Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Russians press attacks on Bakhmut

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow had been forced to suspend its participation in the New START nuclear arms control treaty because Washington was using it to help Ukraine attack Russian strategic sites. * Russia's lower house of parliament gave its initial backing to a law that would bring in longer prison sentences for anyone deemed to have discredited the Russian army, the TASS news agency reported.

Ukrainian forces hung on to their positions in the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut on Thursday under constant attack from Russian troops seeking to claim their first major victory for more than half a year. FIGHTING

* Delivering a regular morning round-up of the situation across the frontlines, the Ukraine military general staff said on Thursday that the enemy was continuing to advance toward Bakhmut and "is storming the city". * A Russian missile hit a five-storey building in Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday, killing three people and wounding at least four, Ukraine's police said.

Russian forces are fighting a Ukrainian sabotage group in Bryansk region which borders Ukraine after the group took hostages in a shop, Russian news agencies reported. * The latest rotating team of experts from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has failed to take up its duties at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, a senior Russian official told TASS.

* Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports. G20

* The U.S. and its European allies sparred with Russia on Thursday over the war in Ukraine and urged the Group of 20 (G20) nations to keep up pressure on Moscow to end a conflict that they said had destabilised the world. * The G20 meeting has again been marred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as he called for the bloc to call on Russia to withdraw its forces.

* Russia's foreign minister said that many leaders from the West had turned the agenda of a G20 meeting "into a farce", the TASS news agency reported. DIPLOMACY

* A Russian defence ministry journal says Moscow is developing a new type of military strategy using nuclear weapons to protect against possible U.S. aggression, RIA news agency reported. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow had been forced to suspend its participation in the New START nuclear arms control treaty because Washington was using it to help Ukraine attack Russian strategic sites.

* Russia's lower house of parliament gave its initial backing to a law that would bring in longer prison sentences for anyone deemed to have discredited the Russian army, the TASS news agency reported. The new legislation would also extend the law to cover the Wagner mercenary force. ECONOMY

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of "shamelessly burying" the Black Sea grain initiative that facilitates the export of Ukraine's agricultural products from its southern ports, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. ANNIVERSARY STORIES

* TIMELINE - Major developments since Russia's invasion * Ukraine's Zelenskiy has defied Putin against the odds

* Putin, secure in power, has set the stage for long war * A year on, Ukraine and its government have not just survived. They've fought back

* Toughened by war's scars, Kyiv presses on * Graphics of a year of war in the markets: How the dollar, energy and food prices swirled

* Russian economy holds up but the road back to prosperity may be long * Moscow's decades-old gas ties with Europe lie in ruins

* Top brands pull out of Russia, but goods easy to find * Can U.S. support for Ukraine last?

* External backers pour billions into Ukraine * How has China stood by 'no limits' partner Russia?

* A year into war, older refugees running out of hope * Life and death in Mariupol - a survivor's tale of war

* Family mourns Bucha victim who became symbol of war PODCAST

Learn more about the Ukraine war. Listen to a special episode of the Reuters World News Podcast.