Ukraine Recap: Wagner Exiting Bakhmut; New Prisoner Exchange

(Bloomberg) -- Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, said his forces have begun pulling out of Bakhmut and handing over positions to the Russian army - the latest twist in the eastern Ukrainian city largely leveled by months of intense fighting.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Apple Plans to Turn Locked iPhones Into Smart Displays With iOS 17

• Cathie Wood’s ARKK Dumped Nvidia Stock Before $560 Billion Surge

• JPMorgan Tells 1,000 First Republic Employees They'll Lose Their Jobs

• First Republic’s $35 Million Banker Outearned JPMorgan’s Dimon Before Bust

• McCarthy Signals Debt Deal Optimism as US Put on Credit Watch

Moscow and Minsk formalized an agreement to store Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a move denounced by Belarus’s exiled opposition leader as further threatening the security of Ukraine and all of Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke about the hoped-for fighter jet coalition with Sweden’s defense minister.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said 106 Ukrainian service members who were captured in the Bakhmut region, including eight officers, will be returned in a prisoner exchange. There was no immediate word from Russia’s defense ministry.

Latest Coverage

• Ukraine’s Counteroffensive to Yield Results, Top Aide Says

• The F-16 Jets Kyiv Wants Aren’t Flying in Ukraine Any Time Soon

• EU Blocks More Than €200 Billion in Russian Central Bank Assets

• Wagner Chief Says His Mercenaries Are Exiting Ukraine’s Bakhmut

Markets

Wheat futures in Chicago traded near the lowest level in more than two years as a favorable crop outlook in Europe and Russia countered gloomy prospects for the US harvest.

Oil’s three-day rally hit a wall after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak downplayed the likelihood of another OPEC+ production cut.

Coming Up

• So-called Ramstein meeting of defense officials to discuss Ukraine’s defense capability later Thursday

• Putin was scheduled to hold talks with Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders over Nagorno-Karabakh

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• Sergey Brin Has a Secret Plan to Put Airships Back in the Skies

• Adidas After Yeezy

• There’s Still Scary Stuff in Sunscreen

• The Man Who Spends $2 Million a Year to Look 18 Is Swapping Blood With His Father and Son

• Trump’s Grip on the GOP Tightens as the Field Widens

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.