TOP HEADLINES

· Ukraine has decided to fight on in the ruined city of Bakhmut because the battle is pinning down Russia's best units and degrading them ahead of a planned Ukrainian spring counter-offensive, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. READ MORE BELOW

· Russia's advances have appeared to slow amid highly public complaints from Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private militia leading the assault in Bakhmut, that the military command was failing to provide his men with enough ammunition.

· Britain's Ministry of Defense said the reason for the longer lull in Russian shelling was probably because Moscow was running out of missiles.

· Ukraine handed suspicion notices, meaning they are under investigation, to three former top managers of aircraft manufacturer Antonov for obstructing the country's military and allowing Russia to destroy the iconic giant 'Mriya' cargo plane at the start of the full-scale conflict.

· Ukrainian officials have ordered a historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex in Kyiv where it is based, the latest move against a denomination regarded with deep suspicion by the government.

· Russia has cautioned allies across the former Soviet Union of the perils of aligning with the U.S. after what Moscow said was a Western-backed coup attempt in Georgia similar to the Ukrainian 'Maidan' revolution of 2014.

· Canada has banned the import of all Russian aluminum and steel products in a move that Ottawa said was aimed at denying Moscow the ability to fund its conflict against Ukraine.

· The conflict in Ukraine is driven by the interests of several "empires" and not just of Russia's, Pope Francis said. He expressed a readiness to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for peace.

· The European Union could soon top up the fund used for purchasing weapons for Ukraine by $3.7 billion, a senior EU official said.

· The U.S. accused Russia of seeking to destabilize Moldova and said it would help the Eastern European country fight off such attempts by sharing information and providing other assistance, the White House said.

· The British government has written to Olympic sponsors urging them to pressure the International Olympic Committee over its proposal to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete at next year's Paris Games, British media reported.

IN DETAIL

Ukraine to continue fight for Bakhmut to grind down Russians

Ukraine has decided to fight on in the ruined city of Bakhmut because the battle is pinning down Russia's best units and degrading them ahead of a planned Ukrainian spring counter-offensive, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The comments by Mykhailo Podolyak were the latest signal of a shift by Kyiv this week to continue the defense of the small eastern city, site of the conflict's bloodiest battle, as Moscow tries to secure its first major victory in more than half a year.

"Russia has changed tactics," Podolyak said in an interview published by Italy's La Stampa newspaper. "It has converged on Bakhmut with a large part of its trained military personnel, the remnants of its professional army, as well as the private companies.

"We, therefore, have two objectives: to reduce their capable personnel as much as possible, and to fix them in a few key wearisome battles, to disrupt their offensive and concentrate our resources elsewhere, for the spring counter-offensive. So, today Bakhmut is completely effective, even exceeding its key tasks."

Russia has made Bakhmut the main target of a winter push involving hundreds of thousands of reservists and mercenaries.

It has captured the eastern part of the city and outskirts to the north and south, but has so far failed to close a ring around Ukrainian defenders.

Kyiv, which had seemed at the start of March to be planning to withdraw westward, announced this week that its generals had decided to reinforce Bakhmut and fight on.

Russia's advances have appeared to slow amid highly public complaints from Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private militia leading Russia's assault, that the military command was failing to provide his men with enough ammunition.

Prigozhin on Friday thanked the government publicly for a "heroic" increase in output - but in the same audio message said he was "worried about ammunition and shell shortages not only for Wagner, but for all units of the Russian army."

Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would punch a hole in Ukrainian defenses and be a step towards seizing all of Ukraine's Donbas industrial region, a major target.

Trench warfare, described by both sides as a meat grinder, has claimed a huge toll. But Kyiv's decision to stay and fight suggests it believes Russia's losses far exceed its own.