INTERNATIONAL: Ukraine said a new attempt was under way on Friday to evacuate scores of civilians trapped in a heavily bombed steel works in the city of Mariupol, after bloody fighting with Russian forces thwarted efforts to bring them to safety the previous day.

* Russian forces in Ukraine's port of Mariupol continued their ground assault on the Azovstal steel plant for a second day, British military intelligence said.

* Russia's defence ministry said its missiles destroyed a large ammunition depot in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.

It also said its air defences shot down two Ukrainian warplanes, an Su-25 and a MiG-29, in the eastern Luhansk region.

Reports of battlefield developments by both sides could not be independently confirmed by Reuters.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other medical institutions and left doctors without drugs to tackle cancer or the ability to perform surgery, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

* Hungary cannot support the European Union's new sanctions package against Russia in its current form, including an embargo on Russian crude oil imports, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

* U.S. President Joe Biden said he would speak with leaders from the G7 advanced economies this week about more sanctions.

* Germany will deliver seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, on top of five howitzers the Dutch already pledged, German Defence Minister Lambrecht said.

"If you consider just medical infrastructure, as of today Russian troops have destroyed or damaged nearly 400 healthcare institutions: hospitals, maternity wards, outpatient clinics," Zelenskiy said.