Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russian forces have withdrawn from Snake Island in the Black Sea in a move Ukraine hailed as a victory and Russia said showed Moscow was not seeking to hinder UN efforts to organise a corridor for the export of Ukrainian agricultural produce.

Russian forces have withdrawn from Snake Island in the Black Sea in a move Ukraine hailed as a victory and Russia said showed Moscow was not seeking to hinder UN efforts to organise a corridor for the export of Ukrainian agricultural produce. FIGHTING * Russia withdrew from Snake Island as a "gesture of goodwill", Russia's defence ministry said. * Oleksii Hromov, a brigadier general in Ukraine's armed forces, said Russian equipment on the island had been destroyed. There were no Ukrainian forces on the island yet, but there would be, he said. * The commander of Ukraine's armed forces said Ukrainian-made Bohdana howitzers played an important role in liberating the island and thanked foreign partners for their support. Ukraine fielded powerful U.S. HIMARS artillery batteries last week for the first time. * A first cargo ship has left the Russian-occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk, a local official said, after Russia said the port had been de-mined and was ready to resume grain shipments. * Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces destroyed a Ukrainian military control centre near the city of Dnipro in a missile strike. * "There is no let-up,"," said the governor of the eastern Luhansk region, much of which is now in Russian hands. The Russians are taking the city of Lysychansk building by building, he said, as they did before in nearby Sievierodonetsk. * Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY * Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a new "iron curtain" was descending between Russia and the West. * Greece is willing to provide ships to help export grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports that have been blocked by Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. * In reaction to NATO's invitation to Finland and Sweden to join, Putin said Russia would respond in kind if the alliance deployed troops and infrastructure in the Nordic nations. * Turkey's Erdogan said Finland and Sweden must meet their promises on Kurdish groups including changing laws before he will send ratification of their NATO bid to parliament. * NATO leaders have agreed to put over 300,000 troops on high alert from mid-2023, up from 40,000 currently, to counter Russia, the country designated by the alliance as posing the greatest threat over the next decade. * NATO agreed to modernize Ukraine's military and Britain said it would provide another 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) of military support, including air defence systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles and new electronic warfare equipment QUOTES * "My combat experience here was that one mission on that one day," said Alexander Drueke, former U.S. soldier captured in eastern Ukraine. "I didn't fire a shot. I would hope that would play a factor in whatever sentence I do or don't receive." (Compiled by Lincoln Feast and Frank Jack Daniel)

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