Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces raged in the streets of the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Monday in a pivotal battle for advantage in eastern Ukraine, the provincial governor said.

Intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces raged in the streets of the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Monday in a pivotal battle for advantage in eastern Ukraine, the provincial governor said. FIGHTING

* Ukraine's position "worsened a little" in Sievierodonetsk after its forces recaptured about half the city at the weekend, but they were defending their positions against Russia in an industrial zone, the regional governor said on Monday. * Ukraine's defense ministry accused Russia of firing on civilian infrastructure around Sievierodonetsk, further north in the Kharkiv region, and to the west around Sloviansk, where it said Russia was pushing forward to try to seize the city. Russia denies targeting civilians.

* Russia's defense ministry said it had destroyed parts of an armored vehicle repair facility in the Kharkiv region and killed more than 450 what it called "nationalists" in Horlivka and Kodema north of Donetsk. There was no word from the Ukrainian side. * The governor of Russia's Kursk region said the village of Tyotkino near Ukraine's northeastern border had come under fire from Ukraine.

* A Russian state media journalist on Sunday said Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov had been killed in eastern Ukraine, adding to a string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow. * Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.

DIPLOMACY AND WEAPONS * Russia should not close the U.S. embassy despite the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine because the world's two biggest nuclear powers must continue to talk, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow was quoted as saying on Monday.

* Britain said it would supply Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems that can strike targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away. * Putin said earlier that Russia would strike new targets if the West supplied longer-range missiles to Ukraine. His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Monday it would also respond by pushing back Ukrainian forces further from Russia's border.

* Lavrov said he had invited his Serbian counterpart to Moscow after his visit to Serbia was obstructed by its neighbors closing their airspace to his aircraft in what he called a hostile act. ECONOMY

* Russian aluminum producer Rusal has filed a lawsuit against global miner Rio Tinto, seeking to win back access to its 20% share of alumina produced at a jointly owned refiner in Queensland. * Russia's sanctions against Gazprom Germania and its subsidiaries could cost German taxpayers and gas users an extra 5 billion euros ($5.36 billion) a year to pay for replacement gas, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported, citing industry representatives.

* Lavrov said on Saturday that Western sanctions would not affect the country's oil exports, predicting a big jump in profit from energy shipments this year. * Russia's national wealth fund (NWF) jumped in value to $197.7 billion as of June 1 from $155.2 billion a month earlier as proceeds from 2021 oil revenues were transferred to the fund during May, the finance ministry said.

QUOTE * "Putin says he will not use trade routes to attack Odesa. This is the same Putin who told German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron he would not attack Ukraine — days before launching a full-scale invasion of our country. We can not trust Putin, his words are empty," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. ($1 = 0.9326 euros)