TOP HEADLINES
· China's senior diplomat Wang Yi praised Beijing-Moscow strategic relations, emphasizing that China is eager to expand them in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday. Wang described the relationship as strong as rock and insisted it wouldn't be influenced by the actions of third parties.

· U.S. President Joe Biden said "we will defend every inch of NATO" to reassure allies on Europe's eastern flank during a meeting in Warsaw. It comes after Moscow suspended a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, which Biden called a "big mistake."

· Russia said it would need to see a change in NATO's stance and a willingness for dialogue before it would consider returning to its last remaining nuclear treaty with the U.S..

· Wang also said "China has been and remains committed… to make efforts to preserve the positive trend in the development of relations between major powers."

· Ukraine schools are taking classes online for the rest of the week for fear of an upsurge of Russian missile attacks to mark the conflict's first anniversary on Friday.

· Russia poses a serious threat to Swedish security and has become increasingly aggressive in its actions, Sweden's security police said on Wednesday. "Russia is currently the single biggest threat (to Sweden)," the Swedish Security Services said in a statement. "The regime's actions are unpredictable and it is inclined to take big risks." READ MORE BELOW

· China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said the New START treaty and other instruments were important for the global security architecture and "the parties concerned should continue to negotiate with each other."

· Ukraine's military said Bakhmut city, the focus of Russian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, came under shelling, along with 20 other settlements in the area.

· Two civilians were wounded in a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv on Wednesday, local officials said. "The enemy is targeting industrial facilities," city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

· Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto urged a ceasefire and peace talks over Ukraine to prevent further escalation of the war into a broader conflict.

· Czechia will continue to aid Ukraine for as long as needed, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said ahead of meeting Biden and leaders of NATO's eastern flank. "We will continue in (our) help for as long as Ukraine needs it," Fiala said.

· The Olympics cannot be divisive and exclude athletes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, defending its plan to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to qualify for the Paris 2024 summer Olympics.

· Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to attend in person a NATO summit taking place in Vilnius in July, Ukraine's ambassador to Lithuania said.

IN DETAIL

Sweden complains of Russian threat

Russia poses a serious threat to Swedish security and has become increasingly aggressive in its actions, Sweden's security police has claimed.

"Russia is currently the single biggest threat (to Sweden)," the Swedish Security Services said in a statement. "The regime's actions are unpredictable and it is inclined to take big risks."

The Security Services said the war in Ukraine had changed the security situation drastically, and that Russia now posed a military threat in Sweden's immediate area as well as threat to Sweden's internal security.

"Russia considers Sweden to be part of Europe, NATO and the collective West and that increases the threat to Sweden," Daniel Stenling, head of counter-intelligence, told a news conference.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year in the wake of Russia's military operation in Ukraine.