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A school in Kharkiv, Ukraine, nicknamed Zolushka, which means Cinderella. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

A school in Kharkiv, Ukraine, nicknamed Zolushka, which means Cinderella.

In the city of Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, there is a kindergarten classroom with bright yellow and green walls and long, gauzy curtains. It's filled with toys and books.

The lockers purple, green and yellow with name tags on the front: Sofiia, Daniel, Bohdan are still filled with children's belongings: shoes, backpacks and a drawing of a snowman.

But these days, there are no children.

In August, Russian artillery hit the school building, shattering windows and covering classrooms in debris. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

In August, Russian artillery hit the school building, shattering windows and covering classrooms in debris.

A blessing, given that on a sunny day last August, a Russian artillery attack hit the school building, shattering nearly every window in the classroom. A fate thousands of schools across Ukraine have met since the war with Russia began.

"It's not the damage to the school that I mourn," Yana Tsyhanenko, the head of school, said that day as she surveyed the damage, the glass crunching under her feet. "It's the destruction of childhood."

Under the dust and debris, the classroom told a story of life before the war, of the lives of 27 students and their teacher, disrupted and forever changed.

Students' names are listed on their kindergarten lockers. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Students' names are listed on their kindergarten lockers.

The lunch menu with the date Feb. 24 the day that Russia invaded was still hanging on the wall, advertising the buckwheat soup and cabbage that was never served. A chess game was frozen mid-match, waiting for someone to make the next move.

Near a window, a cluster of plastic pots with the sprouts of African violets sat on a table, each flower planted by a student in the days before schools in Kharkiv shut down. A gift for their mothers. Ready to grow. Full of potential.

"It's not the damage to the school that I mourn," says Yana Tsyhanenko, the head of school. "It's the destruction of childhood." Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

"It's not the damage to the school that I mourn," says Yana Tsyhanenko, the head of school. "It's the destruction of childhood."

So often in war, the buildings that have been damaged are the most visible. But what about the invisible damage? The human, less-deadly, far-deeper scars?

What had happened to the children who once learned here?

Answering that question began an eight-month journey across Ukraine and Europe and to the United States. Time spent with children who now want to drive tanks or fly jets when they grow up, who have trouble sleeping, and who are scared. Friendships uprooted, children struggling to remember, others wanting to forget. But also children laughing and learning new languages and beginning to dream.

Their stories make up one kindergarten classroom, but they also represent the millions of children from Ukraine who have left and who have stayed.

Nearly 3,000 schools have been damaged in Ukraine since the war with Russia began in February 2022. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Nearly 3,000 schools have been damaged in Ukraine since the war with Russia began in February 2022.

The teacher in charge of that green classroom is Iryna Sahan, who mixes kindness and authority in a way only someone with nearly 30 years in a classroom can do. In her apartment in Kharkiv's northeast, she unwraps a package of newly printed yearbooks. Each book is filled with photos of her 27 kindergartners. She gets goosebumps as she turns the pages, describing them. "Aurora had a big personality. Sofiia was always in charge. Simeon convinced me to buy that chess set."

Her classroom was like a family. Everyone was busy reading, playing and learning.

"An anthill," she says, "constantly in motion."

Iryna Sahan has been teaching kindergarten for nearly three decades. She describes her classroom as "an anthill, constantly in motion." Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Iryna Sahan has been teaching kindergarten for nearly three decades. She describes her classroom as "an anthill, constantly in motion."

Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine, just an hour from the border with Russia. And in those first days of war, it was a scary place. At 7 a.m. on Feb. 24, the morning of the invasion, Sahan sent a text message to the classroom's group chat: "Dear Parents ... this is the information we have at the moment," she wrote. All schools in Kharkiv are closed.

In the days that followed, the parents used the text chain to share evacuation routes, news of power outages, and their families' plans for where they would go.

Of the 27 students in that green and yellow kindergarten class, ultimately, more than half would leave the country driving south through Moldova or west into Poland. For some, it was easier. They had relatives abroad, preexisting plans to emigrate, or a destination in mind. For others, it was much harder: weeks or months living in refugee camps in Poland and Germany; constantly moving from one country to another in search of housing, jobs and stability.

Through that group chat and social media, Sahan follows their journeys in Spain, the United States, Latvia and Germany.

About a dozen of the families stayed in Ukraine, leaving Kharkiv for destinations farther west: Kyiv, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi.

