Moscow welcomed the call of the Chinese and Ukrainian presidents. Positions on the front line at Bachmuth were hit.

Russia denies planning for nuclear escalation. She advises against testing her patience

Xavier Bettel (left) and Stoltenberg during a press conference in Brussels. EBA

Russia yesterday denied any intention or planning for a nuclear escalation, while advising others not to test Moscow's patience. While the Russian Foreign Ministry said full implementation of the deal to export grain through the Black Sea was the only way to save the agreement from collapse, the Kremlin welcomed any move that could contribute to ending the conflict in Ukraine, following the phone call between the Chinese and Ukrainian presidents.

In detail, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said yesterday that her country does not intend to go down the path of nuclear escalation, but advised others not to test Moscow's patience. Moscow does not consider the implementation of the Black Sea grain export agreement satisfactory, it said.

She explained that the agreement can only be saved by fully implementing it, and that it is not "a table from which you can choose."

Moscow says the terms of the agreement to allow it to export its agricultural goods are not being met.

Zakharova told a news conference that U.N. efforts to save the deal were not enough.

The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, allows Ukrainian grain to be safely exported from the country's Black Sea ports, but Russia has repeatedly said it will not allow the deal to be extended beyond May 18 unless the West works to end obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports.

The Kremlin said yesterday that it welcomes anything that could contribute to ending the conflict in Ukraine, in response to a question about Russia's position on the phone call held by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.

But the Kremlin said there was still a need to achieve the goals of what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was aware of the details of what the two leaders discussed and that their positions on the conflict were well known. "We are ready to welcome anything that could hasten the end of the conflict in Ukraine and Russia's achievement of all the goals it has set for itself."

"The mere fact that they communicated is a matter of sovereignty for both of them, and a matter of their bilateral dialogue," he said.

Asked if Russia and China had recently discussed the issue of Ukraine's return to its border in 1991 during the Chinese president's recent visit to Moscow, Peskov replied: "This was not discussed."

The Chinese and Ukrainian presidents spoke on Wednesday for the first time since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February last year, fulfilling one of Kiev's goals, which has publicly sought such talks for months.

Ukraine's president has expressed optimism that he will be able to use China's influence in the war with Russia, after having a phone conversation with the Chinese president for the first time since last year's Russian war.

Zelenskiy said in his daily video address released after the call: "There is an opportunity to use China's political influence to restore the strength of the principles and rules on which peace should be based."

"Ukraine and China, as well as the vast majority of the world, are equally interested in the strength of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states," he added.

On the ground, Russian forces bombed the city of Bakhmout, which has become a focal point in Russia's months-long attempts to control the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass, while the head of Russia's Wagner Special Military Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Ukrainian troops were pouring into the city ahead of an "inevitable" counterattack.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced in a report published on Facebook that fighting is raging in Bakhmout and nearby areas. It said Russian forces had failed to advance towards two villages to the northwest, while at least 12 areas had come under Russian fire.

Serhiy Chirevati, spokesman for the group of forces concentrated in eastern Ukraine, told national television that in the past hours Russian forces launched 324 attacks using artillery and multi-barrel rocket launchers. "The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmout to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortresses."

The governor of Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region said Russian missiles hit a residential building and a house in the city of the same name.

Russia's Wagner Group has led most of the advance in Pakhmut, and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said this month that his forces had taken control of 80 percent of the city.

Prigozhin, a critic of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, added that his forces "will advance at all costs just to crush the Ukrainian army and obstruct its offensive."

In Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, said the Ukrainian military would get the weapons it needed in due course. General Christopher explained that more than 98 percent of the combat vehicles pledged to Kiev have already been delivered.

Military analyst Denis Popovich told Ukrainian NV radio that it was unlikely that the course of things in Pakhmut would change anytime soon.

"If Bakhmout falls, Russia will have the resources to send its troops elsewhere.