Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

A Russian general said Moscow wants to seize all of southern and eastern Ukraine, far wider war aims than it had acknowledged as it presses on with a new offensive. Rustam Minnekayev said Moscow aimed to seize the entire eastern Donbas region, link up with the Crimea peninsula, and capture Ukraine's entire south as far as a breakaway, Russian-occupied region of Moldova.

A Russian general said Moscow wants to seize all of southern and eastern Ukraine, far wider war aims than it had acknowledged as it presses on with a new offensive. Rustam Minnekayev said Moscow aimed to seize the entire eastern Donbas region, link up with the Crimea peninsula, and capture Ukraine's entire south as far as a breakaway, Russian-occupied region of Moldova. That would mean pushing hundreds of miles beyond current lines.

FIGHTING * Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces had increased attacks along the whole frontline in the east of the country and were trying to mount an offensive in the Kharkiv region, north of Russia's main target, the Donbas.

* Russia's defence ministry said its forces had captured a large arms depot in the Kharkiv region, TASS news agency reported. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces control most of the port city of Mariupol but Ukrainian troops remain in a part of it.

* Russia's defence ministry said Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries were "securely blockaded" at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where they have been holding out. * The U.N. human rights office sounded the alarm about growing evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, urging both Moscow and Kyiv to order combatants to respect international law.

DIPLOMACY * Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held discussions on Friday, the head of Moscow's delegation said, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said diplomatic efforts to end the war remained stalled.

* United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the U.N. chief said. * German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war.

* Plans for Pope Francis to meet in June with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who backs Russia's war in Ukraine, have been suspended, the pope told an Argentine newspaper. ECONOMY

* Ukraine is working with lawyers on a mechanism to use frozen Russian funds to compensate it for its economic losses, its justice minister told Reuters. * World Bank President David Malpass said the food security crisis caused by the war was likely to last months and that Ukraine had suffered some $60 billion worth of physical damage.

QUOTES "If you have a helmet and a bulletproof vest, but you do not have a gun in your hands, you are doomed," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, appealing for military aid.

(Compiled by Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)