What you need to know right now By Reuters

(Reuters) – Ukraine has defied Russia’s demand for soldiers to lay down arms in Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are besieged in a city being laid to waste by bombardment.

In the capital Kyiv, shells hit a shopping centre, killing at least eight people.

Russia’s almost month-old assault on Ukraine has stalled along most fronts, failing to seize any major city or topple the government. But shelling and missiles have caused devastation in residential areas.

FIGHTING

* Authorities in Odesa accused Russian of a strike on residential buildings, the first such attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port.

CIVILIANS

* Horror and bewilderment stalk the devastated, Russian-besieged city of Mariupol, where some bury neighbours in roadside graves.

* Neary 6.5 million people have been uprooted from homes, the United Nations says.

SANCTIONS

* The European Union cannot agree on whether or how to slap sanctions on Russia’s lucrative energy sector. Germany says the bloc is too dependent on Russian oil for that.

DIPLOMACY

* Peace talks resumed with a 90-minute video conference but there is no sign of significant progress.

* Russia has withdrawn from peace treaty talks with Japan and frozen joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril islands due to sanctions imposed by Tokyo.

* Moscow summoned the U.S. ambassador to tell him that remarks by President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin had pushed bilateral ties to near collapse.

QUOTES

* “It is a senseless massacre where every day slaughters and atrocities are being repeated,” Pope Francis said.

* “Everything is destroyed. Where can we go?” asked librarian Irina Chernenko in a dark cellar packed with families for 11 days.