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 * A series of explosions were heard in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa, according to local media and a Reuters witness. * Heavy fighting has continued in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to take the southeastern port city, British military intelligence 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.

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 said it had requested a U.N. Security Council meeting because of what Moscow described as Kyiv's attempts to disrupt peace talks and escalate violence with a "provocation" in Bucha. * 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 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 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)