Moscow [Russia], May 8: Russia's Wagner mercenary group appeared on Sunday to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow and suggesting they may keep up their assault on what Russia sees a stepping stone to other cities in the Donbas region.
CONFLICT
An explosion was heard following a missile attack that hit the Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, a local Ukrainian official said, while air raid alerts rang out in other regions of the country including the capital, Kyiv.
Russian missiles targeted an industrial site in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, while Ukrainian and Russian media reported multiple explosions across Russian-occupied Crimea.
Russia's defence ministry said its air defences had detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight.
Russian forces are evacuating residents from the town that serves the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said. Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive soon to retake territory, including in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The head of the U.N.'s nuclear power watchdog said on Saturday the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station has become "potentially dangerous".
Russia's Federal Security Service said on Sunday its forces had foiled an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to attack a military airfield in central Russia with drones stuffed with explosives.
Russia's own security concerns have grown ahead of its annual Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow on Tuesday following a series of drone attacks.
The prominent Russian nationalist writer, ZakharPrilepin, on Sunday described breaking both legs in a car bomb that killed his driver and which Moscow blamed on the United States and Ukraine.
Ukraine on Saturday hailed the return of 45 Azov battalion fighters captured during the battle for Mariupol while Russia said three of its pilots had been released by Kyiv. Neither side gave a full account of the apparent prisoner swap.
GRAIN, FARM PRODUCTS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet responded to proposals from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the Black Sea grain deal, TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.
Poland will demand European Union sanctions on imports of Russian farm products, its ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sados was quoted as saying on Saturday by PAP news agency
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation