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Following are some of the issues China and others are likely to be taking into account as it considers prospects for peace in Ukraine. Attempting to broker peace is a low-cost venture that can yield high returns for China, even if a quick breakthrough is highly unlikely, analysts say. The plan got lukewarm welcomes in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and NATO were sceptical. China expanded trade with Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and did not recognise the annexed territory as Russian, he said. Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, China and Russia announced a "no-limits" partnership.

☆ No signs Ukraine is withdrawing troops from Bakhmut - Russian-installed official
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 16 (Reuters) - The situation for Russian forces trying to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is "difficult", because there are no signs Kyiv is ready to order a withdrawal of its troops, the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine's Donetsk region said on Thursday. "The situation in Artyomovsk remains complex and difficult," Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of Ukraine's Donetsk region, said in an interview on state TV on Thursday. "That is, we do not see that there is any premise that the enemy is going to simply withdraw units," he added. Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his forces are in control of practically half the city and only one exit road remains available to Ukraine. Reporting by Caleb Davis; Writing by Jake Cordell; editing by Guy FaulconbridgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kremlin says its goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by military force
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Kyiv's position means Russia's goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by military force, Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Right now this is only possible by military means due to the current position of the Kyiv regime," Peskov said. Russia claims it is fighting in Ukraine to "liberate" Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas from what it has called a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv. Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext put forward to justify a war of aggression and Moscow's attempts to seize swathes of Ukrainian land. Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine says it caught a Russian soldier who had been hiding in abandoned buildings for 6 months after being separated from his unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ukrainian police said they arrested a Russian soldier who had been in hiding for about six months. The soldier was left behind by his unit after they fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last year. Dressed in civilian clothes, the soldier was hiding in abandoned buildings, police said. The soldier, who was dressed in civilian clothes, had been hiding out in abandoned buildings ever since his unit fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last September, the statement said. Police are now investigating how he managed to stay on Ukrainian territory for half a year.

☆ How weapons from Western allies are strengthening Ukraine's defence
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +15 min

In the months after, artillery ammunition came, then Western artillery and vehicles. Ground-Launched Small Diameter BombAdd a description of the graphic for screen readers. Add a description of the graphic for screen readers. Although it uses a NATO-standard calibre for its main gun--120mm--the Challenger 2's barrel is rifled, unlike the smoothbore weapons used in other Western tanks. Air defense Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, including power plants and residential buildings, have come under increasing attack from Russian missiles and one-way drones, often launched from outside Ukraine's territory.

☆ Exclusive: Ukraine seeks US cluster bombs to adapt for drone use, lawmakers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

They said Ukrainian officials urged U.S. lawmakers at last month's Munich Security Conference to press for White House approval. Ukraine hopes cluster munitions will give it an edge in the grinding fight against Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. But cluster munitions could be a step too far for the administration and some in Congress. A 2008 pact prohibiting the production, use and stockpiling of cluster munitions has been adopted by 123 countries, including most of NATO's 28 members. "And cluster munitions really are pretty lethal to mass formations as well as armor.

REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The United States does not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near-term, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, describing the front lines in the year-long war as a "grinding slog." Kahl made the remarks during a hearing focused on oversight of the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has provided to Kyiv. In October, the U.S. restarted on-site inspections in Ukraine to help keep track of the billions of dollars of weapons being provided to Kyiv. One of the weapons the U.S. has not provided -- despite public appeals by Ukrainian officials -- are F-16 fighter jets. Kahl was asked repeatedly by lawmakers about sending the jets to Ukraine.

☆ China's EU ambassador says EU leaders may visit China by mid-2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Chinese ambassador to the European Union Fu Cong said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel may visit China in the first half of 2023, China's state-backed Global Times reported. Preparations for the visit by the EU's top two officials are under way and "very frequent high-level mutual visits" between the EU and China are expected to begin soon, Fu said in an interview published on Friday. The two sides have taken divergent positions on the year-long war in Ukraine, with EU diplomats criticising China's refusal to describe the conflict as an invasion or to call for a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. Fu said in the interview that EU anger with China over Ukraine was "very irrational" and that China did not want the issue to affect the development of ties with the bloc. Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China should be judged by its actions, not words, German defence minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Feb 26 (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday reacted with scepticism to a Chinese ceasefire proposal for the war in Ukraine. Beijing offered the proposal on Friday, the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "I am leaning towards saying, yes, Crimea is Ukrainian territory and it therefore has to be given back," he said in the interview. Zelenskiy says his troops will eventually drive Russia from all the captured territory, including the Crimea peninsula. Reporting by Sabine Siebold Editing by Tom Sims and Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NATO’s Biggest European Members Float Defense Pact With Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Bojan Pancevski | Laurence Norman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BERLIN—Germany, France and Britain see stronger ties between NATO and Ukraine as a way to encourage Kyiv to start peace talks with Russia even if Moscow continues to occupy Ukrainian territory, officials from the three governments said. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week laid out a blueprint for an agreement to give Ukraine much broader access to advanced military equipment, weapons and ammunition to defend itself once the war ends. He said the plan should be on the agenda for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s annual meeting in July.

