Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

The city's mayor said Ukraine had enough forces to repel Russian attacks but neither side was preparing to withdraw. * Ukraine's defence 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.

Ukrainian and Russian troops fought street-by-street to win control of the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Monday in the pivotal battle of the Kremlin's eastern Ukraine offensive. FIGHTING

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed for more weapons to arrive more quickly, saying the situation could become very difficult for Ukraine if Russian forces break through front lines in Donbas, the eastern region where Severodonetsk is the main city still in Ukrainian hands. * 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. The city's mayor said Ukraine had enough forces to repel Russian attacks but neither side was preparing to withdraw.

* Ukraine's defence 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. Moscow denies targeting civilians. * Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed parts of an armoured vehicle repair facility in the Kharkiv region and killed more than 450 what it called "nationalists" in Horlivka and Kodema north of Donetsk. It did not produce evidence and 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. * 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 own visit to Serbia was obstructed by its neighbours closing their airspace to his aircraft in what he called a hostile act. * Russia warned U.S. news organisations they risked being stripped of their accreditation unless the treatment of Russian journalists in the United States improves, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

ECONOMY * Russian aluminium 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 Sberbank SBER.MM has yet to process the first payment from Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) under a deal set up before the Ukraine war to enable IPL to pay for Belarusian potash using rupees rather than dollars, according to a letter seen by Reuters and two sources familiar with the issue. * 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 * "Sorry, that was the last bottle of Czech beer we had," said a waiter at a central Moscow restaurant, a sign that once ample reserves of foreign alcohol have dwindled since Russia sent troops into Ukraine and the West imposed sweeping sanctions. ($1 = 0.9326 euros)