Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

FIGHTING * 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. * Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering, Gaidai said, after a Russia-backed separatist claimed 300-400 Ukrainian fighters were also trapped there.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy insisted that Ukraine would prevail in its almost four-month-long war with Russia that has become focussed on a grinding artillery slugging match over the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. FIGHTING * 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. * Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering, Gaidai said, after a Russia-backed separatist claimed 300-400 Ukrainian fighters were also trapped there. * "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 Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence forces had shot down two MIG-29 planes in the Mikolayiv region and one Su-25 fighter jet in the Kharkiv region. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. * 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.

PRISONERS * The family of British man Shaun Pinner who has been sentenced to death by a court by Russian proxy authorities in Donbas have spoken of their devastation at the news and requested he is exchanged or released. * A captured fighter from South Korea will go on trial in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, Interfax news agency reported citing separatist official Natalia Nikonorova. ECONOMY, DIPLOMACY * Zelenskiy said his country was unable to export enough food because of a Russian blockade, and that the world would face "an acute and severe food crisis and famine." * Up to 300,000 tonnes of grain may have been stored in warehouses in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv that Kyiv says were destroyed by Russian shelling last weekend, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskyi said. * European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelenskiy during a visit to Kyiv that the EU executive's opinion on Ukraine's request to join the European Union would be ready by the end of next week.

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."

(Compiled by Kim Coghill and Frances Kerry)