☆ Putin hails Russia's fighters in Ukraine at rally in Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a concert "Glory to the Defenders of the Fatherland" in support of the Russian armed forces involved in the country's military campaign in Ukraine, at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia February 22, 2023. REUTERS/StringerSummary This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin hailed Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine during a rally in Moscow on Wednesday, calling on the crowds to chant "Russia, Russia" to show their support for those he said were defending the fatherland. Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, a decision that Western powers and Ukraine have branded an imperial-style land grab. Ukraine has said it will not rest until every last Russian soldier is ejected from Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.

☆ Biden's trip to Kyiv shows Putin that 'no one is afraid' of him, Ukraine's foreign minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. Ukraine's foreign minister said the visit showed Vladimir Putin that "no one is afraid of you!" Biden announced money for arms, affirmed US support for Ukraine, and called out Russia's president. Dmytro Kuleba said the visit had been "conducted in spite of everything for the sake of Ukraine's victory and all the free world. Biden made the surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, after his team denied that he would visit Ukraine while travelling to neighboring Poland.

☆ Ukraine war live updates: World leaders convene in Munich; Zelenskyy rules out conceding territory for peace
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

As many as 60,000 Russian forces, including both the formal military and private contractors, may have been killed in the year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Britain's Ministry of Defense. "Russian Ministry of Defence and private military contractor (PMC) forces have likely suffered 175-200,000 casualties since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. This likely includes approximately 40-60,000 killed," the ministry wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter. "By modern standards, these figures represent a high ratio of personnel killed compared to those wounded. This is almost certainly due to extremely rudimentary medical provision across much of the force."

[1/2] Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, speaks with Reuters during an interview, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 7, 2023. "Attempts at an offensive in either the Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia direction will of course be made," he said, speaking in his office in the capital, Kyiv. Russian forces have been trying to encircle and capture Bakhmut for weeks at a steep cost. Danilov said Kyiv expected Russia to seek to achieve demonstrable results around the one-year anniversary of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24. Earlier, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces could try to attack from Moscow's ally Belarus to the northwest.

☆ Ukraine says it will not strike Russian territory with new missiles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ukraine will not use longer-range weapons pledged by the United States to hit Russian territory and will only target Russian units in occupied Ukrainian territory, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Sunday. The United States confirmed on Friday that a new rocket that would double Ukraine's strike range was included in a $2.175 billion U.S. military aid package to help Kyiv fight back Russian forces. "We always tell our partners officially that we will not use weapons supplied by foreign partners to fire on Russian territory. We only fire on Russian units on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory," Reznikov told reporters at a news conference. Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Felix Hoske; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Frank Jack DanielOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's Promsvyazbank buys more branches in annexed Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia's state-owned Promsvyazbank (PSKBI.MM) said on Friday that it had bought two credit institutions in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, doubling its chain of branches in Ukrainian territory Russia moved to annex last year. Promsvyazbank (PSB), one of Russia's 13 "systemically important credit institutions", offers a wide range of services but has focused on state employees and the defence sector since it was bailed out by the central bank in 2017. It had already been targeted with Western sanctions last year over Russia's actions in Ukraine. Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy FaulconbridgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Putin says military must stop Ukrainian shelling of Russian regions
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the restoration of destroyed housing and infrastructure in regions of southwest Russia that border Ukraine, via a video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia February 1, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERSFeb 1 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia's military must stop the shelling of Russian regions from Ukrainian territory, which he said had left many people homeless or without power. Putin was addressing a government meeting about restoring destroyed housing and infrastructure in regions of southwest Russia that border Ukraine. But this is the business of the military department," Putin said in remarks published on the Kremlin website. Putin cited the Russian regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk, as well as Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014, as areas where housing had been damaged or destroyed.

