Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

FIGHTING * The battle for Sievierodonetsk is being waged house to house and at times under heavy Russian artillery barrages that endangered troops on both sides, the commander of Ukraine's Svoboda (Freedom) National Guard battalion said.

Ukrainian troops claimed on Thursday to have pushed forward in intense street fighting in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but said their only hope of turning the tide was more artillery to offset Russia's massive firepower. FIGHTING

* The battle for Sievierodonetsk is being waged house to house and at times under heavy Russian artillery barrages that endangered troops on both sides, the commander of Ukraine's Svoboda (Freedom) National Guard battalion said. * 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.

* 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. * Two Britons and a Moroccan captured while fighting for Ukraine were sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported. Their lawyer said they will appeal the decision.

* 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. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* The Kremlin said no agreement had been reached to sell grain from Ukraine to Turkey - which Ukraine says Russia has stolen from it - but that work on a deal was continuing. Moscow denies stealing the grain but the United States says there are credible reports that Russia is "pilfering" it. * Millions of people may starve because of Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The world, he said, faces 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.

HUMAN IMPACT * Tourists once flocked to the Ukrainian resort of Odesa to lie on its Black Sea beaches, but the white sands are now covered in mines because of the war with Russia and police officers patrol the boardwalks.

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.

QUOTES * "This is a very brutal battle, very tough, perhaps one of the most difficult throughout this war. Sievierodonetsk remains the epicentre of the encounter in Donbas...Largely, that is where the fate of our Donbas is being decided now." -Zelenskiy (Compiled by Mark Heinrich)