TOP HEADLINES

• The European Union will encourage member countries to cut gas demand by incentivising industries to use less, in a bid to prepare for possible further cuts to Russian supply, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters news agency.

• Russian energy giant Gazprom said it could not guarantee the good functioning of Nord Stream and did not know if a "critical" turbine engine would be returned from repair in Canada. Gazprom started 10 days of maintenance on Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, with the EU - particularly gas-reliant Germany - waiting nervously to see if the taps will be turned back on. 

• Russian forces launched "massive" strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, with missiles hitting two medical facilities and residential buildings, the city's mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said. The regional head, Vitaliy Kim, said 12 people have been wounded in the attacks.

• Russia's defense ministry said that Russian forces shot down four Ukrainian military jets in Ukraine. 

• Lithuania will adhere to the European Union executive's advice that sanctioned Russian goods can transit to the Kaliningrad exclave, a foreign ministry statement said.

• The Turkish defense ministry said Russian and Ukrainian defense delegations have concluded their closed-door talks on unblocking Black Sea grain exports. The Turkish ministry issued a one-sentence statement saying the talks had "ended", without specifying if any progress had been made in the first direct negotiations between the two sides since March. READ MORE BELOW

• Russian authorities in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson accused Kyiv of burning crops and mining fields, and causing a predicted 200,000-tonne drop in the region's wheat harvest. "It is not just the burned crops which are lost - the fields ... are partly mined," Russian news agency TASS quoted reported regional Russian occupying administration head Vladimir Saldo as saying.

• More than 9 million people have crossed the border from Ukraine since Russia started its military campaign in the country, according to the UN Refugee Agency. A total of 9,136,006 border crossings have been recorded since the Russian offensive began on February 24, the agency's tally showed.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of forcibly deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia, accusing Moscow of a deliberate criminal operation to depopulate parts of Ukraine.

• The European Space Agency has officially terminated cooperation with Russia on a mission to put a rover on Mars, with Russia's space chief furiously responding by banning cosmonauts on the ISS from using a Europe-made robotic arm.

• Most Ukrainian refugees want to return home as soon as possible but expect to stay in their host countries until hostilities subside, according to a United Nations survey Wednesday.

IN DETAIL

Russia-Ukraine talks: 'There is still a way to go'

Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish military delegations met with UN officials in Istanbul for talks on resuming exports of Ukrainian grain from the major Black Sea port of Odesa as a global food crisis worsens.

Turkey has been working with the United Nations to broker a deal after Russia's offensive in Ukraine sent prices soaring for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer. 

The Interfax news agency quoted the spokesperson for Russia's defense ministry as saying that Moscow had presented a package of proposals for a "speedy practical resolution of this issue" during Wednesday's meeting.

It was not immediately clear whether any progress had been made during the talks.

"We are working hard indeed but there is still a way to go," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Tuesday. "Many people are talking about it. We prefer to try and do it."

Ukraine and Russia are major global wheat suppliers, and Russia is also a large fertilizer exporter, while Ukraine is a significant producer of corn and sunflower oil. 

Diplomats say details of the plan under discussion include Ukrainian vessels guiding grain ships in and out through mined port waters; Russia agreeing to a truce while shipments move; and Turkey - supported by the United Nations - inspecting ships to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling.

The Interfax news agency quoted Pyotr Ilyichev, head of the international organizations department at the Russian foreign ministry, as saying Russia is ready to facilitate the navigation of foreign commercial vessels to export Ukrainian grain.

He added that Russia wants to control and inspect vessels to rule out "arms smuggling".

News agency RIA quoted another diplomatic source as saying that Russia's demands include the removal of "obstacles to the exports" created by Western sanctions.