☆ Austria's Raiffeisen says Ukrainian sanctions target its leasing unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

VIENNA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A Russian leasing unit of Austrian lender Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI) is among the companies targeted by sanctions that Ukraine announced overnight, RBI said on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced a wave of sanctions overnight targeting 182 Russian and Belarusian companies along with three individuals. Ukraine often calls on companies including RBI to leave Russia, though its latest sanctions are unlikely to have a significant impact on RBI's Russian business. "The political decision of the Ukrainian government to put around 30 Russian leasing companies, including Raiffeisen Leasing Russia, on a sanctions list means that leased goods of Raiffeisen Leasing Russia's customers can be confiscated on Ukrainian territory," an RBI spokesperson said. "Raiffeisen Leasing Russia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raiffeisenbank Russia.

☆ How Russia is molding the minds of schoolkids to support its brutal invasion of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Elise Morton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Russia is running a campaign of propaganda lessons to rally support for its invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin at a rally in Moscow held in March 2022, a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. An image from the lesson materials showing Russian armored personnel carriers marked with the Z symbol from the invasion of Ukraine. But, the union said, "huge internal resistance" from Russia's teachers forced officials to edit out most references to the "special military operation" and achieve its aims less directly. It's the effect on young children, whose whole world is their school and family, that scares me."

☆ A decade of quiet preparations helped Ukraine turn the tables on Russia's bigger, better-armed military, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Following Russia's 2014 attack, Ukraine's military set out to improve and modernize its forces. In the years that followed, Ukraine's military underwent a period of preparation that helped it blunt the full-scale invasion that Russia launched in February 2022. Training for artillery troops was also intensified. However, Russia's tanks still outnumbered Ukraine's nearly four to one when the invasion started. Prior to 2022, Ukraine's military had struggled to retain troops, but high turnover during those years meant Ukraine had a large pool of civilians with military training.

☆ 'Fast-track' talks are underway between Ukraine and Western allies for missiles and planes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ukraine and its Western allies are engaged in "fast-track" talks on the possibility of equipping the invaded country with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a top Ukrainian presidential aide said Saturday. Orban has refused to send weapons to neighboring Ukraine and sought to block EU funds earmarked for military aid. Amid news of the coordinated effort, Russia bombarded Ukraine with missiles, exploding drones and artillery shells. The attacks continued Saturday when Russian missiles struck the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province. In a separate Telegram post earlier Saturday, Kyrylenko reported that Russian attacks in the province killed four civilians in all and wounded seven others in 24 hours.

☆ Poland to send 60 modernised tanks to Ukraine in addition to Leopards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Poland sent 250 tanks as the first country half a year ago or even more than that," Mateusz Morawiecki told CTV News. In April last year, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland said it had sent tanks to held Kyiv fend off the assault. "Right now, we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession." Canada on Thursday announced that it would send four Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.

☆ Putin is a tyrant who wants to enslave Ukraine, Poland's president says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022. Sergey Guneev | Sputnik | ReutersPoland's president, Andrzej Duda, has slammed his Russian counterpart, saying Vladimir Putin is behaving like a colonialist. "Vladimir Putin wants to enslave Ukraine, he wants to expand his regime across the Ukrainian territory, [to] take away Ukrainians' freedom. Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands and hug during their press conference on August 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Or do we think that the free world can progress and every country has the right to self-determine?"

☆ Moscow ends self-proclaimed cease-fire and vows to press ahead in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

One person was killed in another attack overnight on Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, local officials said. Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesMost Ukrainian Orthodox Christians have traditionally celebrated Christmas on Jan. 7, as have Orthodox Christians in Russia. But this year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the country’s largest, allowed also for a Dec. 25 celebration. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, said that there were nine missile strikes on the region overnight, including seven on the battered city of Kramatorsk. Shellfire echoed on Saturday around the near-deserted streets of Bakhmut, an eastern city that is currently the focus of the most intense fighting.

LONDON/WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cyber security experts. Cold River has escalated its hacking campaign against Kyiv's allies since the invasion of Ukraine, according to cybersecurity researchers and western government officials. 'INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION'In May, Cold River broke into and leaked emails belonging to the former head of Britain's MI6 spy service. Reuters was unable independently to confirm why Cold River targeted the NGOs. "Google has tied this individual to the Russian hacking group Cold River and their early operations," he said.

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