(Reuters) - The EU proposed its toughest sanctions yet against Russia on Wednesday, including a phased oil embargo, as Ukraine said Moscow was intensifying an offensive in eastern Ukraine and close Russian ally Belarus announced large-scale army drills.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Oil prices jumped on the proposed EU ban on Russian oil imports, which needs approval by EU member states. The Kremlin said it was looking into various options in response. Germany said prices could go up considerably.
* The European Commission has proposed banning in a month's time all shipping, brokerage, insurance and financing services offered by EU companies for the transport of Russian oil worldwide, an EU source told Reuters.
* U.S. President Biden said he would speak with leaders from the Group of Seven advanced economies this week about additional sanctions.
* The number of people facing a severe lack of food increased by a fifth to 193 million last year. The Ukraine war means the outlook will worsen, a U.N. agency said.
* The Czech Republic and Bulgaria will seek exemptions from the planned Russian oil ban.
* An EU source said Hungary and Slovakia can continue buying Russian crude oil until the end of 2023. Both said they needed a three-year transition.
* Russian oil exports rose in April, a source told Reuters, but sources have said major global trading houses plan to reduce crude and fuel purchases from Russia's state-controlled oil companies as early as May 15.
FIGHTING
* Ukraine said Russia was trying to increase the tempo of its offensive in the east of the country.
* The armed forces of Ukraine's neighbour Belarus began sudden large-scale drills to test their combat readiness.
* Russia's defence ministry said it had disabled six railway stations in Ukraine it said were used to supply Ukrainian forces with Western-made weapons in the country's east. Two cruise missiles were fired at Ukraine from a submarine in the Black Sea, the ministry was quoted by Interfax as saying.
* Russia has deployed 22 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine's eastern city of Izium in an apparent effort to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in the Donbas region, Britain said.
* Buses left Mariupol in a new attempt by Ukraine, the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate civilians from the besieged city, the regional governor said.
* The mayor of Mariupol said heavy fighting was underway at the Azovstal steel plant, where the city's last defenders are holding out, adding that more than 30 children were there too.Reuters could not immediately verify reports of battlefield developments.
DIPLOMACY
* The Kremlin dismissed speculation that Putin would declare war on Ukraine and announce a national mobilisation on May 9. Moscow describes its invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation".
* The European Union is considering more military support to Ukraine's western neighbour Moldova, EU Council President Charles Michel said on a visit to Chisinau.
* Brussels proposed freezing the assets of Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, adding him to a draft blacklist of hundreds of individuals accused of supporting the war, a diplomat said.