Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there was a high risk that peace talks with Moscow would end and U.S. lawmakers pledged to move fast on a plan to send as much as $33 billion to help Kyiv keep fighting Russia's assault.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there was a high risk that peace talks with Moscow would end and U.S. lawmakers pledged to move fast on a plan to send as much as $33 billion to help Kyiv keep fighting Russia's assault. FIGHTING AND CASUALTIES

* A journalist from the U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Liberty was killed by a Russian missile strike that occurred while the U.N. secretary-general was in Kyiv. * Russia said the missiles destroyed a rocket plant, and a U.S. official confirmed the attack had targeted military production, withough saying if those targets were destroyed.

* Russia said it used a diesel submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, the first time Moscow has announced the use of its submarine fleet to hit its neighbour. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said Russia was pounding the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping.

* A border checkpoint at a village in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine came under mortar fire from Ukrainian territory, the regional governor said. Reports of battlefield developments could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

* Russia's defence ministry released a video showing an injured British man captured in Ukraine being questioned by unidentified Russian forces. * Russia does not consider itself to be at war with NATO over Ukraine since such a development would increase the risks of a nuclear war, RIA news agency cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

WEST'S RESPONSE * U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hopes to pass a $33 billion aid package for Ukraine requested by President Joe Biden "as soon as possible."

* The United States does not believe that there is a threat of Russia using nuclear weapons despite a recent escalation in Moscow's rhetoric, a senior U.S. defense official said. HUMAN AND ECONOMIC IMPACT

* In the southeastern port city of Mariupol devastated by a Russian siege, residents recounted the horrors of the battle as they sifted through rubble. * Ukraine's central bank said it was making changes to the foreign currency market to make it more stable and reduce pressure on the country's international reserves.

* Britain said it was sending experts to help Ukraine with gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes. QUOTE

* "It was a massacre. It was the scariest thing when the shells were flying overhead. Shells, rounds and all such, you couldn't survive it. And yet we did," said Vitaliy Kudasov, 71, a resident of shattered Mariupol. (Compiled by Cynthia Osterman)