Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty in speech denouncing West

Western officials are "confident" Russia's military is "setting the conditions" for withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the only regional capital that has been occupied by Russian forces since the February.

The Russian military is preparing to make a "strategic" withdrawal and move its forces east across the Dnipro river, officials said.

"It looks like an orderly, well-planned and deliberate military process is taking place," a Western official told ABC News.

The officials would not put a timeframe on when the withdrawal would happen and added that it is not guaranteed to take place. They downplayed, however, any speculation that the Russians are using the withdrawal to mask a more "nefarious" action in that area.

The officials said their assessment was that the Russians believe Kherson "is not worth fighting for."

The advance of Ukrainian forces in Kherson has slowed over the past three weeks.

In mid-October, the newly appointed commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General Surovikin, said “difficult decisions” may be necessary in Kherson.

Senior Ukrainian officials have suggested more recently that Russian forces are preparing to fight for Kherson and a source on the ground told ABC News that the Russian military is still moving in and out of the city.

-ABC News' Tom Burridge

North Korea was secreting sending ammunition to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine and is disguising the shipments as appearing to be destined to the Middle East or North Africa, the White House said Wednesday.

"Our information indicates that [North Korea] is covertly supplying Russia's war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they're being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa," White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby said North Korea was sending "a significant number of artillery shells." He did not specify an exact number but said it was more than "dozens."

"But we don't believe that they are in such a quantity that they would tangibly change the direction of this war or tangibly change the momentum either in the east or in the south" of Ukraine, he said.

Kirby added, "We're gonna continue to monitor whether these shipments are received."

In September, the U.S. had said Russia is looking to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, saying at the time that this indicated the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to nations with nuclear capabilities, calling on them to abandon attempts to infringe on each other's vital interests, warning that direct armed conflict and provocations with weapons of mass destruction can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Russia claimed it believes there can be no winners of nuclear war and said it refarrims its commitment to the prevention of nuclear warm.

"A reaction with the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically allowed by Russia only in response to aggression using weapons of mass destruction or aggression using conventional weapons, when the existence of the state is threatened," the ministry said in a statement.

The White House has said it will not confirm or deny New York Times reporting that senior Russian military officials had recently discussed when and how Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. The intelligence about the conversations was reportedly circulated inside the U.S. government in mid-October.

But, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a part of these alleged conversations, according to the New York Times.

The White House on Wednesday said it still sees "no indications that Russia is making preparations" to use nuclear weapons.

-ABC News' Natalia Shumskaia and Ben Gittleson

Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine's ports amid the ongoing war.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would "continue in the same way as before" as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.

The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.

Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a "massive" drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.

Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.

Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine -- often referred to collectively as Europe's breadbasket -- produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world -- particularly in Africa and the Middle East -- are now on the brink of famine.