Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

The United States said Russia was using Ukraine's biggest nuclear power plant as a "nuclear shield" by stationing troops there, preventing Ukrainian forces from returning fire and risking a terrible nuclear accident.

The United States said Russia was using Ukraine's biggest nuclear power plant as a "nuclear shield" by stationing troops there, preventing Ukrainian forces from returning fire and risking a terrible nuclear accident. 'NUCLEAR SHIELD'

* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was being used as a "nuclear shield" by Russian troops who establishing a base there. * Ukraine said "robust joint actions are needed to prevent nuclear disaster" and called for the international community to "close the sky" over Ukraine's nuclear power plants with air defence systems.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said there could be no winners in a nuclear war and no such war should ever be started. GRAIN/ENERGY

* The first ship to depart Odesa under a landmark grains deal will pass through the Bosphorus on Tuesday, carrying Ukrainian grain to Lebanon, Ukraine's infrastructure minister said. * There are many hurdles to overcome before millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain depart from its Black Sea ports.

* Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of laying mines that now float around the Black Sea, drifting far from Ukraine's shores, with Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish military diving teams defusing those that have ended up in their waters. * There is little Russia can do to help with urgent repairs required to malfunctioning Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline equipment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, following further falls in Gazprom production and exports.

FIGHTING * Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said about 22,000 Russian troops were preparing to advance on the cities of Kriviy Rih and Mykolaiv, where a "sufficiently large" Ukrainian force lay in wait.

* In Kherson region, which is mostly under Russian control, Ukrainian troops had liberated some 50 towns, said Yuri Sobolevsky, deputy head of the ousted Kherson regional council. * Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk region, which is nearly all under Russian control, said foreign fighters were arriving and that partisans were destroying key infrastructure, including gas and water networks, in battered Luhansk towns to slow Russian forces.

QUOTE "Both sides at war will lose, even the victor of war will have lost because of the human and material losses," said grain ship Razoni crew member Abdullah Jendi. "In my opinion, the people of Ukraine don't deserve this because they are good and peaceful people." (Compiled by Michael Perry)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)