At least nine people, including a two-year-old child, were killed Friday in a Russian rocket attack on residential buildings in eastern Ukraine in Yasynuvata, about 80km south of Sloviansk. According to the British assessment, Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from part of the city of Bakhmut, the center of Moscow’s slow advance in the region.

Separately, four people were killed and 10 injured in Ukrainian shelling of a residential area in a Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, according to a senior official stationed by Russia in Yashinuvata region.

Denis Pushilin, an official, said a seven-year-old girl was among the victims in the town of Yashinuvata, north of Donetsk.

Diplomacy Front

Chinese Defense Minister Li Sanfu will visit Russia from April 16 to 19 and hold meetings with the Russian military, the Chinese Defense Ministry said. US officials have expressed concern that China may be supplying weapons to Russia, which Beijing has denied.

At the same time, Ukrainian forces are increasingly finding Chinese-made components in Russian weapons used in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian presidential staff, told Reuters as supplies from the West are drastically reduced due to sanctions.

European Union High Representative Josep Borrell said it would be difficult for Europe to trust China if it does not try to find a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis based on Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, 15 Russian diplomats expelled from Norway this week have been trying to recruit sources, control communications and buy advanced technology, the Norwegian security agency PST said Friday.

The Finnish embassy in Moscow, on the other hand, received a letter with an unknown powder and reported it to the Russian authorities, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.

Economy front

UN Secretary-General António Guterres sent a letter to Russia, Ukraine and Turkey to express concern over the implementation of an agreement allowing safe export of wartime grain from various Ukrainian Black Sea ports, a UN official said.

At the same time, Ukraine has pledged $5 billion in additional funding to support its fight against Russia amid “productive meetings” in Washington this week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smyhal said Friday.

Ukraine’s security service announced on Thursday that it had confiscated more than $96 million in assets belonging to exiled billionaire Vadim Novinsky, but his spokesman said he no longer owns the property.

Before… the Olympic Games

Ukraine has banned its national sports teams from participating in the Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic Games, which include athletes from Russia and Belarus, the Ministry of Sports said in a decree on Friday.

Source: Reuters.