Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine claimed full control of Russia’s eastern logistics hub Lyman, its most significant battlefield gain in weeks, setting the stage for further advances aimed at cutting Russia’s supply lines to its battered troops to a single route.

Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Lyman

• Ukraine’s capture of a city within territory of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declared annexation demonstrates that Ukrainians are making progress and are able to push back against Russian forces, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

• The recapture of Lyman in the Donetsk region is a key factor for “further de-occupation” in the neighbouring Luhansk region, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said.

• Russia said its troops had withdrawn from Lyman to avoid being surrounded by Ukraine’s army.

• Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and head of Russia’s Chechnya region, said on Saturday Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after the loss of Lyman.

Russian parliament

• Russia’s parliament is to consider on Monday bills and ratification treaties to absorb the regions, the speaker of the lower house said.

Zaporizhzhia

• The head of the UN nuclear watchdog called for the release of the director-general of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying his detention posed a threat to safety and security.

Diplomacy

• Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine, saying the crisis there was risking a nuclear escalation with uncontrollable global consequences.

• Germany will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine in the coming days to help ward off drone attacks.

• EU country leaders will discuss how to step up support for Ukraine and their joint next steps to tame soaring energy prices when they meet on Friday.

• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s chief adviser Ibrahim Kalin in Istanbul on Sunday and discussed “progress on NATO accession for Finland and Sweden”, the White House said.

Gas flows

• Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said it was technically possible to restore the ruptured offshore infrastructure of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, TASS news agency reported.

• Italy’s Eni said it would not receive any of the gas it had requested from Russia’s Gazprom for delivery on Saturday, but the firms said they were working to fix this.