Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukrainian forces raised their national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island on Thursday in a symbol of defiance against Moscow, but Russian forces consolidated gains in eastern Ukraine and probed the defences of potential new targets.

Ukrainian forces raised their national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island on Thursday in a symbol of defiance against Moscow, but Russian forces consolidated gains in eastern Ukraine and probed the defences of potential new targets. FIGHTING

* Russian forces fired missiles at the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in an air strike, causing casualties, the city's mayor said. Ukraine expects the city to be among the main targets for Russian forces following their capture of the city of Lysychansk. * Russia's defence ministry said a Russian warplane struck and killed an unspecified number of Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in the Black Sea after they landed there to raise the Ukrainian flag.

* Russia's armed forces have destroyed two advanced U.S.-made HIMARS rocket systems and their ammunition depots in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said. * Lysychansk was once a city of a 100,000 people in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, but it lies in ruins after its fall to Russian forces with many residents living in bomb shelters and basements.

ECONOMY * Ukraine's grain exports plunged 68.5% year-on-year to 163,000 tonnes in the first six days of July, the first month of the 2022/23 season, the agriculture ministry said.

* Ukraine's grain traders union revised upwards its forecast for the grain and oilseed harvest to 69.4 million tonnes from the previous 66.5 million, but still far below the 2021 level of 106 million tonnes. * The port of Mariupol in the Russian-controlled territory of Ukraine is operating at full capacity

* The Netherlands has met a goal of ending its dependence on Russian gas, its energy minister told Reuters in an interview, but as a major storage and transport hub, it is exposed to any wider European gas crisis. REFUGEES

* More than 8.79 million people have crossed the border from Ukraine since the invasion on Feb. 24 the U.N. refugee agency said.