Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine accused Russian forces of carrying out a "massacre" in Bucha, a town near Kyiv, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described images of dead bodies there as "a punch in the gut." Russia's defence ministry denied the allegations and Moscow requested the United Nations Security Council convene to discuss what Russia called a "provocation by Ukrainian radicals" in Bucha.

Ukraine accused Russian forces of carrying out a "massacre" in Bucha, a town near Kyiv, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described images of dead bodies there as "a punch in the gut." Russia's defence ministry denied the allegations and Moscow requested the United Nations Security Council convene to discuss what Russia called a "provocation by Ukrainian radicals" in Bucha. FIGHTING * Russia missiles struck "critical infrastructure", most likely a fuel depot, near Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa, but there were no casualties, officials in the city said. * Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, killing seven people and injuring 34, the regional prosecutor's office said. * The governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said shelling had continued throughout the night and day, and described a "turbulent" situation in the region. * Two blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, two witnesses told Reuters, days after Russia accused Ukrainian forces of striking a fuel depot there.

CIVILIANS * A leading rights group said it had documented what it described as "apparent war crimes" committed by Russian military forces against civilians in Ukraine. * Ukraine has found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv as part of an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia, the top Ukrainian prosecutor said. * Ukraine evacuated 2,694 people from conflict zones in the southeastern port of Mariupol and the region of Luhansk, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. ECONOMY * Ukraine demanded crippling new sanctions on Russia from major Western powers over what it called a "massacre" in Bucha. * Germany said the West would agree to impose more sanctions on Russia in the coming days, with the German defence minister saying the European Union should discuss ending Russian gas imports. * Poland's prime minister said the EU must impose harsher sanctions on Russia and supply Ukraine with more arms.

PEACE TALKS * Russia will achieve all of the aims of its "special military operation" in Ukraine and hopes that Moscow and Kyiv can ultimately sign some sort of peace deal, the Kremlin said, Inferfax news agency reported * Russia said peace talks with Ukraine had not progressed enough for a leaders' meeting and that Moscow's position on the status of Crimea and Donbas remained unchanged. QUOTES * "We were sitting in the cellar for two weeks. There was food but no light, no heating to warm up," said a 66-year-old man called Vasili in the town of Bucha, describing life before Russian troops departed. "We put the water on candles to warm it ... We slept in felt boots." (Compiled by Raissa Kasolowsky, Frances Kerry and Paul Simao)