TOP HEADLINES

• Russian officials on Thursday accused Ukraine of sending helicopters to bomb a town in the southern Bryansk region about 10 kilometers from the border, after reporting seven injured in shelling.

• The Russian navy's Black Sea flagship has been "seriously damaged" by an ammunition explosion, Russia state media says. 

• Ukraine says 30 prisoners of war are being returned to the country as part of the most recent exchange of captives with Russia, following an order from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

• Russian submarines in the Sea of Japan have fired cruise missiles during exercises, the defense ministry said, at a time of tension with Tokyo over its support for Ukraine.

• China defended its stance on the Ukraine conflict as being "on the right side of history". Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian insisted China's position was "objective and impartial", saying "Russia's legitimate security concerns should also be respected".

• The conflict in Ukraine has undercut the global recovery, slowing expected economic growth in most countries in the world, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

• Shares in Petropavlovsk, the London-listed Russian gold miner indirectly hit by sanctions over Moscow's military action in Ukraine, collapsed on Thursday as it fights for survival. 

• Citigroup said it has set aside $1.9 billion in reserves due to the conflict in Ukraine, which was one factor driving a drop in the bank's quarterly earnings.

• Russia's military campaign against Ukraine is "severely" impacting the eurozone economy, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said, with surging energy costs, supply chain disruptions and weaker consumer confidence weighing on growth.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin called for diversification of energy exports towards Asia, while accusing European countries of destabilizing the market by moving to cut out Russian deliveries.

• More than 4.7 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 50 days since the conflict began, the United Nations said, in Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.

• Ukraine's 2022 World Cup play-off with Scotland has been rearranged following the Russian military campaign and will take place on June 1, world football governing body FIFA announced on Thursday.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a "global ceasefire doesn't seem possible", indicating the UN is still awaiting answers from Russia to concrete proposals for evacuating civilians and delivering aid.

• Ukraine says it is reopening humanitarian corridors on Thursday to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from war-scarred regions after a day-long pause that Kyiv attributed to Russian violations.

• One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies warned NATO that if Sweden and Finland joined the U.S.-led military alliance then Russia would have to bolster its defenses in the region, including by deploying nuclear weapons.

• The United States unveiled a major new package of aid to Ukraine, including equipment such as helicopters, howitzers and armored personnel carriers.

• The European Union has closed a loophole that allowed EU governments to export weapons worth tens of millions of euros to Russia last year alone despite an embargo which took effect in 2014 after Russia's action in the Crimea region.

• Overall, 2.6 million people may fall below Russia's official poverty line this year, the World Bank estimates.

IN DETAIL

Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter strike on border town

Russian officials on Thursday accused Ukraine of sending helicopters to bomb a town in the southern Bryansk region about 10 kilometrers from the border, after reporting seven injured in shelling.

"Using two military helicopters carrying heavy weaponry, Ukrainian armed forces illegally entered Russian air space," Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement.

"Flying low, acting deliberately, they carried out at least six air strikes on residential buildings in the settlement of Klimovo," investigators said.

As a result, they said, "at least six residential buildings were damaged... and seven people received injuries of varying severity including one small child born in 2020."

This is the first time that Moscow has officially accused Ukrainian armed forces of flying helicopters into Russia to carry out an attack.

Previously, the governor of Belgorod region in southern Russia, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said two Ukrainian military helicopters had carried out a strike on a fuel depot on April 1, while this was not directly confirmed by Ukraine or Moscow.

Thursday's shelling was announced earlier by Governor Alexander Bogomaz, who said on Telegram that "two residential buildings were damaged and some of the residents were injured". 

A Russian health ministry official, Alexei Kuznetsov, told the RIA Novosti news agency that the seven injured were in hospital, adding that two were in serious condition and required surgery. 

Gladkov later said on Telegram that the village of Spodaryushino close to the border "came under shelling from the Ukrainian side" and residents from this and a nearby village had been evacuated as a precaution.

Also on Thursday, Russia's security agency the FSB told TASS news agency that Ukraine fired at border checkpoint where over 30 Ukrainian refugees were crossing into Russia. 

It added that there were no injuries.         

Russia's Moskva missile cruiser 'seriously damaged' in ammunition explosion

The Russian navy's Black Sea flagship has been "seriously damaged" by an ammunition explosion, Russian state media said on Thursday.

"As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged," the Russian defense ministry was quoted as saying, adding that the cause of the fire was being determined and that the crew had been evacuated.  

Earlier, the governor of Odesa said that Ukrainian forces had hit the Moskva with missile strikes. 

"Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship. Glory to Ukraine!" Governor Maksym Marchenko wrote on Telegram. 

A spokesman for the Odesa military administration, Sergey Bratchuk, said on Telegram that "according to available data, the cause of the 'serious damage' was 'Neptune' domestic cruise missiles". 

Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said that "a surprise happened" with the Moskva.

"It burns strongly. Right now. And with this stormy sea, it is unknown whether they will be able to receive help," he said in a YouTube broadcast. "We don't understand what happened."

The Moskva was originally built in the Soviet era in Ukraine's Mykolaiv, and entered service in the early 1980s, according to Russian media.

With a crew of 510, it was previously deployed in the Syria conflict where it served as naval protection for the Russian forces' Hmeimim airbase. 

The missile cruiser carries 16 P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missiles as well as an array of anti-submarine and mine-torpedo weapons, the reports said. 

The Moskva gained notoriety early in the war when it called on Ukrainian border troops defending the strategic Snake Island to surrender, only to be defiantly refused. 

Civilian evacuations to resume through humanitarian corridors

Ukraine said on Thursday it was reopening humanitarian corridors allowing for the evacuation of civilians after a day-long pause that Kyiv attributed to Russian violations.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media that nine routes in the east and south of the country would be operating a day after they were shut.

"Humanitarian corridors in the Lugansk region will be run under the condition of cessation of shelling by the occupying forces," Vereshchuk said.

Ukrainian authorities have been urging people in the southeastern Donbas area to quickly move west in advance of a feared, large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions, Donetsk and Lugansk.