Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Ukraine hits city inside Russian-controlled territory

Ukraine struck a railway depot and knocked out power in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol deep behind the front line on Wednesday amid growing talk from Kyiv of a counterassault against Russian forces worn out by a failed winter offensive. DIPLOMACY, NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND MILITARY AID

* The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, visited the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday as part of efforts to avert the risk of an atomic accident. He said that fighting there had intensified. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has extended an invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit, the Associated Press reported.

* Russia said it had begun exercises with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand of troops in what is likely to be seen as another attempt by Moscow to show off its nuclear strength. * The United States has informed Russia it will not exchange data on its nuclear forces, describing the change as a response to Russia's decision to suspend participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty.

* Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Moscow is committed to preventing nuclear war and military confrontation between nuclear-armed states, TASS news agency reported. * Spain will send six German-made 2A4 Leopard tanks to Ukraine after the April 9 Easter holiday to support Kyiv's efforts to fend off Russia's invasion, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday.

BATTLEFIELD AND MILITARY AID * The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group acknowledged on Wednesday that fighting for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut had inflicted severe damage on his own forces as well as the Ukrainian side.

* Russian forces are moving forward in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut despite fierce resistance and have almost taken full control of a metals plant there, the Russian-installed leader in the region said. * Russian forces trying to encircle the town of Avdiivka in recent days have made only marginal gains despite heavy losses in armoured vehicles, including a tank regiment, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

* Reuters could not verify battlefield reports. IN-DEPTH STORIES

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* Peace plans and pipelines: What came out of the Putin-Xi talks? * SPECIAL REPORT-Wagner's convicts tell of horrors of Ukraine war and loyalty to their leader

QUOTE "No, those warnings don't scare me and don't change my attitude towards the world, people and our president," said Yulia Gorodnyanskaya, 38, a Moscow resident unfazed by Putin's rising nuclear rhetoric.

(Compiled by Reuters editors)

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