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.


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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.
 


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