• Ukraine claims to have killed at least 52 Russians in a long-range rocket strike in the Russian held town of Nova Kakhovka in the southern Kherson region, territory it says it is planning to retake in a counter-offensive using up to 1 million troops. However, a Russian-installed official said seven were dead and around 60 wounded, but added many more were still trapped under the rubble. READ MORE BELOW

• However, Kyiv expects a renewed Russian assault after widespread shelling by Russian forces killed more than 30 people in just three days. The bombardment is seen as a precursor to Moscow sending ground troops deeper into Donetsk province in a bid to seize the two main cities still under Ukrainian control, and ultimately, the whole of the wider Donbas region.

• Europe's dependence on Russian energy continues to preoccupy its leaders as the largest pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany was shut down for 10 days of annual maintenance. Governments, markets and companies are worried the shutdown might be extended because of the conflict. 

• Ukrainian forces have killed at least six people in the Russian held town of Nova Kakhovka in the southern Kherson region. Kyiv said the operation was aimed at destroying an ammunition depot there. 

• The death toll from a weekend shelling of an apartment building in the Donetsk town of Chasiv Yar has risen to 33. At least nine people have been rescued so far, with more than 65 percent of the rubble, weighing around 170 tonnes, cleared by Monday evening.

• On a visit to Kyiv, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Ukraine conflict "may last longer than we all hoped or expected," but that did not mean acting passively, promising his hosts more long-range artillery and an aid package worth $201 million.

• Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko are discussing possible joint measures against neighboring Lithuania over what Moscow calls a trade blockade on the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Vilnius has restricted the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union (EU) into the Russian region sandwiched between NATO members Lithuania and Poland, infuriating Moscow. 

• The White House says Iran is planning to supply hundreds of drones with combat weapon capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine. National security advisor Jake Sullivan said the information supported views that Moscow was facing challenges sustaining its weaponry after significant losses in Ukraine.

• Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov says he will hand over his entire media empire, including 10 television channels, to the government. The 55-year-old billionaire said that his decision was "driven" by a new law aimed at "preventing threats to national security associated with excessive influence" of oligarchs.

• Kyiv has condemned a decree from President Vladimir Putin that makes it easier to give Russian citizenship to Ukrainians. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba described the "worthless" decree as "another encroachment on the sovereignty" of Ukraine and proof of "Putin's aggressive appetites."

• The EU has frozen Russian assets worth $13.8 billion since the start of the conflict, according to its Justice Commissioner. Didier Reynders called the figure "quite huge" and said the majority of it had been seized in just five EU states. 

• The global price of oil could surge by 40 percent to around $140 per barrel if a planned price cap on Russian oil is not taken on board, a senior U.S. Treasury official has warned. 

The fight to retake Kherson

Ukraine says a long-range rocket strike against Russian forces has killed more than 50 troops in the southern region of Kherson, as Kyiv kickstarts efforts to retake the territory in a counter-offensive set to employ hundreds of thousands of troops.

Ukrainian government officials have spoken of efforts to rally up to 1 million troops to take back the region, while Russia has accused Ukraine of shelling its own people.

According to the Ukrainian armed forces, the strike hit an ammunition dump in the Kherson town of Nova Kakhovka and killed 52 Russians, as well as destroying military hardware. 

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However, a Russian-installed official in Kherson gave a different version, saying at least seven people had been killed in the attack, and that civilians and civilian infrastructure had been hit.

"There are still many people under the rubble. The injured are being taken to the hospital, but many people are blocked in their apartments and houses," Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russia-installed Kakhovka District military-civilian administration, told Russian news agency TASS.

He was also cited as saying that warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church had been hit.

The strike follows Washington supplying Ukraine with HIMARS mobile artillery systems which Kyiv says its forces are starting to use with ever greater efficacy.

The separatists said the HIMARS missiles had been used in the strike, with the large explosion resulting from the rockets hitting warehouses containing saltpeter, a chemical compound which can be used to make fertilizer or gunpowder.

The Kherson area Ukraine is targeting is one that Russian forces seized at the start of the conflict's escalation on February 24 and, due to its arable lands, access to the Black Sea and proximity to the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula, it is considered to be of key strategic importance.

Russia has so far tried to introduce the ruble in the region and is offering Russian passports to locals who will take them. There are also plans to hold a referendum on Kherson becoming part of Russia but a date has not yet been set.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister on Sunday urged civilians in Kherson to urgently evacuate as Ukraine's armed forces were preparing a counter-attack there.

"It's clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling... and we therefore urge (people) to evacuate urgently," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television.

She said she could not say exactly when the counter-offensive would happen.

"I know for sure that there should not be women and children there, and that they should not become human shields," she said.