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Ukrainian forces held their positions amid intense street fighting and shelling day and night in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia scrambles to control the bombed-out city, critical to its goal of controlling the east of Ukraine.

STRUGGLE

* Russia is looking for weak points in Ukrainian defenses near the Siverskyi Donets River in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday. He told state television that Russian forces had not given up on attempts to launch assault operations in the region.

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* Britain on Friday condemned Russian proxy authorities in the Donbass for what it called a “flagrant violation” of the Geneva Convention by sentencing two British nationals captured in the separatist region to death while fighting for Ukraine.

* Cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol as corpses go uncollected and summer brings warmer weather, its mayor said . The UK Ministry of Defense has also warned of the risks of a major cholera outbreak as Russia scrambles to provide basic public services to people in the territories it has occupied.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Russia’s central bank cut its key interest rate to the pre-crisis level of 9.5% and left the door open for further easing as inflation slowed, while noting the related uncertainty external risks such as the Western embargo on Russian oil.

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* Switzerland has adopted new EU sanctions against Belarus and Russia, also imposing financial and travel sanctions on 100 additional individuals and entities, including oligarch Aleksandra Melnichenko, the Federal Council announced on Friday.

* Ukrainian grain exports are increasing and are now approaching 2 million tonnes per month, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Friday.

* The IMF said Canada and Germany had already pledged more than $2 billion to a new fund to help Ukraine and it hoped other countries would contribute as much as possible.

DIPLOMACY

* France is unwilling to make concessions to Russia and wants Ukraine to win the war against invading Moscow forces with its territorial integrity restored, a French presidential official said on Friday, as Paris seeks to allay concerns about its position in the conflict.

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* Germany, the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter, plans to overhaul its arms export rules to make it easier to arm democracies like Ukraine and make it harder to sell arms to autocracies, it reported on Friday Der Spiegel.

* NATO’s deputy chief said on Friday he sees no immediate military threat to Sweden and Finland from Russia and is confident that aspiring NATO members will join the alliance despite objections from Turkey.

* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday he had asked Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to join European Union sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Russia during their bilateral talks in Belgrade. (Compiled by Kim Coghill, Philippa Fletcher and Cynthia Osterman)