Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Article content

Oct 11 (Reuters) –

U.S.-led NATO said ts members were

Article content

boosting security

around key installations and Kyiv sought urgent air defense supplies from Western leaders, after Russia escalated its attacks on Ukraine and stepped up threats against the West.

DIPLOMACY

* NATO members and allies meeting in Brussels on Wednesday are likely to

focus on providing additional air defense systems

to Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said.

* The Group of Seven (G7) nations committed to support Ukraine

Article content

for as long as it takes

, adding in a statement after a leaders’ call that any use by Russia of nuclear weapons would bring severe consequences.

* A Kremlin spokesman said U.S. promises to supply advanced air defense systems to Ukraine will only extend the conflict and inflict more pain for Ukraine.

* European arms manufacturers have urged the European Union to

help coordinate weapons procurement

as they scramble to boost production to meet soaring demand for the war in Ukraine, after cutbacks in defense spending during decades of peace in Europe.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow 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.

Article content

* 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 Chinese-ruled city that belongs to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

CONFLICT

* Russia’s defense ministry said it had hit “all designated targets” in Ukraine 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.

* Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of committing war crimes by deliberately targeting energy facilities to create “unbearable conditions for civilians.”

* Around 300 settlements in Kyiv region and a similar number around Lviv in western Ukraine remain without power following Monday’s Russian missile strikes, deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin told a briefing.

Article content

* The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Tuesday more than 2,000 people had been left without power after Ukraine shelled an electricity substation in the town of Shebekino, on the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

ECONOMY

* Ukrainian President Zelenskiy called for the 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 mobilization 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.

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)