Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

U.S.-led NATO said on Tuesday its members were boosting security around key installations and Kyiv sought urgent air defence supplies from Western leaders, after Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine and stepped up threats against the West. DIPLOMACY * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia will not turn down a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden at a forthcoming G20 meeting and would consider the proposal if it receives one. * Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Tuesday called Russia's latest attacks on Ukraine "abhorrent" and said she condemned them "in the strongest possible terms".

U.S.-led NATO said on Tuesday its members were

boosting security around key installations and Kyiv sought urgent air defence supplies from Western leaders, after Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine and stepped up threats against the West.

DIPLOMACY * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia will not turn down a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden at a forthcoming G20 meeting and would consider the proposal if it receives one.

* Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Tuesday called Russia's latest attacks on Ukraine "abhorrent" and said she condemned them "in the strongest possible terms". * Russia's missile strikes on Ukraine are unacceptably "brutal attacks", Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told Zelensky on Tuesday.

* Hong Kong's leader said there was "no legal basis" for the city to act on Western sanctions, when asked about a Russian yacht berthed in the city that belongs to a sanctioned Russian oligarch. CONFLICT

* A Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that U.S. promises to supply advanced air defence systems to Ukraine will only extend the conflict and inflict more pain for Ukraine. * Around 300 settlements in Kyiv region and a similar number around Lviv in western Ukraine remain without power, deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin told a briefing on Tuesday morning.

* Russia's defence ministry said it had hit "all designated targets" on Monday in what it called an attack on military, communications and energy infrastructure. Putin earlier blamed Ukraine for an attack on a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea on Saturday. * Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia on Tuesday of committing war crimes by deliberately targeting energy facilities to create "unbearable conditions for civilians".

* NATO is in discussions with defence companies and members of the alliance on how to boost weapons production and replenish stocks that have been wound down by deliveries to Ukraine, the alliance's chief said. Jens Stoltenberg said "Ukraine has the momentum" in the war with Russia and the Western defence alliance would stand with Kyiv as long as it takes. ECONOMY

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Tuesday for G7 to back a tough cap on Russian oil and gas exports, and again ruled out talks with Putin. * Already blighted by Western sanctions, Russia's economy now faces a more self-inflicted blow, with Putin's military mobilisation drive threatening to undermine productivity, demand and recovery.

* The current energy shock, especially in Europe, is not transitory, and the geopolitical realignment of energy supplies occurring in the wake of Russia's war in Europe is both "broad and permanent", the IMF said on Tuesday. QUOTES

* "(Putin) thinks that if he scares the population, he can ask for concessions, but he is not scaring us. He is pissing us off," said Viktoriya Moshkivski, 35, as she, her husband and their two sons waited for the air raid all-clear in Kyiv's Zoloti Vorota underground station. (Compiled by Philippa Fletcher and Nick Macfie)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)