Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now
ECONOMY * Ukraine could export a maximum of only 2 million tonnes of grains a month if Russia refuses to lift its blockade of the country's Black Sea ports, Ukraine's first deputy minister for Agrarian Policy and Food said.
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- Ukraine
Ukraine will fight to recover all its territory occupied by Russian forces, President Zelenskiy said, as his troops battled street-to-street in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk in one of the bloodiest land battles of the war. FIGHTING
* Ukrainian forces are finding it hard to stave off Russian attacks in the centre of Sievierodonetsk, but Moscow's forces do not control the city, the governor of Luhansk region said. * Another Sievierodonetsk official, Roman Vlasenko, said Ukrainian forces were in control of the industrial zone and the Azot chemical plant. Reuters could not independently verify battle reports in Sievierodonetsk.
* Russia has handed over the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters, most of whom who died defending the city of Mariupol from Russian forces at a vast steel works, the Ukrainian military said. * Russian shelling destroyed the warehouses of one of Ukraine's largest agricultural commodity terminals in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv last weekend, the head of the region said. His account could not be independently verified.
* Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, seized by Russian forces, had been de-mined and were ready to resume grain shipments. ECONOMY
* Ukraine could export a maximum of only 2 million tonnes of grains a month if Russia refuses to lift its blockade of the country's Black Sea ports, Ukraine's first deputy minister for Agrarian Policy and Food said. * The Russian and Turkish defence ministers discussed a potential grain exports corridor from Ukraine and northern Syria, Turkey's defence ministry said. Ukraine's embassy in Ankara said Ukraine was exerting "maximum effort" to lift blockades on its ports, but added there was no agreement yet between Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.
* The World Bank board approved $1.49 billion in additional financing for Ukraine. It was part of a $4 billion pledge and will pay government and social workers' wages. * Russia imposed sanctions on 61 U.S. officials including the Treasury Secretary and the Energy Secretary in retaliation for "constantly expanding U.S. sanctions", the foreign ministry said.
NUCLEAR * Radiation detectors in the Exclusion Zone around Ukraine's defunct Chornobyl nuclear power plant are back online for the first time since Russia seized the area on Feb. 24, and radiation levels are normal, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said. (Compiled by Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich; editing by Grant McCool)
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