TOP HEADLINES

• Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymr Zelenskyy by phone, said that dialogue and negotiations were the only viable way out of the Ukraine crisis.

• Zelenskyy said the discussion was "long and meaningful" and hoped it would help boost relations with China. The Kremlin also welcomed the talks.

• The head of the Russia's Wagner mercenary group said Kyiv's preparation for its "inevitable" Spring counter-offensive included sending well-prepared units to the strategic city of Bakhmut, the focus of fighting in the country's east. READ MORE BELOW

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that allies of the Western military alliance had delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine ahead of its expected counter-strike against Russian troops.

• In preparation for the attack, Russia has been digging a vast network of anti-tank ditches and trenches from western Russia through eastern Ukraine and on to Crimea.

• One person was killed and 23 people were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block and houses in the southern city of Mykolaiv, officials said.

• The Kremlin said relations with European countries were at the lowest possible level and that the expulsion of Russian diplomats was limiting the space for diplomacy. In recent days, Moldova, Sweden and Norway were among European states to expel Russian diplomats, triggering similar measures from Moscow.

• A reporter for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica has been injured and his Ukrainian fixer killed during an ambush in southern Ukraine, according to the paper.

IN DETAIL 

Signs of "inevitable" counter-offensive in Bahkmut

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said Ukrainian troops were pouring in to the strategic city of Bakhmut ahead of Kyiv's "inevitable" counter-offensive.

The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, in a report on Facebook, said fighting continued to grip the frontline focal point in Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, but he added that Russian troops had failed to advance to the northwest.

Separately, a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern group of forces added that Russia had attacked 324 times using artillery and multiple rocket launchers in the last 24 hours.

"The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmut to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortifications," Cherevatiy said.

After nine months of fighting, Bakhmut remains Russia's primary target in Ukraine's east, with the head of the Wagner mercenary group claiming to have captured 80 percent of the city.

On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video message: "Today, well-trained enemy units are already being thrown into Bakhmut ... A counter-offensive by the Ukrainians is inevitable."

President Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian troops could pull out of Bakhmut if encircled, but if the city falls, Russia will be able to send its resources elsewhere, which could hamper Kyiv's counter offensive elsewhere. 

Ukraine's military has made no comment on a new counter-offensive to recapture Russian-occupied areas in the northeast and the south.

However, in Washington, the top U.S. general in Europe said Ukraine's military would get the weaponry it needed in time, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoing similar sentiments. 

"More than 98 percent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered. That means over 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks, and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition," he said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades. This will put Ukraine in the strong position to continue to retake occupied territory," he added.

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