They packed lightly and left in a hurry.

By September, only one family was still living in the city of Kharkiv.

Sofiia Kuzmina, one of the oldest of Iryna Sahan's former students, is confident and tall; her shoulder-length blond hair is often pulled up in a knot at the top of her head. She likes to dance and sing and play dress-up. Yellow is her favorite color.

On a clear afternoon in September, she spins on the metal merry-go-round on the playground that separates her family's apartment building from the kindergarten, with the destroyed rainbow steps and the boarded-up windows in the background.

Sofiia Kuzmina gathers leaves on an empty playground in Kharkiv. Her mother, Natalia, says Sofiia has gotten used to playing by herself. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Sofiia Kuzmina gathers leaves on an empty playground in Kharkiv. Her mother, Natalia, says Sofiia has gotten used to playing by herself.

Now enrolled in an online first grade, she says she still remembers everything about kindergarten: the hairdressing station where Iryna Sahan braided her hair, playing games with her friend Aurora, learning to write her name with her friend Bohdan.

As her mother watches from a nearby bench, she gives up on the playground equipment and heads for a row of bushes, where she begins to collect leaves and sticks, mumbling to herself as she searches.

There are no other children on the playground. Kharkiv, which is frequently shelled by Russian forces at night, remains pretty empty. As Sofiia gathers her leaf collection, Natalia Kuzmina explains that her daughter has gotten used to playing by herself.

Sofiia approaches and hands her mom a pile of greens. "It's salad," she says with a smile. Natalia pretends to take a bite. "Thank you. Yum yum!"

Natalia Kuzmina and her daughter Sofiia in Kharkiv. "I came back to Kharkiv for my children," she says. "It's important that children stay at home." Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Natalia Kuzmina and her daughter Sofiia in Kharkiv. "I came back to Kharkiv for my children," she says. "It's important that children stay at home."

In the weeks following the invasion last February, Sofiia's family left the city and spent time at a cottage farther west. But it was short-lived, and they soon returned. "I wanted to go back," Sofiia explains, resting her head on her mother's shoulder, "because here I can choose any of my toys, and there I didn't have any toys."

Natalia says that despite the danger at home, she can't imagine moving and living elsewhere. "I came back to Kharkiv for my children. It's important that children stay at home," she says. "And for me, I'm the person for whom it is really difficult to adjust."

But she and her husband have struggled to find work here, and being so close to the fighting has its challenges for Sofiia. Natalia explains that before the invasion, her daughter was a leader in the kindergarten, social and calm. But the war has changed her. "Now she reacts to everything in a more emotional way," Natalia says. "She will demand something or be argumentative. Sometimes she will cry with no reason."

Sofiia has become more emotional in the last year. "Sometimes she will cry with no reason," her mom says. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Sofiia has become more emotional in the last year. "Sometimes she will cry with no reason," her mom says.

Her parents do everything they can to shield Sofiia from what's happening. They don't talk about the war with her, and they try to put Sofiia to bed before the nightly shelling begins so she sleeps through the explosions. "The earlier, the better," Natalia says, laughing. She's not above lying if she has to: "Oh, that loud sound? That's just a car ... or maybe construction. Nothing to worry about."

About 13 hours across Ukraine by train, in the western city of Lviv, Bohdan Semenukha's mom, Viktoria, has taken a very different approach.

"Our children know everything," she explains, as she sits on the couch in an apartment her family borrows from friends. Her son, Sofiia's former classmate, Bohdan, sits next to her. She begins to quiz him.

Bohdan Semenukha and his mom, Viktoria, look at photos from before the invasion. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Bohdan Semenukha and his mom, Viktoria, look at photos from before the invasion.

"Who made you leave Kharkiv?"

"Russia," he says, looking up at her, his small face eagerly awaiting the next question.

"Why do you love Ukraine?"

"Because I was born here," he says.

"Who made Ukrainians leave their home?"

"Putin."

Bohdan's new school in Lviv is taught in person. There's a shelter in the basement in case of air raid sirens or missile attacks. "I'm the smartest person in my class," Bohdan boasts. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Bohdan's new school in Lviv is taught in person. There's a shelter in the basement in case of air raid sirens or missile attacks. "I'm the smartest person in my class," Bohdan boasts.

