Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russian forces on Wednesday pressed closer to the centre of an industrial city in a drive to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said it would supply advanced rockets to Kyiv to help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.

Russian forces on Wednesday pressed closer to the centre of an industrial city in a drive to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said it would supply advanced rockets to Kyiv to help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. FIGHTING

* U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at long-range Russian targets as part of a $700 million weapons package. * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the supply of U.S. advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine raised the risks of a "third country" being dragged into the conflict.

* Russia's nuclear forces are holding drills in Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying. * Ukrainian forces hold just 20% of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but there is still hope they can prevent Russia taking full control, the mayor said.

* Ukrainian forces have had some success near the southern city of Kherson and are advancing in parts of the Kharkiv region to the east of Kyiv, President Zelenskiy said. * Russia is trying to "extinguish civilisation" in Donbas, German defence minister Baerbock said.

DIPLOMACY * Russia did not rule out a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy, but said work on a peace document had stopped a long time ago and had not restarted.

TRADE * Moscow is facing difficulties exporting grain due to sanctions against its ships, Lavrov said. The Kremlin said the West and Ukraine were to blame for a potential global food crisis.

* U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was hopeful of a solution to alleviate the impact of the war on global food supplies, but cautioned any agreement was still some way off. * European Union leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian crude oil imports that will take full effect by the end of the year, but Hungary and two other landlocked Central European states secured exemptions for the pipeline imports they rely on.

* German companies Uniper and RWE have paid for Russian gas under a new scheme proposed by Moscow. * Russia's Gazprom said it will turn off supplies to several "unfriendly" countries which have refused to accept Moscow's roubles-for-gas payment scheme.

FINANCE * Russia's economy will contract less than expected this year and inflation will be lower than previously thought, a Reuters poll showed.

(Compiled by Frank Jack Daniel)