As the conflict enters its 417th day, we review key developments.
This is the situation on Sunday, April 16, 2023:
To fight
The Russian mercenary group Wagner has seized two more areas in Bakhmut, the city where fighting has been concentrated for months, the Russian defense ministry said.
The death toll has risen in a Russian missile strike in another eastern Ukrainian city, Sloviansk. Eleven dead and 21 injured have now been confirmed. The missiles hit residential buildings on Friday, reducing parts of the apartment buildings to a jumble of metal and concrete.
Four people were killed and 10 injured by Ukrainian shelling of a residential area in the Russian-controlled city of Yasynuvata, south of Sloviansk, the top Russian-installed official in the region said.
The Reuters news agency could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
Russia’s regular military conscription is progressing as planned and there are no plans to send mass electronic notifications under a system just signed by President Vladimir Putin, a top official said.
Prisoners released
The Wagner group sent at least 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war back to the Ukrainian armed forces to celebrate Orthodox Easter, according to a video posted by the mercenary group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Economy
A new $115 billion international economic aid package gives Ukraine more confidence that it can triumph in the war with Russia as expectations grow that the conflict could drag on longer than expected, Ukraine’s finance minister Serhiy Marchenko told Reuters.
Poland and Hungary have decided to ban imports of grain and other food products from neighboring Ukraine to protect their local agricultural sectors, the two governments said after a surge in supply depressed prices across the region.
Belarusian furniture company Swed House, which sells items that are supposed to look like those from Swedish giant IKEA, opened its first store in Moscow to a mixed initial response from consumers.