FIGHTING
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* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said defenders in the city of Sievierodonetsk were inflicting major losses on Russian troops during what he called a very fierce and very difficult battle.
* Russian forces control most of the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk and are heavily shelling the twin city of Lysychansk, causing major damage, the governor of Luhansk region said.
* Russia is attacking food and agriculture targets in order to scare the world into agreeing a deal to reopen the Black Sea on Moscow's terms, the head of the region where a major agricultural storage facility was struck at the weekend said.
* Zelenskiy said Ukraine would next week launch a "book of executioners" to detail war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes.
* Two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine could face the death penalty after pleading guilty in a court of one of Russia's proxies in eastern Ukraine, Russia's RIA news agency reported.
* More than 1000 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in the city of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, Moscow's state-owned Tass news agency reported, citing a Russian law enforcement source.
DIPLOMACY
* Turkey hosted Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov for talks aimed at restarting the stalled Ukraine peace process and finding a way to reopen Ukrainian ports for shipments of grain.
* Following the talks, Turkey said a proposed UN plan to reopen the ports was reasonable, but more negotiations were necessary.
* Lavrov said Ukraine would have to remove mines from its ports to allow them to reopen.
* He said a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Zelenskiy could happen only after peace talks resume.
POLITICS
* Russia's proxies in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia province announced plans to stage a referendum on joining Russia at an unspecified date later this year.
ECONOMY
* Russian shelling destroyed the warehouses of one of Ukraine's largest agricultural commodity terminals in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv at the weekend, the region's head said.
* Ukraine could export a maximum of only two million tonnes of grain a month if Russia refuses to lift its blockade of the country's Black Sea ports, Ukraine's first deputy minister for Agrarian Policy and Food said.
* The World Bank board has approved $US1.49 billion ($A2.07 billion) of additional financing for Ukraine to help pay government and social workers' wages.
* Under heavy pressure from Western sanctions and airspace bans, Russian state airline Aeroflot said it planned to raise up to 185.2 billion roubles ($A4.24 billion).
Australian Associated Press
