Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Germany, the world's fifth-largest arms exporter, plans to revise its rules on arms exports to make it easier to arm democracies like Ukraine and harder to sell weapons to autocracies, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

Ukraine pleaded to Western countries for faster deliveries of weapons as better-armed Russian forces pounded the east of the country, and for humanitarian support to combat growing outbreaks of deadly diseases. FIGHTING * In Sievierodonetsk, the small city that has become the focus of Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine and one of the bloodiest flashpoints in a war well into its fourth month, further heavy fighting was reported. * Ukraine's army command said Russian troops had secured positions in two communities near Sievierodonetsk, while Serhiy Gaidai, the Luhansk governor, said Russians were in control of "most" of the city. * "Intense street to street fighting is ongoing and both sides are likely suffering high numbers of casualties," Britain's Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Twitter. * The office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said it has learned about the deaths of 24 more children in Mariupol, the southeastern port that was besieged for weeks before Russian forces captured it in mid-May. * Cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands in the Mariupol as corpses lie uncollected and summer brings warmer weather, its mayor said on Friday.

ECONOMY, DIPLOMACY * The U.N. food agency said on Friday reduced exports of wheat and other food commodities from Ukraine and Russia could inflict chronic hunger on up to 19 million more people globally over the next year. * Germany, the world's fifth-largest arms exporter, plans to revise its rules on arms exports to make it easier to arm democracies like Ukraine and harder to sell weapons to autocracies, Der Spiegel reported on Friday. QUOTES

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told an Asian security forum. "It's a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in."