Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Ukraine carried out its biggest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended Mariupol's steelworks, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said. DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY * Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said NATO could intervene in Mali if needed, after the alliance's summit in Madrid mentioned terrorism among the "hybrid threats" that hostile powers can use to undermine its stability.

Russia pressed on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine on Thursday after NATO branded Moscow the biggest "direct threat" to Western security and agreed on plans to modernize Kyiv's beleaguered armed forces. FIGHTING * "There is no let-up,"," said the governor of the eastern Luhansk region, much of which is now in Russian hands. The Russians are taking the city of Lysychansk building by building, he said, as they did before in nearby Sievierodonetsk. * Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts. * Ukraine carried out its biggest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended Mariupol's steelworks, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said.

DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY * Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said NATO could intervene in Mali if needed after the alliance's summit in Madrid mentioned terrorism among the "hybrid threats" that hostile powers can use to undermine its stability. Albares has previously flagged the presence of a Russian military contractor in Mali as potentially destabilizing. * Trade through Lithuania to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad could return to normal within days, two sources familiar with the matter said, as European officials edge towards a compromise deal with the Baltic state to defuse a row with Moscow. * NATO agreed to modernize "heroic," Ukraine's military, and Britain said it would provide another 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) of military support, including air defense systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles, and new electronic warfare equipment * In reaction to NATO's invitation to Finland and Sweden to join, Putin said Russia would respond in kind if the alliance deployed troops and infrastructure in the Nordic nations. * U.S. President Biden pledged more American troops, warplanes, and warships for Europe as NATO agreed to the biggest strengthening of its deterrents since the Cold War in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. QUOTES * "This is not a war being waged by Russia against only Ukraine. This is a war for the right to dictate conditions in Europe - for what the future world order will be like," President Zelenskiy told NATO leaders in a video link-up from Kyiv. * "My combat experience here was that one mission on that one day," said Alexander Drueke, a former U.S. soldier captured in eastern Ukraine. "I didn't fire a shot. I would hope that would play a factor in whatever sentence I do or don't receive." 

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