What you need to know right now According to Reuters

Russian missiles have hit an airport near the western city of Lviv, where hundreds of thousands of people have found refuge from Ukrainian battlefields as Moscow tries to regain the initiative in the operation. its stalled.

US President Joe Biden will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping at 13:00 GMT, seeking to isolate Moscow from a power that has yet to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.

TOLL CIVIL

Officials say more than 350,000 people are sheltering south of the besieged port of Mariupol, while the Russian Defense Ministry says separatists helped by the Russian military are “tightening the noose” around the city.

* His family said an American citizen waiting in a bread line was among the civilians killed in the city of Chernihiv. Russia denies targeting civilians.

* The UN says it has recorded 780 civilian deaths since the invasion began while 3.2 million people have fled.

* Food supply chains in Ukraine are collapsing and conflict is creating a wave of “collateral hunger” around the world, the UN’s World Food Program aid agency says.

‘MINIMUM PROGRESS’

* “Russian forces have made minimal progress this week,” Britain said in a daily intelligence update.

Ukrainian forces around Kyiv and Mykolaiv continued to repel Russian attempts to encircle Kyiv and Mykolaiv, while intense shelling of besieged cities such as Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol continued. .

DIPLOMACY

* Prime Minister Olaf Scholz called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and stepped up diplomatic efforts in a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

* The Kremlin said Putin told Scholz Ukraine was trying to stall negotiations with “unrealistic proposals.”

* Ukraine’s foreign minister said he discussed a new round of sanctions against Russia with the EU’s foreign policy chief.

* Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland will formally request the UN peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the next NATO summit.

ECONOMY AND MARKETS

* The International Energy Agency urges consumers to commute less, share transport and drive more slowly, part of a 10-point plan to cut oil use as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine increases more concerns about supply.

* Some creditors have already received payments on Russian bond notes that are due this week, meaning Russia may now have averted default.

QUOTE

* “The tragedy of war unfolding in the heart of Europe has stunned us,” Pope Francis said in a message to a conference of the Catholic Church in Slovakia.

“Once again humanity is threatened by the barbaric abuse of power and partisan interests, which subject the defenseless to all forms of brutal violence.”