Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine has acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country as Russian forces captured territory along a frontline river and intensified pressure on two key cities ahead of an EU summit expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc.

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Fighting

• Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was “extremely difficult” along the entire front line and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.

• Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of the city of Sievierodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering for weeks. He also said the road connecting Sievierodonetsk and sister city Lysychansk to the city of Bakhmut was under constant shell fire.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. In his nighttime address to the nation on Monday, he was defiant, while also referring to “difficult” fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

• Ukrainian officials reported three civilian deaths in Russian shelling in the Donetsk region on Monday and another three in shelling in the Kharkiv region.

• A Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa after the Russia-installed leader of the annexed Crimea peninsula said Ukrainian forces had attacked drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil and gas company.

• Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.

Prisoners

• The Kremlin said Americans captured in Ukraine were “mercenaries” who had shot at Russian servicemen and were not covered by the Geneva convention, RIA reported, quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying they should take responsibility for their “crimes”.

• RIA also quoted the Kremlin as saying that American star basketball player Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February, faces criminal prosecution. Russia has previously said it had detained her for possession of vape cartridges containing hash oil.

Economic and security repercussions

• At a summit on Thursday and Friday, European Union leaders are expected to give their blessing to Ukraine becoming an official candidate to join.

• Russia warned NATO member Lithuania that unless it quickly lifts a new ban on the transit of goods to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea, then Moscow will take undisclosed measures to defend its national interests.

• EU foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia’s Black Sea port blockade at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

• Europe’s biggest Russian gas buyers are racing to find alternative fuel supplies and even looking at burning more coal to cope with reduced gas flows from Russia that threaten an energy crisis in winter if stores are not refilled.