They left Kharkiv in a panic last February, driving 36 hours to reach Lviv, close to the border with Poland. Viktoria says it's the safest place they could be that's still in Ukraine. Bohdan's father stayed behind in Kharkiv, assisting the military in their defense.

"Bohdan grew up in an instant," Viktoria says, as Bohdan plays with the family dog, Simba, who made the trip to Lviv sitting on Bohdan's lap. "We didn't have time for filtering things. He saw everything." At first, he was anxious, she says. He started to regress, often sucking on the corner of his T-shirt. Unlike Sofiia's mom, Viktoria felt that telling him everything might help him regain some power and control.

In western Ukraine, the war can feel farther away than in Kharkiv, but air raid sirens are still common in Lviv, and there have been a handful of recent missile strikes.

Bohdan's family left Kharkiv in a panic last February. "We didn't have time for filtering things," his mom says. "He saw everything." Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Bohdan's family left Kharkiv in a panic last February. "We didn't have time for filtering things," his mom says. "He saw everything."

As Bohdan and his mom were driving home from school one day this winter, an air raid siren went off. Bohdan leaned forward and asked his mom, "Does it mean that there are rockets above or missiles in the sky?"

"No, I don't think so," Viktoria tells him.

"But what if they can get us?" he squeaks, his hands holding the seat in front of him.

It's a delicate balance, of knowing what's happening but still being able to just be a kid. At this moment, Viktoria reassures him it's OK. She often does this when he gets anxious or stressed.

Bohdan eats borscht after school in the apartment his family is borrowing from a friend in Lviv, Ukraine. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Bohdan eats borscht after school in the apartment his family is borrowing from a friend in Lviv, Ukraine.

On the day Iryna Sahan shared that yearbook of all the children in her class, she pointed to a photo of two blond children smiling up at the camera. "This is young love," she said, laughing.

They're in so many photos together. Sitting next to each other, marching down the hall, one in front of the other. Aurora Demchenko, headstrong and sweet, and Daniel Bizyayev, who loves soccer and is a good listener. Sahan remembered how they'd sit next to each other and giggle, sometimes distracting the other students.

What had happened to them? Were they still in touch?

All Sahan knew was that the war had driven these two best friends the farthest away of any of her students from Kharkiv, and from each other.

The Bizyayevs now live in a suburban neighborhood about an hour north of New York City. On a crisp November afternoon, Daniel steps off the yellow school bus he's ridden home and takes his mom Kristina's hand. They pass pumpkins and yard ghosts, left over from Halloween, on their way to their white two-story house with a large flag in the window. It's half Ukrainian and half American.

Daniel Bizyayev, his parents and two younger brothers now live in a suburban neighborhood about an hour north of New York City. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Daniel Bizyayev, his parents and two younger brothers now live in a suburban neighborhood about an hour north of New York City.

Their new house, which Daniel shares with his parents and two brothers, is pretty empty. There is some basic furniture and a room filled with toys, but the walls remain bare. They left Ukraine so fast, they weren't able to take much with them. Daniel's been missing his bedroom back in Kharkiv. "There were so many books," he remembers. "There were so many stories."

He does have one hardcover book that reminds him of before the war: It's a version of that kindergarten yearbook Iryna Sahan had in Kharkiv.

"This is me and this is me," he says, pointing to photos of himself. In so many of the photos of Daniel, Aurora is standing right next to him. Often, they're holding hands.

"She likes to play soccer and to play cars," he says. They were always together, says Kristina, who's been standing nearby. "Daniel loves her because she is not so girlish."

"It's all a little bit different here because you have your own house," Daniel says in English. "In Ukraine, you usually live in an apartment. There's no upstairs." Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

"It's all a little bit different here because you have your own house," Daniel says in English. "In Ukraine, you usually live in an apartment. There's no upstairs."

Daniel's parents, Kristina, who worked in marketing, and Yevgeniy, who ran a textile business, had been planning to immigrate to the United States since before Daniel was born. He'd been learning English in anticipation, while the adults worked on saving money, getting the paperwork together and coordinating with Yevgeniy's brother, who lives in the States. When the invasion came last February, they moved up their timeline.

"We wanted to save our lives and the lives of our children," Kristina explains. "For us, it was obvious to leave." As a parent, she says, you make decisions every day. When to wake up. To drink coffee. "Some decisions are harder to make than others," she says. "We never imagined we'd have to make this decision, but that's what we did."

