Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in comments to the India Today TV channel, confirmed that Moscow was starting a new stage of what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. * Russia called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) on Friday if they wanted to live.

Russian forces have launched their long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine, attempting to push through defenses along almost the entire front line in what Ukrainian officials described as the second phase of the war. FIGHTING

* Russia's new offensive in eastern Ukraine is going "very cautiously" and will fail because Moscow's forces lack the strength to break through Ukrainian defenses, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in comments to the India Today TV channel, confirmed that Moscow was starting a new stage of what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

* Russia called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) on Friday if they wanted to live. * Ukrainian media reported explosions along the front line with shelling in Marinka, Sloviansk, and Kramatorsk, and also in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mykolaiv in the south, and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.

* Ukrainian forces have struck a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, wounding one resident, the governor of the Russian province of Belgorod said. * Ukraine was unable for a third successive day on Tuesday to secure Russia's agreement on establishing any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in cities and towns, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

DIPLOMACY * U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a call with allies on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine, including on how to coordinate on holding Russia accountable, the White House said.

* China told Russia it will continue to increase "strategic coordination" with it regardless of international volatility, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. * Zelenskiy formally submitted a completed questionnaire on European Union membership and said he believed it would lead to his country gaining candidate status within weeks.

ECONOMY * Russia's invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine's infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said, adding reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to help finance it.

* Russia flagged a likely further cut in interest rates and more budget spending to help the economy adapt to biting Western sanctions as it heads for its deepest contraction since 1994. QUOTES

"This is what hell looks like on earth ... It's time (for) help not just by prayers. Save our lives from satanic hands," Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade which is fighting in Mariupol, wrote in a letter to Pope Francis.