Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

FIGHTING * Ukraine said Russia had started creating a military strike force aimed at President Volodymr Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih and that Moscow could be preparing new attacks in southern Ukraine. Russia denies targeting civilians. * Zelenskiy says that despite arms supplies from the West, Ukrainian forces could not yet overcome Russian advantages in heavy guns and manpower.

Ukraine dismissed comments by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Russia wanted a "negotiated solution" to the war and said any talks would be contingent on a Russian ceasefire and withdrawal of its troops. ECONOMY

* The first grain ship to leave a Ukrainian port in wartime passed through the Bosphorus Strait en route to Lebanon for a delivery that foreign powers hope will be the first of many to help ease a global food crisis. * Ukraine's forecast for its 2022 harvest has increased to 65 million-67 million tonnes of grain from 60 million tonnes, the prime minister said.

* Russia had no reason to hold up the return of a gas turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that had been serviced in Canada but has since been stranded in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. European governments accuse Russia of throttling gas supplies in revenge for war-related sanctions. DIPLOMACY

* A fact-finding mission will begin into an attack on a prison in eastern Ukraine last week that killed prisoners held by Russian-backed separatists, the U.N. secretary-general said. FIGHTING

* Ukraine said Russia had started creating a military strike force aimed at President Volodymr Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih and that Moscow could be preparing new attacks in southern Ukraine. * Ukraine's military reported heavy Russian shelling of Kharkiv and other towns and villages in its vicinity, as well as air and missile strikes on civilian installations. Russia denies targeting civilians.

* Zelenskiy says that despite arms supplies from the West, Ukrainian forces could not yet overcome Russian advantages in heavy guns and manpower. * The rail link connecting Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine with Crimea is highly unlikely to be operational after a Ukrainian strike against a Russian ammunition train, Britain said.

* Reuters was not able to immediately verify battlefield reports. (Compiled by Himani Sarkar and Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)