Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Aide Petro Andryushchenko also said no agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday. * Russia's defence ministry said its Kalibr missiles had struck an arms depot in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in roubles, the Kremlin's toughest response yet to sanctions imposed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine. FIGHTING

* Russian forces were attacking a huge steel plant where fighters and some civilians are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol, an aide to the city's mayor said. Aide Petro Andryushchenko also said no agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.

* Russia's defense ministry said it's Kalibr missiles had struck an arms depot in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region housing weapons from the United States and European countries. * Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were pressing their offensive in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and they had captured several settlements.

* Blasts were heard early on Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire around the same time. Reports of battlefield developments could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

DIPLOMACY, AID * Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons - Gepard tanks with anti-aircraft guns - to Ukraine after weeks of pressure at home and abroad.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed "in principle" to U.N. and International Committee for the Red Cross involvement in the evacuation of civilians from the Mariupol steel plant, the United Nations said. SPILLOVER INTO MOLDOVA?

* Ukraine accused Russia of trying to drag Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria into its war after authorities in the Russia-backed region, adjacent to southwest Ukraine, said they had been targeted by a series of attacks. HUMAN AND ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Ukrainian authorities dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in Kyiv meant to symbolize friendship between Russia and Ukraine. * Ukrainian farmers in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia that borders the front line are wearing body armor to plough their fields. Ukraine is the world's fifth-biggest exporter of wheat.

QUOTES Russia is "beginning the gas blackmail of Europe" - Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.