Russia claims progress in battle for Bakhmut

BAKHMUT, Apr 24 (Reuters/AP): Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in Bakhmut while a top Ukrainian commander said his troops were holding the frontline through the city, all but destroyed in some of the bloodiest combat of the 14-month war.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had secured two blocks in western districts and airborne units were providing reinforcements to the north and south. Russia sees Bakhmut as a stepping stone to more advances in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi shared images on the Telegram messaging app of him poring over a map with three other uniformed men, with the caption "Bakhmut frontline. Our defence continues."
"We hit the enemy, often unexpectedly for him, and continue to hold strategic lines," he wrote. Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private Wagner military force which is leading the Bakhmut assault, has claimed 80% control of the city. Kyiv has repeatedly denied claims its troops are poised to withdraw.
Russia's air force
bombs its own city
When a powerful blast shook a Russian city near the border of Ukraine residents thought it was an Ukrainian attack. But the Russian military quickly acknowledged that it was a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its own warplanes.
Belgorod, a city of 340,000 about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the border, has faced regular drone attacks that Russian authorities blame on the Ukrainian military, but the explosion late Thursday was far more powerful than anything its residents had heard before.
Anger as Chinese envoy questions
post-Soviet nations
China's ambassador to France has sparked anger in eastern Europe and Ukraine while drawing a rebuke from Paris and the EU after questioning the sovereignty of post-Soviet countries.
Speaking Friday on France's LCI news channel, ambassador Lu Shaye suggested countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations."
The ambassador's comments cast doubt not just on Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022, but all former Soviet republics which emerged as independent nations after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, including members of the European Union.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell branded the remarks "unacceptable" in the latest sign of indignation in Europe.
"The EU can only suppose these declarations do not represent China's official policy", he tweeted.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Sunday that the status of post-Soviet countries was "enshrined in international law", while he also took issue with Lu's comments on Crimea, which was occupied by Russia in 2014.