Russia warns grain deal in peril

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday that if the G7 moved to ban exports to Russia, Moscow would respond by terminating the Black Sea grain deal that enables vital exports of grain from Ukraine.

Russia has strongly signalled that it will not allow the deal to continue beyond May 18.

Grain deal

• G7 economic powers called yesterday for the "extension, full implementation and expansion" of the grain deal.

• A first batch of Russian fertiliser which Latvia seized last year is being shipped to Kenya by the United Nations' World Food Programme, Latvia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

• Russia has cited the seizure as a key stumbling block to its continued participation in the grains deal.

Diplomacy

• Russia said on Saturday it was expelling more than 20 German diplomats in a tit-for-tat move. Germany did not immediately confirm any expulsions of its own, but said the arrival of a Russian government plane in Berlin was connected to the issue.

• France and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania expressed dismay after China's ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet countries like Ukraine.

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday he did not want to "please anyone" with his views about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after provoking criticism in the West for suggesting Kyiv shared the blame for the war.

Fighting

• Russia's Defence Ministry yesterday said its forces had advanced in Bakhmut, while a top Ukrainian commander posted photographs with his forces saying they were holding the frontline that runs through the city, all but destroyed in some of the bloodiest combat of the 14-month war.

• At least five Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts late on Saturday night, causing some damage to civilian buildings, local officials said.

• Units from Belarus returned home from Russia on Saturday after training on how to use the Iskander tactical missile system to launch nuclear weapons, the Belarusian defence ministry said.

Economy

• Global military spending rose to a record last year as Russia's war in Ukraine drove the biggest annual increase in expenditure in Europe since the end of the Cold War three decades ago, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said today.

• Russia's richest people added US$152 billion (RM674 billion) to their wealth over the past year, helped by high prices for natural resources - rebounding from the huge losses they experienced after the start of the war in Ukraine, Forbes Russia said.

Russian official's son

• The son of Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson said in an interview published on Saturday that he had served in Ukraine under an assumed name as artillery personnel in the Wagner mercenary force, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported.

• Nikolai Peskov, the 33-year-old son of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, told the privately-owned newspaper that he had served in Ukraine, a rare, public example of the son of a senior Russian official fighting in the war.

- Reuters