Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* President Putin congratulated on Monday Russian forces on their "victories in the Luhansk direction" and "liberating" the region. * Russian rocket strikes hit Ukraine's southern city Mykolaiv on Tuesday morning, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said, adding that rescue workers were already on the scene, but offered no further details.

Russian forces set their sights on their next objectives in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province after President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in neighboring Luhansk province and the five-month-long war entered a new phase. FIGHTING

* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video message on Monday, said there had been no significant changes on the battlefield in the past 24 hours and that Ukrainian forces were repelling and destroying Russia's offensive capabilities on a daily basis. * President Putin congratulated on Monday Russian forces on their "victories in the Luhansk direction" and "liberating" the region.

* Russian rocket strikes hit Ukraine's southern city Mykolaiv on Tuesday morning, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said, adding that rescue workers were already on the scene, but offered no further details. * The cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk came under shelling overnight in the Donetsk region, its governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian TV.

* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts. DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY

* Zelenskiy renewed his appeal for security guarantees while addressing a roundtable conference hosted by the Economist. Europe needs to understand, he said, that the war in Ukraine was about Europe's safety and Ukraine was the "fence" protecting it. * Russian gas producer Gazprom has proposed expanding its rouble-for-gas scheme for pipeline gas to include liquefied natural gas, the Interfax news agency quoted a senior manager as saying on Monday.

* Flows of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and deliveries through Ukraine edged lower on Tuesday, operator data showed. * Britain said it would on Tuesday introduce new sanctions on Belarus over its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and also sanctioned six Russians it said were spreading disinformation.

* Ukraine needs $750 billion for a recovery plan, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Switzerland. QUOTES

* "The city doesn't exist anymore," said Nina, a young mother who has fled Lysychansk to take refuge in the central city of Dnipro. "It has practically been wiped off the face of the Earth."