As the war enters its 423rd day, we take a look at the main developments.

Fighting

• Russia’s defence ministry said in a briefing that assault troops were fighting in western parts of Bakhmut, the last part of the embattled Ukrainian city still held by Kyiv’s forces.
• Ukraine said Russian forces had made some advances in the fierce fighting for Bakhmut but that the situation was still under control.

Aid and diplomacy

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius rejected the possibility of delivering German fighter jets to Ukraine at a meeting with Western allies in the US airbase of Ramstein in Germany.
• Latvia announced at the Ramstein meeting the delivery to Ukraine of all Stinger anti-aircraft missiles still in Latvia’s armed forces.
• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg invited Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to NATO’s summit in July while emphasising the need to support Ukraine’s battlefield logistics.
• A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said NATO wanted to defeat Russia and was keeping Ukraine motivated by promising membership after the war ended.
• The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on a Russian judge and four others linked to the arrest of British-Russian Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza who was jailed for 25 years this week.

Trade

• A deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain could start winding down next week after Russia said it would not approve any new vessels unless their operators guarantee the transits will be done by “the expected date of…closure”, which is May 18. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow considered its conditions had not been met for extending the United Nations-brokered agreement guaranteeing safe exports via the Black Sea.
• Ukraine’s prospects of unblocking grain shipments to Eastern Europe improved as Romania opted against a unilateral ban on food imports. Ukraine increased exports of agricultural and food products through European Union nations after Russia’s invasion disrupted its usual Black Sea shipping route.