World News

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Kyiv’s forces had recaptured the village of Urozhaine, a small step in its grinding campaign to break through Russian defenses in the south.

Russian drones hit the ports of Reni and Izmail and damaged warehouses used to export grain, Ukrainian officials said.

The country’s central bank raised interest rates 3.5 percentage points to stem rising prices and a weakening ruble. The move came after the national currency briefly fell below a key level with the U.S. dollar.

With the third-largest interest rate increase in a decade to shore up the ruble, Moscow’s policymakers are pursuing the conflicting goals of paying for the war against Ukraine and taming inflation.

The rapid expansion came as exports have risen and tourists have flooded the country. But a drop in domestic consumption worried economists.

The Russian defense ministry confirmed that it had intercepted a commercial vessel, an escalation that Russia had promised would happen after backing out of a trade deal with Ukraine.

Russia’s military made good on its threats to enforce its blockade of Ukraine, adding to the tensions in an increasingly active theater of war.

The currency weakened as far as 102 to the dollar, adding to concerns of inflation and prompting the Russian Central Bank to move quickly to consider raising rates.

Ukrainian officials said three people were injured in the assault on the southern port city, which came amid heightened tensions in the Black Sea.

The currency’s weakening, which took it past the symbolic level of a penny per ruble, will increase pressure on the nation’s financial authorities as fears of inflation grow.