TOP HEADLINES

· Russian forces are launching sustained attacks on the besieged city of Bakhmut, a location Moscow considers a key to taking the whole of the eastern Donetsk region. The leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said the Ukrainians were putting up "furious resistance" trying to hold the city at all costs. READ MORE BELOW

· The front line in Ukraine is a "grinding slog," according to top U.S. defense official Colin Kahl, who said he did not expect Russia to be able to make significant territorial gains in the short term.

· Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his security services to boost its activity to counter what claimed was increasing espionage and sabotage against Russia by Ukraine and the West.

· A drone crashed near a natural gas distribution station near Moscow in an apparent failed attack 110 kilometers from the Russian capital, according to the regional governor. Kyiv has said it does not attack Russian territory, a claim the Kremlin said on Wednesday it did not believe. 

· Russia's defense ministry says its forces repelled a massive drone attack on Crimea by Ukrainian forces. 

· The Ukraine conflict has been centerstage as foreign ministers from the world's richest nations, the G20, meet in India this week, with the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell saying the success of the gathering in New Delhi would be measured by what it could do about the war and its impact.

· Russia has brought new law amendments to parliament that proposes sentencing people to up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces and Russian military organizations like the Wagner Group.

· Kyiv's appeal to the UN and Türkiye to start talks on extending a grain export deal has been met with no response as of yet, according to Ukrainian government source.

· Russia's revenues from oil and gas exports dropped by nearly 40 percent in January amid price caps and Western sanctions, the International Energy Agency said.

IN DETAIL

Russian forces continued their assault on Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle the strategic eastern Ukrainian city from the north and south in a bid to close the last remaining routes in. Despite the fierce fighting, thousands of residents remain inside the ruined city which had a pre-war population of around 70,000.

"It is frightening indeed," said a middle-aged man bundled in a coat and wooly hat on the steps of his apartment block. "As long as my home is intact and I am not hurt, I will stay here."

In a briefing on Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian military said: "The enemy continues to advance in the direction of Bakhmut. He does not stop storming the city."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video address late on Tuesday, said the battle was "most difficult" but its defense was essential.

"Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing," Zelenskyy said.

The area around Bakhmut is along a section of the frontline where Russia has made substantial gains during a winter offensive which has seen some of the worst fighting of the conflict. However, the leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said the Ukrainians were putting up "furious resistance" trying to hold the city at all costs.

Kyiv has maintained much of its defenses over the winter months ahead of its expected counter-attack later this year which will be bolstered new weapons including tanks promised by the West.

March 1 is the first day of spring and frozen ground is already starting to melt at the front, bringing an end to the "rasputitsa" - a season of black mud notorious in military history for destroying armies trying to attack across the territory of Ukraine and western Russia.