Daniel's parents had been planning to immigrate to the United States since before Daniel was born. The war moved up their timeline. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

Daniel's parents had been planning to immigrate to the United States since before Daniel was born. The war moved up their timeline.

After the invasion, they stayed first in Moldova, Romania, and then Germany. Daniel's youngest brother, Leo, spent his first birthday in a refugee camp. In April, they arrived in West Haven, Conn., to stay with a host family they'd never met but connected with through the website UkraineTakeShelter.com. And then right before the school year started, they moved into that white house in New York state.

While Daniel's been making new friends at school and on his soccer team, he's really been missing Ukraine and Aurora. At night, he hugs his stuffed bear, pretending it's her. Over the summer, Daniel sent her a video message. "Kisses for you," he says, blowing kisses at the camera.

Aurora and her family never answered that message Daniel sent. Was it too painful to stay in touch? Or had they just gotten busy, adjusting to life in a new country?

Nearly 4,000 miles away, in Valencia, Spain, Aurora Demchenko's new school has a slide that goes all the way down to the lower-level floor, half inside and half outside. It's an international school, with instruction in English, where she and her two older brothers now go to class.

A few months after the visit with Daniel's family, Aurora is at school, sitting with two other girls on the blue foam carpet in the first-grade classroom. She wears her white and navy blue school uniform. Her long blond hair is pinned up with a red Minnie Mouse bow.

"Aurora, how are you feeling today?" her teacher, Amanda Green, asks. "So-so," Aurora replies in a quiet voice. "So-so," Green repeats. "Thank you for being honest."

At Aurora's school in Spain, students come from all over the world, but in just her class, there are seven Ukrainian children. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

At Aurora's school in Spain, students come from all over the world, but in just her class, there are seven Ukrainian children.

As class begins, students chatter in a multitude of languages: English, Spanish, a little German and Russian. The school's students come from all over the world, but in just this classroom, Aurora is one of seven Ukrainian children.

In Ukraine, Iryna Sahan remembers Aurora having a big personality, but in her new class, she is more timid and reserved. When she started school here in the fall, she could hardly speak any English.

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War in Ukraine causes a kindergarten class to spread out over the ... - NPR

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraines foreign minister said Thursday his country wont budge from its demand that Russia withdraw its forces from Crimea, as well as from other parts of Ukraine that Moscow illegally annexed more recently, for the war to end.

Calling the conflict in Ukraine a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said all his countrys territory must be treated equally in dealing with the Kremlin after its full-scale invasion more than 13 months ago.

We are united by U.N. charter principles and the shared conviction that Crimea is Ukraine and it will return under Ukraines control, Kuleba said, speaking by video link to a gathering in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

Every time you hear anyone from any corner of the world saying that Crimea is somehow special and should not be returned to Ukraine, as any other part of our territory, you have to know one thing: Ukraine categorically disagrees with these statements, he said at the Black Sea Security Conference.

Russia took over Crimea in 2014, and during the current war has expanded its presence there. Occasional acts of sabotage and other attacks against Russian military and other facilities on the peninsula have occurred since, with the Kremlin blaming Ukraine. The Kyiv government hasnt claimed responsibility for the attacks but welcomes efforts to repel the Russian presence there.

The Kremlin wants Kyiv to acknowledge Russias sovereignty over Crimea and also recognize Septembers annexation of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine has rejected those demands and wont hold talks with Russia until Moscows troops pull back from all occupied territories.

Though there is no sign of possible peace negotiations, the two countries have sporadically exchanged prisoners of war and have engaged in a wartime deal for the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian grain and fertilizers. The grain deal has helped ease concerns about the global food supply, especially to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many are already struggling with hunger.

The agreement, which was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last July is delicate, however, and has been the subject of repeated threats by Moscow to end it.

In the latest dispute, Russias Foreign Ministry said Thursday that no discussion about extending the Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 would take place until progress was made towards resolving what it called five systemic problems that have resulted from sanctions on Russia over the war.

It said in a statement those issues were reconnecting the state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT international banking system; resuming supplies to Russia of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services; lifting restrictions on insurance and reinsurance and the ban on access to ports; restoring the operation of the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline; and unblocking foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to the production and transportation of food and fertilizers.

Russia agreed last month to extend the grain deal for 60 days instead of the 120 days set under a previous extension to send a warning signal to the West.

