Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the local governor said, after reports of several blasts in the city.

Photo: A man and a child escape from the town of Irpin, after heavy shelling on the only escape route used by locals, while Russian troops advance towards the capital of Kyiv, in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine March 6, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

FIGHTING

* Lysychansk, Ukraine’s last big bastion in the strategic eastern province of Luhansk, could fall, Zelenskiy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych acknowledged as fighting intensified.

* Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic, said, “Lysychansk has been brought under control” but “not yet liberated.”

* Far from the eastern fighting, Russia said it had hit army command posts in Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa, where the mayor had reported powerful explosions.

* Belarusian President Lukashenko said Ukraine tried to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory last week but all its missiles had been intercepted. read more

* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY

* Russia may continue to suspend gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline beyond a planned maintenance shutdown this month, said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck. read more

* The United States is sending Ukraine two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and up to 150,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition as part of its latest weapons packages for Ukraine. read more

* A sizable number of companies, executives and investors underpinning Russia’s defence sector have yet to be affected by Western sanctions, a Reuters examination shows.

Also Read:Blasts kill three in Russian city near Ukraine border

QUOTES

* “The Russian tactic right now is to just shell any building we could locate ourselves at. When they’ve destroyed it, they move on to the next one,” a Russian soldier told Reuters as he and his comrades took a break in Konstyantynivka, west of Lysychansk.

 

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