Ukraine’s military said it had killed scores of Russian soldiers and destroyed two ammunition dumps in the Kherson region, the focus of Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the south and a key link in Moscow’s supply lines.
FIGHTING
* Russia and Ukraine traded blame for dozens of deaths in the destruction of a Donetsk prison. Moscow-backed separatists said Kyiv targeted the facility with U.S.-made rockets. Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian artillery had targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of prisoners.
* Ukraine said at least five people had been killed and seven wounded in a Russian missile strike on the southeastern city of Mykolaiv, a river port just off the Black Sea.
* Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
DIPLOMACY
* Blinken and Lavrov held the first call between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion to discuss a U.S.-proposed prisoner swap.
* Blinken said the world expected Russia to fulfil its commitments under a deal with Ukraine to reopen grain and fertilizer exports. Lavrov said U.S. sanctions complicated the global food situation.
* Lavrov said Russia will meet the aims of its “special military operation” and that Western arms supplies to Kyiv were prolonging the conflict.
* The Kremlin said it does not see any change in the West’s willingness to make concessions over Ukraine in order to secure a ceasefire, TASS news agency reported.
Also Read: No deal yet on Russia-US prisoner swap: Moscow official
ECONOMY
* Ukraine is ready to start shipping grain from two Black Sea ports under a U.N.-brokered agreement but no date has been set for the first shipment, the Ukrainian infrastructure minister said.
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