Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

The battle for the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk is brutal and will determine the fate of the Donbas region, the country's president said, as Russian troops lay waste to the city in an assault aimed at controlling eastern Ukraine.

The battle for the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk is brutal and will determine the fate of the Donbas region, the country's president said, as Russian troops lay waste to the city in an assault aimed at controlling eastern Ukraine. FIGHTING

* The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said its forces had won back some territory from Russian forces in a counter-offensive in the Kherson area of southern Ukraine. Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground. * Ukrainian forces still hold the industrial zone and adjacent areas in Sievierodonetsk and the situation is "difficult but manageable", but evacuating 10,000 remaining civilians is now impossible, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said.

* Russian forces are destroying "everything that can be used for defence" in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said. Russia was shelling areas of the city still controlled by Ukraine but Ukrainian forces will be able to "clean up" in the city once they received long-range artillery. * Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine could face the death penalty after pleading guilty in a court of one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

* Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is "just a question of time" before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said. DIPLOMACY

* Turkey has been trying to broker negotiations to open up Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday and said a U.N.-backed deal on the ports was possible with further talks. * Lavrov said Ukraine would have to remove mines from its ports to allow them to reopen. He said a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy could happen only after peace talks resume.

* Zelenskiy told a Yale University summit of business leaders by video link on Wednesday that he believes Russia will not seek a diplomatic solution to the war unless the world supports Ukrainian troops in their fight. POLITICS

* Russia's proxies in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia province announced plans to stage a referendum on joining Russia at an unspecified date later this year. ECONOMY

* Millions of people could starve because of Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, Zelenskiy said, adding that the world was on the brink of a "terrible food crisis" with Ukraine unable to export large amounts of wheat, corn, and oil. Russia has blamed the crisis on Ukrainian mines laid at sea and international sanctions against Moscow. QUOTES

* "This is a very brutal battle, very tough, perhaps one of the most difficult throughout this war. Sievierodonetsk remains the epicenter of the encounter in Donbas...Largely, that is where the fate of our Donbas is being decided now." -Zelenskiy 

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