(Reuters) – Russian troops fought to take complete control of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk as the United States said it will provide Ukraine with advanced rockets to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.
FIGHTING
* U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at long-range Russian targets as part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday.
* Russia’s nuclear forces are holding drills in the Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying.
* Ukrainian forces have had some success near the southern city of Kherson and are advancing in parts of the Kharkiv region to the east of Kyiv, President Zelenskiy said.
* Ukrainian officials reported a “shutdown of all communications” in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson.
TRADE
* European Union leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian crude oil imports that will take full effect by the end of the year, but Hungary and two other landlocked Central European states secured exemptions for the pipeline imports they rely on.
* German companies Uniper and RWE have paid for Russian gas under a new scheme proposed by Moscow, in a bid to ensure continued supply of the fuel that is critical to Europe’s top economy.
* Russia’s Gazprom said it will turn off supplies to several “unfriendly” countries which have refused to accept Moscow’s roubles-for-gas payment scheme.
* A senior U.N. official had “constructive discussions” in Moscow on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports to global markets, a U.N. spokesman said.
FINANCE
* Russia’s economy will contract less than expected this year and inflation will be lower than previously thought, a Reuters poll showed.
DIPLOMACY
* Pope Francis led an international prayer service in Rome for peace in Ukraine and other places stricken by war; it was attended by about 1,000, including the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and a number of people wearing the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.
(Compiled by Robert Birsel)
