stalls of his 35 dairy cows.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged U.S. cities such as Chicago, San Diego and Albany, N.Y., to cut “sister city” relationships in Russia. The ...

But Haidai struck a bullish note and called that timeline “completely unrealistic,” even as Moscow reportedly rushes more troops to the key eastern city. Western leaders are vulnerable to election cycles, and “he believes public opinion can flip in one day.” Elsewhere in Luhansk: Two Reuters journalists were injured and a driver was killed in an attack on their vehicle when they were traveling between Severodonetsk and the town of Rubizhne on a part of the road controlled by Russian forces. While Russian forces captured some 70 percent of this Ukrainian stronghold earlier in the week, Kyiv has managed to regain control over 20 percent of the city, he told local media. Though many Ukrainians resolved to stay and fight, several million men, women and children are now refugees in other countries. The funds, which were approved by a large majority in the lower house of Germany’s legislature, are intended to finance projects spanning several years. “What do those ties give to you? Back then, the aim of his message was clear: to show beyond all fear or doubt that he was committed to stay and fight. Sall later said on Twitter that the Kremlin expressed “readiness to facilitate Ukrainian wheat exports.” They sustained minor injuries, according to a Reuters spokesperson. More than 40 officers in Omurbekov’s unit were also added to the list. Ukrainian troops dove under their tank, screaming at Washington Post reporters to take cover with them.

Russia has reinforced its troops and used artillery to conduct “assault operations” in Severodonetsk, but Russian forces retreated after failed attempts to ...

- Russia’s foreign ministry said it was summoning the heads of US media outlets in Moscow on Monday to notify them of tough measures in response to US restrictions against Russian media. - The EU blacklisted Russian military commanders who it said led troops involved in atrocities in Ukraine, calling them the “butchers” of Bucha and Mariupol. - Haidai said in a social media post that four people were killed in Russian attacks in the region on Saturday, including a mother and a child.

While Russian forces may have advanced in eastern Ukraine, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said those gains have been "slow and costly" as part of Moscow's ...

Russia's war in Ukraine has roiled the global economy, disrupting global food and energy supply chains. Rail and truck transportation cannot manage the same volume and have their own logistical problems, UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine Amin Awad said. It said those efforts were based on "wildly optimistic assessments about the welcome Russian troops would receive in Ukraine." The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that food prices are at the highest levels ever recorded. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, blames "short-sighted" Western policy for the state of global food and energy markets. It stressed resuming exports is key to preventing another crisis. "Russians are blowing up bridges, so we could not bring in reinforcements to our boys in Sievierodonetsk." Meanwhile, the United Nations continues its work to release grain trapped in Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Stoltenberg tweeted that he and Erdogan would continue their dialogue, without elaborating. "Russia has now adopted a 'strategy of attrition' and is achieving slow and costly gains in the Donbas" region of eastern Ukraine, the ministry said. The U.K. Ministry of Defence said Russia's offensive in northern Ukraine "ended in a costly failure." While Russian forces may have advanced in eastern Ukraine, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said those gains have been "slow and costly" as part of Moscow's "strategy of attrition."

Ukraine says it has recaptured a chunk of the factory city of Severodonetsk, the focus of Russia's offensive in Donbas.

But it said Russian forces had retreated after failed attempts to advance in the nearby town of Bakhmut and cut off access to Severodonetsk. The Ukrainian forces have fought back against the Russian advance in the eastern city of Severodonetsk recapturing one-fifth of the industrial city in the past couple of days, according to Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province. Ukraine says it has recaptured a chunk of the factory city of Severodonetsk, the focus of a Russian offensive in the Donbas.