Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* Ukraine on Sunday claimed full control of Russia's eastern logistics hub of Lyman, its most significant battlefield gain in weeks, setting the stage for further advances aimed at cutting Russia's supply lines to its battered troops to a single route. * 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.

Ukrainian forces were reported to be recapturing towns along the west bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine on Monday, with Moscow forced to yield territory along a second major front line just days after claiming to have annexed it. BATTLEFIELD ADVANCES

* The scale of the Ukrainian advance in the south was unconfirmed, with Kyiv maintaining all but complete silence about the situation in the area. But Russian military bloggers described a Ukrainian tank advance through dozens of kilometers of territory along the west bank of the Dnipro. * Ukraine on Sunday claimed full control of Russia's eastern logistics hub of Lyman, its most significant battlefield gain in weeks, setting the stage for further advances aimed at cutting Russia's supply lines to its battered troops to a single route.

* 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. * Russia said its troops had withdrawn from Lyman to avoid being surrounded by Ukraine's army.

RUSSIAN DEVELOPMENTS * The military commissar of Russia's Khabarovsk region in the far east was removed from his post after half of the newly mobilized personnel were sent home as they did not meet the draft criteria, the region's governor said.

* Russia's parliament is to consider on Monday bills and ratification treaties to absorb four former Ukrainian regions, the speaker of the lower house said. Kyiv and its Western allies have branded the Russian plan to absorb the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson as an illegal farce. DIPLOMACY

* 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 by a Russian patrol posed a threat to safety and security. * EU country leaders will discuss how to step up support for Ukraine and their joint next steps to tame soaring energy prices when they meet on Friday.

* U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan pledged Washington's steadfast support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity at talks in Istanbul with Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office, the White House said. * Pope Francis for the first time directly begged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the "spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine, saying the crisis was risking a nuclear escalation with uncontrollable global consequences. 

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