March 14, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

By Tara Subramaniam, Jack Guy, Adrienne Vogt, Mike Hayes, Elise Hammond and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 12:07 a.m. ET, March 15, 2023

What we covered here

A Russian fighter jet forced down a US Air Force drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday after damaging the propeller of the drone, the Air Force said. The White House called Moscow's actions "unsafe, unprofessional and reckless."
Russia denied its fighter jets came "into contact" with the US drone. The Russian ambassador to the US said Moscow did not want a "confrontation," but that the craft was too close to the Russian border.
Although Russian and US aircraft have operated over the Black Sea during the Ukraine war, this is the first known interaction of this nature since the conflict began.
On the ground in Ukraine, Russian forces attacked cities across the eastern Donetsk region Tuesday as fierce fighting continues in Bakhmut, with combat appearing to be focused around a sprawling metallurgical plant in the north of the embattled city.

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8:54 p.m. ET, March 13, 2023

Russia and UN agree to 60-day extension of grain deal, state media reports

From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio, Josh Pennington and Kateryna Krebs

Russia and the United Nations have agreed to a 60-day extension of the Ukraine grain deal after negotiations in Geneva, Russian state-run news agency RIA reported on Monday.

"Our Russian interdepartmental delegation has just completed another round of talks with UN representatives led by UNCTAD Secretary General R. Greenspan and OCHA head M. Griffiths,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said at a briefing on Monday, according to RIA.

The diplomat added Moscow had agreed to extend the current grain deal, which lasts until March 18, for an additional 60 days.

Any further grain policy after the 60-day period would depend on "normalization" of agricultural exports, he said.

Why are grain exports so important? Ukraine and Russia are both significant suppliers of food to the world. Before the war, Ukraine — known as one of the globe’s breadbaskets — would export around three-quarters of the grain it produces. According to data from the European Commission, about 90% of these exports were shipped by sea, from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The war and its impact on grain exports therefore has major implications, particularly in the global South which relies heavily on them.

CNN's Rob Picheta, Jomana Karadsheh, Radina Gigova and Tim Lister contributed to this post.

2:53 a.m. ET, March 14, 2023

Ukrainian official says Wagner is stepping up recruitment effort in occupied Melitopol

From CNN's Olga Voitovych

Military academy cadets cover the coffin with flags during the funeral of a Wagner Group mercenary killed in Ukraine at a cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 24, 2022. (Igor Russak/Reuters)

Russia's Wagner private military company has unsuccessfully tried to recruit from among Melitopol's population despite stepping up efforts, according to the mayor of the Moscow-occupied city in southern Ukraine.

Ivan Fedorov, who is not in the city, told Ukrainian television that at the end of last week, occupying authorities had begun using social media to try to recruit residents for Wagner.

"Of course, no one agrees," Fedorov said. "The offers they make are allegedly 200,000 rubles (approximately $2,600) per month to those who are ready to go to Bakhmut as part of Wagner. But they have not recruited anyone from the local population to join any volunteer battalion. They will not recruit for this one either."

CNN has been unable to verify such a recruitment campaign but the Wagner group has stepped up recruitment efforts after sustaining heavy casualties around the eastern city of Bakhmut.