Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* At least two people were killed and four have been injured on Sunday in the shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said. POPE'S APPEAL * Pope Francis, marking an "Easter of war" urged leaders to hear the people's plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a "cruel and senseless" conflict.

Ukrainian soldiers resisted a Russian ultimatum to lay down arms in the pulverised port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces had almost completely seized in what would be its biggest prize of the nearly two-month war. FIGHTING * Remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol are still fighting and continue to defy a Russian demand that they surrender, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. * Russian armed forces destroyed an ammunition factory near Kyiv, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. * A missile attack in the early hours of Sunday damaged infrastructure in the city of Brovary, near Kyiv, Brovavy mayor Igor Sapozhko said. * At least two people were killed and four have been injured on Sunday in the shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said.

POPE'S APPEAL * Pope Francis, marking an "Easter of war" urged leaders to hear the people's plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a "cruel and senseless" conflict. DIPLOMACY, SANCTIONS * Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there had not been any recent diplomatic communications between Russia and Ukraine at the level of their foreign ministries and that the situation in Mariupol, which he described as "dire", may be a "red line" in the path of negotiations. * Russia is worried about increased activity of NATO forces in the Arctic and sees risks of "unintended incidents" occurring in the region, TASS news agency cited Russian ambassador-at-large Nikolai Korchunov as saying. * The EU will sanction Russian banks, particularly Sberbank, and is seeking "clever mechanisms" to include oil, said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

QUOTES * "Our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war. We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing," Pope Francis, in an address to to about 50,000 people in St. Peter's Square after a long Mass. (Compiled by Frances Kerry)