Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Russia said on Saturday its troops had withdrawn from Lyman to avoid being surrounded by Ukraine's army. * Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and head of Russia's Chechnya region, said on Saturday Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after the loss of Lyman.

Ukraine said it was in full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv's most significant battlefield gain in weeks, which a senior official said could provide a staging post for further gains to the east. LYMAN

* Ukraine's capture of a city within territory of Russian President Vladimir Putin's declared annexation demonstrates that Ukrainians are making progress and are able to push back against Russian forces, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. * The recapture of Lyman in the Donetsk region is a key factor for "further de-occupation" in the neighbouring Luhansk region, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.

* U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cheered the recapture of Lyman, saying on Saturday it was an encouraging battlefield success and that the loss of the logistics and transport hub will pose a dilemma for Russia's military. * Russia said on Saturday its troops had withdrawn from Lyman to avoid being surrounded by Ukraine's army.

* Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and head of Russia's Chechnya region, said on Saturday Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after the loss of Lyman. RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT

* Russia's parliament is to consider on Monday bills and ratification treaties to absorb the regions, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin said. ZAPORIZHZHIA

* The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog called for the release of the director-general of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying his detention posed a threat to safety and security. DIPLOMACY

* Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal to Putin to stop "this spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine, saying the crisis there was risking a nuclear escalation with uncontrollable global consequences. * Russia failed to win enough votes on Saturday for re-election to the U.N. aviation agency's governing council, in a boost for Western powers that wanted to hold Moscow accountable following its invasion of Ukraine.

* Germany will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine in the coming days to help ward off drone attacks, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Saturday during a visit to Odesa. CASUALTIES

* Ukraine's SBU security service said at least 20 civilians were killed in Russian shelling of a civilian convoy in late September in an eastern "grey zone" between Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled territory. GAS FLOWS

* Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said it was technically possible to restore the ruptured offshore infrastructure of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, TASS news agency reported. * Italy's Eni said it would not receive any of the gas it had requested from Russia's Gazprom for delivery on Saturday, but the firms said they were working to fix this. (Compiled by Frances Kerry and Raissa Kasolowsky)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)