Ukraine and Russia: what you need to know

* Russia said the first phase of its military operation was mostly complete and it would focus on "liberating" Ukraine's breakaway eastern Donbas region. Reframing his goals may make it easier for President Vladimir Putin to claim a face-saving victory, analysts said.

* Three hundred people may have been killed in the bombing of a Mariupol theatre, local officials said. Russia said 1351 of its soldiers had died, while the United Nations said it had confirmed 1081 civilian deaths in Ukraine. Some 136 children had been killed, nearly half of them in the Kyiv area, Ukraine's office of the prosecutor-general said.

* Thousands of kilometres from Ukraine, Russia was conducting military drills on islands claimed by Tokyo, Japanese media said, days after Moscow halted peace talks with Japan because of its sanctions over Russia's invasion.

* About 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine, which had a prewar population of 44 million.

* The UN is looking into allegations that civilians were forcibly moved from the besieged southern city of Mariupol to Russia.

* China's state-run Sinopec Group suspended talks for a major petrochemical investment and a gas marketing venture in Russia, sources told Reuters, heeding a government call for caution as Western sanctions mount.

* The United States would supply Europe with more liquefied natural gas to help curb reliance on Russia, President Joe Biden said.

* The war was driving up commodities prices and would likely reduce global growth prospects, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

QUOTE

"I told my wife to grab the children and to hide in the basement, and I went to the drafting station and joined my unit straight away." - Andriy, a Ukrainian soldier on the front line northwest of Kyiv.

Australian Associated Press