Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Russian forces have seized Kreminna, a city of over 18,000 people in eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn, the regional governor said. * Russia called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) if they wanted to live.

Russia launched its long-awaited all-out assault on east Ukraine, unleashing thousands of troops in what Ukraine described as the Battle of the Donbas, a campaign to seize two provinces and salvage a battlefield victory. FIGHTING

* Russia's new offensive in eastern Ukraine is going "very cautiously" and will fail because Moscow's forces lack the strength to break through Ukrainian defences, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. * Russian forces have seized Kreminna, a city of over 18,000 people in eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn, the regional governor said.

* Russia called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) if they wanted to live. * Ukrainian media reported explosions along the front line with shelling in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, and also in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.

* Ukrainian forces have struck a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, wounding one resident, the governor of the Russian province of Belgorod said. * Ukraine was unable for a third successive day on Tuesday to secure Russia's agreement on establishing any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in cities and towns, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

DIPLOMACY * U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a call with allies on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine, including on how to coordinate on holding Russia accountable, the White House said.

* Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters it was hard to say when the next direct peace talks would be possible as Russia was now "seriously betting" on its offensive in eastern Ukraine, the second phase of its military operation. ECONOMY

* Russia's invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine's infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said, adding reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to help finance it. * Russia flagged a likely further cut in interest rates and more budget spending to help the economy adapt to biting Western sanctions as it heads for its deepest contraction since 1994.

QUOTES "This is what hell looks like on earth ... It's time (for) help not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands," Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade which is fighting in Mariupol, wrote in a letter to Pope Francis.