Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing U.S. and European weapons in western Ukraine, Interfax reported, as street fighting raged in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. FIGHTING * Russian forces fired Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy a depot containing U.S. and European weapons in western Ukraine's Ternopil region, Interfax reported.

Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing U.S. and European weapons in western Ukraine, Interfax reported, as street fighting raged in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. FIGHTING * Russian forces fired Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy a depot containing U.S. and European weapons in western Ukraine's Ternopil region, Interfax reported. * The governor of the Ternopil region said a rocket attack on the city of Chortkiv fired from the Black Sea had partly destroyed a military facility, injuring 22 people. A local official said there were no weapons stored there. * Reuters could not independently confirm the differing accounts. * Interfax also said Russian forces had shot down three Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jets near Donetsk and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. * Russia is using its overmatch in force ratio and artillery to gradually seize territory in and around Ukraine's Sieverodonetsk, Britain's Defence Ministry said. * Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai conceded Russian forces had taken most of Sievierodonetsk but said the Azot plant was not being blockaded. He also said Russian shelling had ignited a big fire at the plant after an oil leak. * Southwest of Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces were firing mortars and artillery around a number of settlements, according to Ukraine's general staff. But it said Ukrainian forces had repulsed Russian attempts to advance towards some communities. * President Volodomyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's military was gradually liberating territory further west in the Kherson region and had some successes in Zaporizhzhia, too. ECONOMY * It might look and smell like McDonald's but now it's Vkusno & tochka. A new era for Russia's fast-food and economic scene dawned as McDonald's restaurants flung open their doors in Moscow under new Russian ownership and with the new name, which translates as "Tasty and that's it". * Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Ukraine's deputy foreign minister said.

DIPLOMACY * Security concerns raised by Turkey in its opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership applications are legitimate, the Western military alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Finland. * European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU executive's opinion on Ukraine's request to join the European Union would be ready in the coming week. QUOTES “No one can say whether and how many victims there have been in the last 24 hours in Sievierodonetsk, where intense fighting continues," Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app. “Everyone wants to evacuate now, probably, but so far there is no such possibility,”

(Compiled by Kim Coghill and Frances Kerry)