(Reuters) - Russia flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday in missile attacks near Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa that authorities say killed at least 21 people. The Kremlin denied targeting civilians.
FIGHTING
* Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "I would like to remind you of the president's words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets."
* The RIA news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Friday that Russian forces had captured an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk.
* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY
* President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in an economic war with the West and its allies with a decree that seizes full control of the Sakhalin-2 gas and oil project in Russia's far east, a move that could force out Shell (LON:RDSa) and Japanese investors.
* Western nations have responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in part by targeting Russia's defense industry with sanctions. But a Reuters examination of companies, executives and investors underpinning Russia's defence sector shows a sizable number of players have yet to pay a price.
* U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial in a court on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday to face drug charges that could see her face up to 10 years in prison. The case was brought after Russian authorities said they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in Griner's luggage at a Moscow airport in February. Her lawyers declined to say how she planned to plead.
* Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria said on Friday she would ask Moscow to close down its embassy in the Balkan country after her appeal for Sofia to reverse a decision to expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff was ignored.
* Ukraine has a "very clear European perspective" but the road to EU membership will take time and require hard work, the president of the EU executive told the country's parliament on Friday.
* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin spoke on the phone on Friday and discussed the state of global energy and food markets, Modi's office said in a statement, as India keeps buying Russian crude oil.
QUOTES
* "Almost all the city infrastructure is destroyed. We are living without gas, electricity, and water since May," Sergei Oleinik, 65, resident of Russian-occupied Sievierodonetsk, told Reuters. "We are glad that this ended, and soon maybe reconstruction will start, and we will be back to more or less normal life."