MAIN HEADLINES

• U.S. President Joe Biden said, "The single most important thing is for us to stay unified. We have to stay fully, thoroughly united," following a day of meetings in Brussels.

"China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia," added the president. "If Indonesia and others don't agree [to remove Russia from the G20], we should have Ukraine be able to attend the G20 meetings and observing. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine."

Biden also acknowledged the concern about potential food shortages and said: "The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it is imposed upon European countries and our country as well. We have talked about alleviating concerns about food shortages.”

"The U.S. has an obligation to be engaged in all we can do to ease the suffering of innocent women and children."

• The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced the closure of the Russian Permanent Mission to the European Commission, on Thursday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was closed because Russia had withdrawn from the group.

• The Moscow Stock Exchange has partially reopened after a nearly month-long suspension imposed to limit the damage caused by Western sanctions. Trading resumed for around 30 of the largest companies that make up the ruble-denominated MOEX Russia Index, which saw early gains of up to 10 percent.

• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says leaders of NATO members confirmed "major increases of forces" on the alliance's eastern borders, including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. 

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged citizens around the world to take to the streets in protest to mark the one-month anniversary of Russia's invasion of his country.

• Anatoly Chubais, a former Kremlin chief of staff who oversaw liberal economic reforms in the 1990s, has quit his post as Putin's sustainable development advisor, the Kremlin confirms. He has reportedly fled the country in protest at the war.

• Russian energy giant Gazprom said that it was continuing to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from European consumers. The company said requests stood at 104 million cubic metres for March 24, down from 106.5 million cubic metres the previous day.

• Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Moscow to discuss the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians trapped in the fighting. "We certainly discussed the international humanitarian law and provisions of the Geneva Conventions in regard to conduct of hostilities... that civilians must be protected," Peter Maurer said.

• French car giant Renault has announced it is immediately suspending operations at its Moscow factory after Kyiv called for a boycott of the company for remaining in Russia. Renault is also considering "the possible options" for its Russian affiliate AvtoVAZ, the company said in a statement.

• A Russian journalist for the investigative news outlet The Insider has been killed when Russian troops shelled a residential neighborhood in the Ukrainian capital, according to the outlet.

IN DETAIL

Partial trading resumes

The Moscow Stock Exchange resumed trading of some shares on Thursday, the second stage in a phased re-opening after being suspended for a month due to Russia's military operation in Ukraine. 

Trading renewed for only 33 of the largest companies that make up the ruble-denominated MOEX Russia Index, which saw gains of 10 percent at opening but closed at 4.4 percent.

The RTS Index, which is calculated in US dollars, was down 9.0 percent as markets closed. 

The companies trading on Thursday include Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, and the country's largest banks Sberbank and VTB, which are under U.S. sanctions.

Other companies trading on the market include metals giants Nornickel and Rusal, several private companies and Russia's flag-carrier airline Aeroflot.

The Moscow Stock Exchange suspended trading hours after President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops into pro-Western Ukraine on February 24. It started a phased re-opening on Monday with trading in federal government bonds, after the longest hiatus since the fall of the Soviet Union. 

Russia's central bank said on Wednesday that trading would be limited to just over four hours and short selling would be banned in an effort to prevent speculative deals. Also, foreigners are not allowed to sell their shares, as part of measures taken by Russia to stem the flight of foreign currency and capital. 

More sanctions

The U.S. announced a fresh wave of sanctions against Russian lawmakers, oligarchs and defense companies in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The measures, which involve freezing US-held assets, single out 328 members of Russia's lower house State Duma, and 48 defense companies "that fuel (President Vladimir) Putin's war machine", said a statement released as US President Joe Biden attended summits in Brussels focused on the war.

Britain has also imposed sanctions on 59 more Russian individuals and entities, as well as six Belarusian enterprises over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Britain also targeted six more banks, Russian Railways, the defense company Kronshtadt - the main producer of Russian drones - and diamond giant Alrosa, according to the foreign ministry.

All those sanctioned will see their British assets frozen, so no UK citizen or company will be able to do business with them, while individuals will also be subject to travel bans prohibiting them from travelling to or from Britain.

The latest measures will bring the total global asset value of the banks the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to £500 billion ($660 billion), according to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. The net worth of oligarchs and family members targeted totals more than £150 billion ($198 billion), it added.

Zelenskyy's plea

A month since Russia launched its shock invasion, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded on Thursday that NATO must "save" his shattered country with unrestricted military aid.

Although Kyiv and western intelligence report battlefield gains against the Russians, the vast scale of civilian suffering was made stark as the UN said more than half of all of Ukraine's children have had to flee their homes.

After urging global street protests to denounce the war, the Ukrainian leader told NATO leaders that Russia had unleashed phosphorus bombs on Ukraine along with indiscriminate shelling of civilians.

"A month of heroic resistance. A month of the darkest suffering," he said in a video speech to U.S. President Joe Biden and other alliance leaders, at the first of three Brussels summits that are expected to impose tighter sanctions on Russia.

"To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions," Zelenskyy said. "In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us."