Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Putin signed a decree establishing temporary procedures to fulfil foreign debt obligations, as investors keep a close eye on a potential Russian default. FIGHTING * Grain group Viterra said its terminal in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv had been hit and was on fire, after the regional governor reported an attack by six Russian missiles.

Russian forces pounded Ukraine's second city Kharkiv and its surrounds with rockets, killing at least 20 people, in what Kyiv called an effort to force it to divert battlefield resources to protect civilians. ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY * President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed all European Union members would back a proposal to grant Ukraine EU candidate status this week. * The EU will temporarily shift back to coal to cope with slowing Russian gas flows and soaring prices, an official said. * Russia and the United States are exchanging signals on the issue of American fighters in Ukraine but Moscow does not think Washington is ready to discuss a prisoner exchange seriously, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. * Moscow is working on a "practical" response to Lithuania's ban on the transit of goods sanctioned by the EU to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Russian officials said. Britain said it supports Lithuania's ban. * President Vladimir Putin said Russia is rerouting its trade and oil exports towards other of the BRICS group of emerging economies. * Ukraine said it exported 48% less grain in the first 22 days of June than a year earlier. Russia said talks with Turkey would continue on grain exports from Ukrainian ports. * Russia said the West was spreading lies about the causes of the global food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for disruptions in agricultural markets. * Putin signed a decree establishing temporary procedures to fulfil foreign debt obligations, as investors keep a close eye on a potential Russian default.

FIGHTING * Grain group Viterra said its terminal in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv had been hit and was on fire, after the regional governor reported an attack by six Russian missiles. * Two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine hit Russia's Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, near the border, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky and suspending production. * Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleskiy Arestovych said Russian forces could cut off Lysychansk and the main battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk, across the river. Scenes filmed by a freelance journalist showed Ukrainian troops using inflatable rafts to resupply their garrison in Sievierodonetsk, where the mayor said up to 8,000 civilians remain. * Intense fighting was going on along the border with Russia in northeastern Ukraine, the governor of the Sumy region, Dmytro Zhyvitsky, said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the battlefield accounts. QUOTE * "The most important line of defence is between one's ears, as the war in Ukraine proves at the moment," Finnish armed forces chief General Timo Kivinen said in an interview, stressing that Finland had prepared for decades for a possible Russian attack.

"I do believe that all 27 European Union countries will support our candidate status. This is like going into the light from the darkness," Zelenskiy said. (Compiled by Philippa Fletcher and Catherine Evans)