Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said there had been some progress in negotiations aimed at overcoming Turkey's objection to their countries' bid to join NATO. FIGHTING * Ukrainian forces will try to hold the line against Russia in the east from the vantage point of the city of Lysychansk, buying time for the arrival of Western weapons and the region's defenders to prepare fortifications, Luhansk province's governor said. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that his country needs missile defence systems to prevent Russian attacks.

Exhausted firefighters searched for survivors in the rubble of a Ukrainian shopping mall and authorities said 36 people were still missing after a Russian missile strike that killed at least 18. * Russia denied hitting the mall, saying it had struck a weapons depot and a subsequent explosion of ammunition had triggered a fire in the nearby complex.

* The G7 called the strike a Russian war crime. ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY

* The Group of Seven economic powers agreed to explore imposing a ban on transporting Russian oil that has been sold above a certain price, they said, aiming to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest. * French President Emmanuel Macron told the G7 summit that Russia had one goal in mind - the surrender of Ukraine.

* Western sanctions against Russia will only end when Russian President Vladimir Putin accepts that his plans in Ukraine will not succeed, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. * Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said there had been some progress in negotiations aimed at overcoming Turkey's objection to their countries' bid to join NATO.

FIGHTING * Ukrainian forces will try to hold the line against Russia in the east from the vantage point of the city of Lysychansk, buying time for the arrival of Western weapons and the region's defenders to prepare fortifications, Luhansk province's governor said.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had told NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that his country needs missile defense systems to prevent Russian attacks. * Russia shelled Kharkiv, hitting apartment buildings and a primary school, the regional governor said. The shelling killed five people and wounded 22 including children.

QUOTES * "It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims ... It's useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia," - President Zelensky.

* "Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account," - G7 leaders. * "I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing," mall attack survivor Ludmyla Mykhailets. 

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