RUSSIA summoned the EU ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday, fuming over a rail blockade that has halted shipments of many basic goods to a Russian outpost on the Baltic Sea, the latest stand-off over sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine. 

FIGHTING

* Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said a relatively quiet Monday night signalled "a calm before the storm" after a massive Russian attack and advances.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. He was defiant in a late Monday address despite "difficult" fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

* Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles to engage Russian forces, the British Military Intelligence said on Tuesday. 

* Two Americans captured in Ukraine are in the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday citing an unidentified source.

ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC REPERCUSSIONS

* EU leaders are set to keep pressure high on Russia at a summit this week when they will underline that work continues on sanctions, according to a draft document, with gold being considered for a possible next round.

* Europe's biggest Russian gas buyers are racing to find alternative fuel supplies and even looking at burning more coal to cope with reduced gas flows from Russia that threaten an energy crisis in winter if stores are not refilled.

* The Baltic states on Tuesday asked for more financial support from the EU to handle Ukrainian refugees, the Lithuanian president's office said. "EU solidarity is very important to assure proper support to war refugees from Ukraine," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said.