Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

They include 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics. FIGHTING * Russia was attacking the entire Donetsk front in the east with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said.

Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over shaky talks to end a war now in its third month, as Russia pounded areas in the east of the country and U.S. lawmakers vowed a massive new weapons package for Kyiv. CIVILIANS * More than 1 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine into Russia since Feb. 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published early on Saturday. They include 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics.

FIGHTING * Russia was attacking the entire Donetsk front in the east with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said. Reports of battlefield developments could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

DIPLOMACY * Lavrov said lifting Western sanctions on Russia was part of peace talks to end the war. Zelenskiy said chances were "high" that the talks would end because of Russia's "playbook on murdering people". * U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday she hopes to pass Biden's $33 billion aid package "as soon as possible." QUOTE * "We were hungry, the child was crying when the Grad (multiple rocket launcher) shells were striking near the house. We were thinking, this is it, the end. It can't be described," Viktoria Nikolayeva, 54, in Mariupol told Reuters.

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