On the battlefield, military analysts say, an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in coming months could take aim at the land corridor between Russia and Crimea, hoping to split Russias forces in two.

That would be a daunting military challenge. Satellite images show the Kremlins forces are digging extensive trench systems in the area between mainland Ukraine and the Black Sea peninsula.

The fighting in recent months has become a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain momentum over the winter and often resorting to long-range bombardment.

At least four civilians were killed and 11 were wounded in the latest Russian barrages that continued to hit civilian infrastructure, Ukraines presidential office said Thursday.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces over the previous 24 hours launched 32 airstrikes, two missile strikes and 40 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.

In other developments:

Russias Prosecutor Generals Office has opened an investigation into a video appearing to show the beheading of a Ukrainian serviceman that appeared online this week, according to the government departments press service. It said it intended to assess the reliability of these materials. Ukraine on Wednesday also launched an investigation into what it alleged was the latest atrocity blamed on Russia since it invaded in February 2022.

A Russian mine exploded near a generator room at one of the reactors at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraines state nuclear operator Energoatom said. Russian occupiers continue to turn the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a military base, mining the perimeter around the plant, Energoatom wrote on Telegram. According to sources, an explosion rang out near the engine room of the fourth power unit, the company said.

Europes largest nuclear plant has six reactors, all of which have been shut down over the past year. The U.N.s atomic energy agency has been trying for months to obtain agreement between Ukraine and Russia on securing the plant, whose reactors and other equipment still require an external electricity supply to operate safety systems.

___ Associated Press writers Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Ukraine stands firm on Crimea, wants Russia out of all areas - The Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) Neighbors Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova signed cooperation agreements in Romanias capital Thursday after a trilateral meeting on ways to strengthen security in their Black Sea region to counter threats posed by Russian aggression.

The Black Sea Security Conference in Bucharest brought together the three countries foreign and defense ministers, government officials and international partners. The aim was to address the wide-ranging impact that Moscows war in Ukraine is having on the region.

NATO member Romanias Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu called Russia the most direct and serious threat to the Black Sea region and the Western alliance, and said war-torn Ukraine and embattled Moldova are essential to our future European security.

Instead of peace and stability, the Black Sea region has become the primary target of the Russian aggression, he said, adding that a strong NATO presence there is a must.

After signing the agreements, which aim to boost political, economic, and security cooperation between the three nations, Aurescu said it records the fact that we have similar visions.

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who spoke to the Bucharest gathering by video link called the war a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe and said a security network for countries in the region that feel threatened by the maniac on the loose must be sought.

Its time to turn the Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO, Kuleba said, referring to Finlands recent admission to the NATO military alliance. He also called for a resolute step forward on the path to Ukraines own NATO membership, a move that Western officials are wary of committing to.

After signing the trilateral declaration Thursday, Moldovas Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said that Moldova remains the target of hybrid attempts to destabilize our country and that the impact of Moscows war is being felt by every citizen of non-NATO Moldova.

Moldova, which has faced a long series of crises over the past year including alleged Russia-backed destabilization plots, was granted European Union candidate status last June, the same day as Ukraine.

As well as addressing security issues, the Black Sea Security Conference held on Apr. 12-13 discussed topics including freedom of trade and the facilitation of energy transport routes.

Officials also discussed the importance of countering Russias cyberwarfare efforts. Romanias Aurescu said Moscow is orchestrating (attacks) against the region, against European and Allied states.

Continued here:
Ukraine, Romania, Moldova boost ties at security meeting - The Associated Press

Ukraines economy plummeted in the year that Russia started its war in Ukraine, with the gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 29.1 percent in 2022, data from the state statistics service published late on Wednesday shows.

Ukraines export-led economy has been battered by the consequences of Moscows full-scale invasion in February 2022, with the highly restricted access to Black Sea ports hindering crucial metal and grain shipments and the infrastructure industry dramatically weakened.

In peacetime, Ukraines farmers supplied a tenth of the wheat and half the sunflower oil sold on world markets. Its shipments of grains and oilseeds through the Black Sea fell to zero last March, from 5.7 million metric tons in the previous month.

The Ukrainian government has predicted a slightly harder drop of 30 percent drop in earlier forecasts, with risks and uncertainties remaining high. It expects the economy to grow by 1 percent this year, expecting the situation in the transport, retail and construction sectors to improve.

