Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones on Monday, killing at least three people in an apartment building in downtown Kyiv during morning rush hour, and targeting infrastructure across the country in the second big wave of air strikes in a week.

Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones on Monday, killing at least three people in an apartment building in downtown Kyiv during morning rush hour, and targeting infrastructure across the country in the second big wave of air strikes in a week. FIGHTING

* Ukraine's military said it had shot down 37 drones, or around 85% of those launched in Russian attacks overnight. Russia said it had carried out "massive" strikes on what it called military and infrastructure targets. * Ukrainian troops are holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the Donbas region remains very difficult, Zelenskiy said.

* Russia's defence ministry said its forces had repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. * Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

* The Belarusian defence ministry in Minsk said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus as part of a "regional grouping" of forces to protect its borders. ECONOMY, DIPLOMACY

* The new U.N. human rights chief, Volker Turk, said attacks against civilians in Ukraine must stop. * The U.S. embassy called Monday morning's Russian strikes "desperate and reprehensible" attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civil infrastructure.

* White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was incumbent upon NATO allies and other responsible countries, including China and India, to "send a very clear and decisive message to Russia that they should not contemplate the use of nuclear weapons in this conflict". * Elon Musk said his rocket company SpaceX would keep funding its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for "good deeds", after earlier saying he could no longer afford to do so. 

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