(Reuters) - The&nbsp;Kremlin&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;it&nbsp;welcomed&nbsp;anything&nbsp;that&nbsp;could&nbsp;bring&nbsp;the&nbsp;end&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;conflict&nbsp;closer&nbsp;when&nbsp;asked&nbsp;what&nbsp;it&nbsp;thought&nbsp;of a&nbsp;phone&nbsp;call&nbsp;a&nbsp;day&nbsp;earlier&nbsp;between&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;President&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;Jinping&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;President&nbsp;Volodymyr&nbsp;Zelenskiy. But it&nbsp;said&nbsp;it&nbsp;still&nbsp;needed&nbsp;to&nbsp;achieve&nbsp;the&nbsp;aims&nbsp;of&nbsp;its&nbsp;"special military operation" in&nbsp;Ukraine.
DIPLOMACY
*&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal&nbsp;said&nbsp;he had invited Pope Francis to visit&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and&nbsp;that he had discussed Kyiv's formula for peace during talks at the Vatican.
Shmyhal also told a news conference in Italy that a&nbsp;phone&nbsp;call&nbsp;between&nbsp;the leaders of China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;on Wednesday&nbsp;had been very productive&nbsp;and&nbsp;could&nbsp;prove a very positive beginning for future relations.
* NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg&nbsp;welcomed&nbsp;the&nbsp;call&nbsp;between&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;and&nbsp;Zelenskiy, although he added this did not change the fact that China had&nbsp;still&nbsp;not condemned Russia's invasion of&nbsp;Ukraine.
* Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;that the Black Sea grain deal&nbsp;could&nbsp;only be saved by fully implementing it&nbsp;and&nbsp;that it was not "a buffet you can pick&nbsp;and&nbsp;choose from." Moscow says parts of the deal meant to allow it to export&nbsp;its&nbsp;own agricultural goods are not being honoured.
FIGHTING
* Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;that Moscow did not intend&nbsp;to go down the path of nuclear escalation, but advised others not to test&nbsp;its&nbsp;patience.
* NATO allies&nbsp;and&nbsp;partners have delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to&nbsp;Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday. "More than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;have already been delivered."
* One person was killed&nbsp;and&nbsp;23 people, including a child, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block&nbsp;and&nbsp;houses in the southern&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of&nbsp;Thursday, officials&nbsp;said.
* Anti-tank ditches near&nbsp;Ukraine's occupied southeast town of Polohy stretch for 30 km (20 miles), behind are rows of concrete "dragon's teeth" barricades&nbsp;and&nbsp;further back trenches for Russian troops. The defences visible in satellite imagery taken by Capella Space are part of a vast network of fortifications from western Russia through eastern&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and&nbsp;on to Crimea ready for a major&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;attack.
* The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group&nbsp;said&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday&nbsp;it was suspending artillery fire in Bakhmut to allow&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;forces on the other side of the frontline to safely show the city to visiting U.S. journalists..
* The remains of a "military object" were found in northern Poland&nbsp;on&nbsp;Thursday, which a broadcaster&nbsp;said&nbsp;authorities believed&nbsp;could&nbsp;be part of a missile stuck in the ground. Poland&nbsp;has been on alert for possible spillover of weaponry from the war in&nbsp;Ukraine.
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* EXCLUSIVE-Kazakhstan has ramped up oil exports bypassing Russia -sources
&nbsp;
(Compiled by Reuters editors)

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