(Reuters) – A Red Cross convoy heading to Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.
FIGHTING
* Ukraine recaptured more territory around Kyiv from Russian soldiers who left shattered villages and their own abandoned tanks as they moved away from the capital.
* The U.S. military, seeking to lower nuclear tensions with Russia, cancelled an intercontinental ballistic missile test that it had initially aimed only to delay, the Air Force told Reuters.
* In the Russian border city of Belgorod, a logistics hub for its war effort, Moscow said Ukrainian helicopters struck a fuel depot, causing a huge fire. Ukraine denied responsibility.
* Zelenskiy said the military situation in eastern Ukraine remained extremely difficult and Russia was preparing for new strikes there.
ECONOMY, DIPLOMACY
* Zelenskiy said sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries on Russia are working and need to be increased.
* The United States added 120 Russian and Belarusian entities, mostly companies linked to the military, to the list of those restricted from receiving U.S. supplies and goods.
* Sanctions by the United States and its allies are pushing Russia into recession and starting to turn it back into a closed economy, a senior U.S. Treasury official said.
* Europe vowed to stay united against Russia’s demand that they pay for its gas in roubles, as the threat of an imminent supply halt eased.
* China told the EU it would seek peace in Ukraine but on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance towards Russia.
QUOTES
* “An entire bus was shot out. We were on a bus for civilians. There were about 20 people on board, 14 people survived. Eight dead bodies,” Yulia told Reuters Television from her Chuhuiv hospital bed.
(Compiled by Grant McCool and William Mallard)
