EU preparing to impose sanctions on Russian oil sales

The European Union was preparing to impose sanctions on Russian oil sales after Germany, Russia's biggest energy customer, made a major shift on Monday that could deprive Moscow of a large revenue stream within a few days.

A 14-year-old boy was killed and a 17-year-old girl was wounded in a missile strike on a dormitory in the southern port of Odesa, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Russia's defence ministry said a missile strike on a military airfield near the port of Odesa destroyed a runway and hangar with Western-supplied weapons and ammunition.

A Ukrainian Bayraktar drone destroyed two Russian raptor-class patrol ships in the Black Sea, Ukraine's military chief said.

Since February 24 the civilian death toll in Ukraine has exceeded 3,000 people, according to the U.N. human rights office.

Reports of battlefield developments could not be verified by Reuters.

Berlin will be ready to back an EU ban on Russian oil imports, two German ministers said.

The EU executive may allow Hungary and Slovakia exemptions or transition periods and phase in the ban by the end of the year to keep the bloc united.

Foreign financial aid will ensure the stability of Ukraine's central bank reserves as the country deals with the economic shocks caused by the Russian invasion, central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said.

More than 11,500 people, including 1,847 children, were transported into Russia from Ukraine on Monday without the participation of Kyiv's authorities, Russia's defence ministry said.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday he hoped that the U.S. Senate would take President Joe Biden's request for $33 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine as soon as next week.

Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, 39, a deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment, told Reuters from inside the Azovstal plant that fighters could hear voices of women, children and elderly people trapped below ground, and lacked the equipment to dig them out.

The Ukrainian president Zelenskiy, along with officials from Israel, Italy, Canada and Germany, lambasted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for claiming that Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins.

We planned to tear up the bunkers, the entrance blocked, but all night into Monday naval artillery and barrel artillery were firing. A day later, Palamar has been working, dropping bombs, and attempting to release civilians trapped below ground at the Azovstal plant.