Russia-Ukraine war: All you need to know right now

Russian forces fired rockets into Ukraine`s Luhansk and Dnipro regions while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the possibility of additional sanctions on Russia.

Image credit: Reuters

Ukraine said it was seeking another round of European Union sanctions against Moscow and more military aid from its allies as it braces for a major Russian offensive in the east of the country.

FIGHTING

* Russian forces fired rockets into Ukraine`s Luhansk and Dnipro regions, Ukrainian officials said, completely destroying an airport and wounding at least five people.

* Two people were killed and several injured in the Ukrainian town of Derhachy in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said.

* British military intelligence said Russia was seeking to strengthen troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service since 2012, as losses mount from the invasion.

CIVILIANS

* Residents of the besieged region of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine will have nine trains to use on Sunday for evacuation, Luhansk regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai wrote on Telegram.

* Donors including Canada and the European Commission pledged a on Saturday combined 9.1 billion euros in donations, loans and grants to support refugees fleeing the war.

FOREIGN LEADERS

* Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had held spoken on the phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the possibility of additional sanctions on Russia.

PRAYERS AND PROTESTS

* Pope Francis on Sunday called for an Easter truce in Ukraine, and in an apparent reference to Russia, questioned the value of planting a victory flag "on a heap of rubble".

* The head of Russia`s Orthodox Church called on people on Sunday to rally around the authorities as Moscow pursues its military intervention in Ukraine.

* Around 600 pro-Russian protesters in a 350-car motorcade set off on a demonstration in Hanover in the north of Germany, where there was also a counter-demonstration of around 700 people supporting Ukraine in the city centre, local police said.

ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

* Ukraine has banned all imports from Russia, one of its key trading partners before the war with annual imports valued at about $6 billion, and called on other countries to follow and impose harsher economic sanctions.

* Russian bank VTB can no longer exercise any control over its European subsidiary in the wake of new sanctions, German regulator BaFin said.