Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Western nations on Monday pledged unwavering support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, including more sanctions on Moscow and air-defence systems, as Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles struck a shopping centre, killing at least 11 people.

Western nations on Monday pledged unwavering support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, including more sanctions on Moscow and air-defence systems, as Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles struck a shopping centre, killing at least 11 people. FIGHTING

* A Russian missile struck a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, killing at least 11 people and wounding 50, the regional governor said. * Russian shelling of the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine killed four people and wounded 19, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.

* Russia's defence ministry said it had hit a factory belonging to a missile manufacturer in Kyiv, but denied it was responsible for a missile that hit a residential area in the city. * The city of Lysychansk is suffering "catastrophic" damage from shelling, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said, days after its twin Sievierodonetsk fell to pro-Russian forces.

* Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said missiles that struck the central city of Cherkasy on Sunday hit a strategic bridge linking the country's west with eastern battlefields. * A missile strike in the Odesa region destroyed homes, causing a fire, and injuring six, including a child, said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the regional administration.

ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY * The Group of Seven club of wealthy nations vowed to stand with Ukraine "for as long as it takes", promising to tighten the squeeze on Russia's finances with new sanctions that include a proposal to cap the price of Russian oil. Its gold exports will also be targeted.

* The White House said Russia had defaulted on its foreign sovereign bonds for the first time in a century - an assertion Moscow rejected. * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked the G7 to provide missile defence systems, and said the time was not right to negotiate with Russia.

* Zelenskiy was focused on securing an "advantageous position" in its conflict with Russia in months rather than years, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, with a European official saying the Ukrainian leader wanted the war to be over by winter. * The United States is likely to announce this week the purchase of an advanced medium- to long-range surface-to-air missile defence system for Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

* U.S. President Joe Biden raised the tariff rate on certain Russian imports to 35% as a result of suspending Russia's "most favoured nation" trading status. QUOTES

"It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims ... It's useless to hope for decency and humanity from Russia," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram after the Kremenchuk shopping centre was hit. * "We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," G7 leaders said.

* "We have to stay together," Biden told allies at the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps. (Compiled by Himani Sarkar and Catherine Evans)

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