Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

At least three people were killed and dozens of homes damaged by blasts in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, the regional governor said, while Ukrainian forces hit a Russian military base in occupied southern Ukraine.

FIGHTING

Ukrainian forces hit a Russian base with over 30 strikes in the Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol, the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor said. A Russian official confirmed strikes had hit the city.

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. * 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.

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.

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

QUOTES

"The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming... All the windows in our house were shattered, the doors came out of alignment," a resident of Belgorod told Reuters about the 3 a.m. blasts.