TOP HEADLINES

• Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an honorary title to a brigade accused by Ukraine of "war crimes" and mass killings in the town of Bucha.

• Five "powerful" Russian missiles hit the western city of Lviv, killing at least seven people and wounding eight, local officials say.

• Russian troops captured the east Ukraine town of Kreminna in a major night-time attack, say local officials.

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will not take part in some of this week's G20 meetings with her global counterparts if Russian officials are included, a senior US Treasury official said.

• The situation in Ukraine's besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol is "extremely difficult" but the city has not been fully taken over by Russian forces, a spokesman for Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday.

• Ukraine called for Russia to facilitate a humanitarian corridor for evacuees from Mariupol and one from the steel plant that is the city's last significant area of Ukrainian resistance.

• Ukraine aired a video showing Viktor Medvedchuk, a detained pro-Russia tycoon and ally of President Vladimir Putin, seeking to be exchanged in return for an evacuation of civilians and troops from the besieged port city of Mariupol.

• Russian state television broadcast a video of two men it says are captured Britons, asking to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk.

• Ukraine said it was halting the evacuation of civilians from frontline town and cities in the east of the country for a second consecutive day on Monday, accusing Russian forces of blocking and shelling escape routes.

• Russia's defense ministry said on Monday it had destroyed four arms and military equipment depots in Ukraine overnight with Iskander missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Monday. Russian forces had hit 315 Ukrainian targets in total overnight, TASS cited the ministry as saying.

• Russian shelling in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, killed at least three people. 

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there had not been any recent diplomatic communications between Russia and Ukraine at foreign minister level, adding the "dire" situation in Mariupol may be a "red line" in the path of negotiations

• The Kremlin accused Ukraine of constantly changing its stance when it comes to issues that have already been agreed at peace talks.

• Dozens of paintings by renowned Russian artists including Wassily Kandinsky are stuck in Seoul after an exhibition as all available flight options have been shut down by the sanctions.

• Italy reopened its embassy in Kyiv on Monday, becoming the latest country to return diplomats to the Ukrainian capital after Russian troops withdrew from the region.

• President Vladimir Putin and his Algerian counterpart Abelmadjid Tebboune held a phone call during which they confirmed their plans for further coordination at the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers, the Kremlin said on Monday.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared for a final defense.

• Many of the nearly five million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to, the United Nations warns. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says 4,836,445 people have left the country since the conflict began on February 24.

• Around 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to sanctions over Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, the city's mayor said on Monday.

IN DETAIL 

Honored for defending the 'Motherland and state interests'

Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded a brigade accused by Ukraine of committing atrocities near the capital Kyiv as his forces pounded targets across the country, killing at least seven people in the western city of Lviv.

Despite widespread condemnation of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Putin appeared to double down on Monday.  

The Russian president signed an official decree bestowing the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the title of "Guards" for defending the "Motherland and state interests" and praised the "mass heroism and valor, tenacity and courage" of its members.

The Ukrainian defense ministry has accused the same outfit of carrying out "war crimes" while occupying the suburb of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, where residents were shot to death with some having their hands bound.

Russian forces capture Kreminna in east Ukraine

Russian troops on Monday captured the east Ukraine town of Kreminna, local authorities said, as Kyiv's armed forces launched salvos on Russian forces in the nearby settlement of Rubizhne.

"There was a major attack in the night" from Sunday to Monday in Kreminna, the Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media.

"The Russian army has already entered there, with a huge amount of military hardware .... Our defenders have retreated to new positions," he added.

Kreminna, with a pre-war population of nearly 20,000 people is around 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk, the region's administrative centre, and is a strategic target for the Russian forces.

Rubizhne, which is under control from Russian forces, was under intense fire from Ukrainian artillery and mortars, AFP journalists reported.

Powerful explosions could be seen in Rubizhne, sometimes followed by fires and plumes of white or black smoke.

Russian forces have stepped up their offensive to capture the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine having pulled back troops deployed around the capital Kyiv at the beginning of their military campaign in late February.

Mariupol: A symbol of fierce resistance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared for a final defense on Monday.

Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city as it works to wrest control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea.

But Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum on Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender.

Ukrainian authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

"Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas," Zelenskyy said in an evening statement.

Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops entered the former Soviet state on February 24.

"The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

"There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end," he told the U.S. network ABC's This Week.

While several large cities were under siege, he said, not one, with the exception of Kherson in the south had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been re-captured.