Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

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Leaders of the Group of Seven countries will say following a meeting on Tuesday that they will support Ukraine for as long as it takes, Bloomberg News reported, citing a draft G7 statement.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Bloomberg cited the draft statement as saying.

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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.

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* 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 defense 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.

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* Russia’s defense 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.”

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)