(Reuters) - Intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials indicates that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind last year's attacks on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, but there was no evidence of the Kyiv government's involvement, the New York Times reported.
FIGHTING
* Russia's Wagner group of mercenaries has taken full control of the eastern part of town of Bakhmut, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Wednesday.
* Russian forces made more than 30 unsuccessful attacks over the past day near Orikhovo-Vasylivka alone, 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Bakhmut, the General Staff of the Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday.
* Russian losses in Bakhmut are between five and eight times greater than Ukraine's, military expert Pavlo Narozhniy told Ukrainian NV Radio.
* Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the seizure of Bakhmut would allow Moscow's forces to mount further offensive operations deeper inside Ukraine. Kyiv has vowed to keep defending the town.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.
INSIDE RUSSIA
* A Russian opposition activist who used social media to condemn Moscow's war in Ukraine received an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence on Tuesday after a Moscow court found him guilty of spreading false information about the army.
ECONOMY/DIPLOMACY
* U.S.-led international sanctions on Russia have begun to erode the dollar's decades-old dominance of international oil trade as most deals with India - Russia's top outlet for seaborne crude - have been settled in other currencies.
* Media reports on the Nord Stream pipelines attacks are a coordinated effort to divert attention and the Kremlin is perplexed how U.S. officials can assume anything about the attacks without investigation, the Kremlin said.
* U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed Russia's invasion and challenges posed by China, the White House said.
* Responding to Chinese foreign minister's remark that the Ukraine crisis seemed to be driven by an "invisible hand", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "this is not an invisible hand, this is the hand of the United States of America."
* President Vladimir Putin issued special thanks to female military personnel, saying their courage amazes even the "most hardened fighters", in a message to mark International Women's Day on March 8, a public holiday in the country.
* Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalize to drop the anti-armourbomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two U.S. lawmakers.
STORIES ABOUT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY SINCE THE WAR BEGAN
* TIMELINE - Major developments since Russia's invasion
* Ukraine's Zelenskiy has defied Putin against the odds
* Putin, secure in power, has set the stage for long war
* A year on, Ukraine and its government have not just survived. They've fought back
* Toughened by war's scars, Kyiv presses on
* Graphics of a year of war and the financial markets
* Russian economy holds up but road back to prosperity may be long
* Moscow's decades-old gas ties with Europe lie in ruins
* Top brands pull out of Russia, but goods easy to find
* Can U.S. support for Ukraine last?
* External backers pour billions into Ukraine
* How has China stood by 'no limits' partner Russia?
* Life and death in Mariupol - a survivor's tale of war
* Family mourns Bucha victim who became symbol of war