Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday hailed the European Union's expected offer of candidate status for his war-weary nation as Russian forces pounded Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv and the eastern Donbas region. * Grain group Viterra said its terminal in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv had been hit and was on fire, after the regional governor reported an attack by six Russian missiles.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday hailed the European Union's expected offer of candidate status for his war-weary nation as Russian forces pounded Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv and the eastern Donbas region. ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY * Zelenskiy said he believed all European Union members would back granting Ukraine EU candidate status this week, adding: "This is like going into the light from the darkness." * The EU will temporarily shift back to coal to cope with slowing Russian gas flows and soaring prices, an official said. * Moscow is working on a "practical" response to Lithuania's ban on the transit of goods sanctioned by the EU to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Russian officials said. Britain backed Lithuania's ban. * President Vladimir Putin said Russia would focus its trade on the other BRICS emerging economies. * Ukraine said it exported 48% less grain in the first 22 days of June than a year earlier. Russia said talks with Turkey would continue on grain exports from Ukrainian ports. * Russia said the West was spreading lies about the causes of the global food crisis. * Putin signed a decree establishing temporary procedures to fulfil foreign debt obligations, as investors watch for a potential Russian default. * Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is upgrading its army so it can defend its allies as well as itself and must support Ukraine until Putin recognises his "colossal mistake". * A top EU official will urge the United States to help fight Russian propaganda and disinformation, after Microsoft said Russian cyber spies had attacked allies of Ukraine.

FIGHTING * Russian forces pounded Kharkiv and its surrounds, killing at least 20 people. Kyiv said Moscow was trying to force it to divert battlefield resources to protect civilians there. * Grain group Viterra said its terminal in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv had been hit and was on fire, after the regional governor reported an attack by six Russian missiles. * Two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine hit Russia's Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, near the border, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky and suspending production. * A freelance journalist filmed Ukrainian troops using inflatable rafts to resupply their garrison in Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield city in the Donbas, where the mayor said up to 8,000 civilians remain. * Zelenskiy's advisor Oleskiy Arestovych said Russian forces could cut off Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, its twin across the river. * Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvitsky reported intense fighting along Ukraine's northeastern border with Russia.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the battlefield accounts. QUOTE

"Harry Potter is better than Voldemort, and we know who is Voldemort in this war, and who is Harry Potter, so we know how the war will end," Zelenskiy said, speaking to a student in Canada who compared him to the fictional boy wizard. (Compiled by Philippa Fletcher and Catherine Evans)

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