The sharpest drop in Ukrainian GDP in the decade before 2022s plunge was recorded in 2014, the year of the Russian invasion of Crimea, when GDP dropped by 9.8 percent.

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Ukraines GDP crashed by 29.1 percent in year of Russian invasion - POLITICO Europe

Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a strong statement urging international leaders to act after videos circulated on social media that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers beheaded by Russian forces. One video being circulated appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle. A voice says: They killed them. Someone came up to them. They came up to them and cut their heads off. A second clip, which may have been filmed in summer last year, judging by the appearance of foliage in the clip, claims to show a member of Russian forces using a knife to cut off the head of a Ukrainian soldier. The Guardian has not independently verified the origins and veracity of the two videos, but Ukrainian authorities are treating them as genuine.

The Kremlin has described a video of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground as awful, but questioned the videos authenticity.

Serbia, one of the only countries in Europe that has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed to supply arms to Kyiv or has sent them already, according to a classified Pentagon document. The document, a summary of European governments responses to Ukraines requests for military training and lethal aid or weapons, was among dozens of classified documents posted online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of US secrets in years.

The UK government has imposed sanctions on the financial fixers who have allegedly helped Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets. The new sanctions, unveiled by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as oligarch enablers whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday said the United States will investigate the leak until the source is found. We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it, Austin said during a press conference at the state department.

US intelligence reportedly warned Ukraine in February that it might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall well short of Kyivs goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to a trove of leaked defence documents.

The same leaked US military documents indicate that the UK has deployed as many as 50 special forces to Ukraine. The documents suggest that more than half of the western special forces personnel present in Ukraine between February and March this year may have been British. It is unclear what activities the special forces may have been engaged in or whether the numbers of personnel have been maintained at this level.

The leak of a trove of highly sensitive documents online could be a move by the US to deceive Russia, its deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying Wednesday. Its probably interesting for someone to look at these documents, if they really are documents or they could be a fake or it could be an intentional leak, Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies.

Ryabkov also said Russia was currently considering granting US diplomats consular access to Evan Gershkovich, but that the US designation of the Wall Street Journal reporter as wrongfully detained meant nothing to Russia and would not change its approach to his case. We will not tolerate any attempts to pressure us, and it has no significance what status they assign to this person in Washington. We will act in accordance with our own internal needs, norms and laws that apply in this situation, and nothing more, Tass quoted Ryabkov as saying.

The Kremlin has said the outlook for the Black Sea grain deal was not so great, claiming that promises to remove obstacles to Russian exports of agricultural and fertiliser exports had not been fulfilled. On Tuesday no vessels were cleared to travel using the grain initiative, after Russia scrubbed out the names of three ships, submitted by the Ukrainian side, as they returned home. Ukraines deputy infrastructure minister for seaports and maritime, Yurii Vaskov, described the situation as critical. If the standoff continues, global food prices are likely to go up by 15%, he said.

South Korea has agreed to lend the US 500,000 rounds of artillery, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, as Seoul attempts to minimise the possibility that the ammunition could end up in Ukraine - a move that could spark domestic criticism of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Citing unidentified government sources, the Dong-A Ilbo said South Korea had decided to lend the shells rather than sell them - an approach it believes would lower the likelihood of them eventually being supplied to Kyiv.

Protests by European farmers are political and shipments of Ukrainian grain are not reducing the profitability of their business, Ukrainian food producers union UAC claimed on Wednesday. Poland last week said it would temporarily halt Ukrainian grain imports after farmers protests led Polands agriculture minister to resign, but transit would still be allowed. The political nature of the European farmers strikes is obvious. Ukraine sells some grain to Poland, and this is not a massive amount, Denys Marchuk, deputy chair of the Ukrainian agrarian council (UAC), said in a statement. However, certain forces need to demonstrate that this is due to an oversupply of Ukrainian grain, he said, noting that the country faced elections later this year.

Ukraine has asked India for additional medicines and medical equipment, the South Asian countrys foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The request came during the three-day visit to India by Ukraines deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova.

Russias upper house of parliament has voted to introduce electronic call-up papers via an online portal for the first time. The Federation Councils vote came a day after the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave its approval to changes in the law. The bill will now go to President Vladimir Putin, who is now expected to sign it into law. Changes to the legislation would mean that once an electronic summons is received, citizens who fail to show up at the military enlistment office are automatically banned from travelling abroad.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 413 of the invasion - The Guardian