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Russia's Central Bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 7.5% at a policy meeting Friday.

It marks the fifth consecutive time the bank has held rates steady. However, policymakers hinted that they may raise rates should inflation continue to move higher.

Russia's annual inflation rate slowed to 2.55% in April, but it is expected to rise to between 5% and 7% later this year, the bank said.

"Given gradually rising inflationary pressures, the Bank of Russia's forthcoming board meetings will consider the necessity of a key rate increase to stabilize inflation close to 4% in 2024 and further on," the central bank said.

Karen Gilchrist

2 Hours Ago

Russia's sanctioned Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, has been fired, according to Reuters, which cited reports from a military blogger and a leading news website.

Mizintsev, dubbed the "Butcher of Mariupol," was sanctioned by the West in June 2022 for orchestrating the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol near the beginning of the war last year.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has been sanctioned by the West and dubbed the "Butcher of Mariupol."

Andre Pain | Afp | Getty Images

He was later appointed as Russia's deputy defense minister in charge of logistics and supplies in September 2022.

His sacking was reported by a Russian military blogger, Alexander Sladkov, and by the RBC news site. Neither outlets offered a reason or explanation for his removal, according to Reuters.

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Karen Gilchrist

2 Hours Ago

Ukraine is finalizing plans for a counteroffensive against Russian forces, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday, noting that it could be launched imminently.

"As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it," Reznikov told an online news briefing, according to Reuters, without providing a specific timeline.

Karen Gilchrist

3 Hours Ago

Rescuers work in the rubble of a damaged residential building in Uman, in southern Kyiv, on April 28, 2023, after Russian missile strikes targeted several Ukrainian cities overnight.

Sergei Supinsky | Afp | Getty Images

Russian missile attacks on residential buildings in cities across Ukraine killed at least 12 people on Friday, according to regional officials, with many others injured.

The airstrikes killed 10 people and injured 17 civilians in the central city of Uman, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. The airstrikes affected 10 residential buildings.

In the city of Dnipro, a residential building was hit by Russian missiles, killing a woman and child and injuring three civilians, according to the city mayor.

Kyiv's regional military administration reported 11 missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in its airspace, with the debris hitting a residential building in the town of Ukrainka.

Sam Meredith

4 Hours Ago

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told CNBC that the country should use China as leverage to help bring an end to the conflict with Russia.

His comments come shortly after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first phone call since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

"I am not fully convinced that we can emphasize something particular after this conversation but what I truly can tell you is that it is important to continue dialogue between our countries," Marchenko told CNBC's Silvia Amaro.

"We really understand the importance of China and we really understand the importance for us to create our own relationship with China and to prevent China to [fully] support Russia."

Asked whether China could be seen as Ukraine's best friend in the bid to find a compromise for peace, Marchenko replied, "Of course not. Our best friend is the United States, the G-7 nations and all our partners which is supporting Ukraine."

He added that Kyiv "should use China as leverage to win this war," saying the country must use every opportunity "to convince Russia to stop this bloody war in Ukraine."

Sam Meredith

4 Hours Ago

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reflected on what he described as another night of Russian terror, saying 10 residential buildings were damaged by missile attacks in the central Ukrainian city of Uman.

He said at the time of sharing his message via Twitter that seven people were killed, while others were injured in the attacks.

"Evil can be stopped by weapons our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions global sanctions must be enhanced," Zelenskyy said.

Sam Meredith

5 Hours Ago

The rubble of a house after shelling at a settlement in the Russian controlled territory of Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 27, 2023.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

A wave of Russian missile attacks early on Friday hit several cities across Ukraine, killing at least five people and injuring others, according to Ukrainian officials.

The barrage comes at a time when analysts see the potential for an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive, with the Eastern European country bolstered by billions of dollars worth of Western military and economic support.

In Uman, in central Ukraine's Cherkasy Oblast, a rescue mission is underway after two cruise missiles hit residential and warehouse buildings, killing three people and injuring eight others, Ihor Taburets, the head of the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration, said via Telegram.

In the central city of Dnipro, the city's mayor said a Russian missile attack killed a young woman and child.

Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv after a Russian airstrike hit the capital for the first time in 51 days, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. No casualties were reported among the civilian population; a local power line was said to have been cut off because of falling debris.

Sam Meredith

5 Hours Ago

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday said the real aim of the West in Ukraine is to strategically defeat Russia, to pose a threat to China, and to maintain its own monopoly position, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

RIA cited him as adding that "almost all" NATO countries had deployed their military capabilities against Russia.

Reuters

20 Hours Ago

Curators at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv display a variety of items left by Russian soldiers when they occupied areas around Kyiv during the first part of Russia's 2022 invasion.

Russia ultimately retreated from the capital area, concentrating its land war in the east.

Exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Visitors look at exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

A man walks down the steps next to exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Boxes of Russian army meals, with Ukrainian text written on one, reading "The trophy. The owner was eliminated by Ukraine's Armed Forces", are exhibited on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Exhibited parts of military vehicles and items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

A museum worker sits next to the portraits of members of the 'Azov' unit that were killed last year in Mariupol during the Russian attack, at the part of the exhibition dedicated to defending of Mariupol's Azovstal on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

18 Hours Ago

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants' cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on April 18, 2023.

Natalia Kolesnikova | Afp | Getty Images

The Biden administration announced a first round of sanctions targeting Russia and Iran for engaging in hostage-taking and the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens abroad.

The U.S. sanctions take aim at Russia's Federal Security Service, often known as the FSB, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, or IRGC IO.

"Our action is a warning to those around the world who would wrongfully detain U.S. nationals, the potential consequences of their actions," a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on a call with reporters.

The administration has identified at least two American citizens wrongfully detained in Russia and three in Iran along with one legal permanent U.S. resident.

During opening remarks before Monday's U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine PaulWhelan, both detained in Russia.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held on suspicion of spying, in the courtroom cage after a ruling regarding extension of his detention, in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 22, 2019.

Shamil Zhumatov | Reuters

Thomas-Greenfield invited Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting.

"I wantministerLavrovtolookintohereyesandseehersuffering.I want you toseewhat it's like tomissyourbrotherforfour years.To know he islocked up, in aRussianpenalcolony, simply because you want touse himfor yourown ends," Thomas-Greenfield said.

Whelan was arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian penal colony in 2020.

Read the full story here.

Amanda Macias

5 Hours Ago

Continued here:
Ukraine war live updates: Russian airstrikes in Ukrainian cities kill at least 12; Kyiv to use China as leverage to win war - CNBC