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The NRL grand final is set to remain in Sydney long-term with Peter V'landys and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet reaching an agreement on key stadium upgrades.

ARL Commission chairman V'landys and Perrottet met for robust discussions on Friday, following a week of speculation that the showpiece event could move to Queensland.

V'landys had also floated the potential of a Super Bowl style system, where cities could bid for the right to host the grand final.

But that will now not be the case, with both the NRL and NSW Premier extremely confident the match will remain in Sydney for years to come.

The deal must still be signed off, but it's understood that provided the agreement from Friday remains in place the grand final will not move.

The two organisations are set to meet again in the next three weeks, where it will likely be finalised.

"The meeting with the premier was robust, however extremely positive," V'landys told AAP.

"Significant progress was made.

"Both parties need to go back to their organisations, and will then document and try to finalise."

NSW was originally slated to host the grand final until the 2042 season, as part of a deal reached in 2018.

However that contract was based on Accor Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park being upgraded to a rectangular venue, an $800 million rebuild that fell through during the pandemic.

As a result the NRL had the power to consider the contract null and void, but instead wanted funds pushed towards the upgrade of suburban grounds.

A new stadium is already locked in for Penrith, while the likes of Brookvale Oval would also be in line if further upgrades are agreed upon.

Perrottet made clear before Friday's meeting that he did not envisage any way in which Sydney could lose the grand final.

"It's all this little theatre that Peter V'landys is creating, it's not happening," Perrottet said on Friday morning.

"The grand final is not going to Queensland or anywhere else. Peter knows that, I know that.

"Let's have the dance but we know where this is going to finish and we're going to have the grand final in Sydney."

Brisbane hosted the grand final last year for the first time in the game's history, however that only came as a result of the competition being moved to Queensland through COVID-19.

© AAP 2022

Two Russian missiles have struck Kyiv during a visit by the head of the United Nations, Ukrainian officials say, but the West believes the battles for the besieged port of Mariupol and other areas in the east and south may determine the war's outcome.

Russia withdrew its forces from outside Kyiv last month after failing to take the capital and launched a massive attack on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

But Thursday's blasts in Kyiv, heard soon after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres completed talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, highlighted concerns that the capital remains vulnerable.

Zelenskiy said the blasts "prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over".

The rockets shook the central Shevchenko district of the city and one struck the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building, wounding at least 10 people, Ukrainian officials said.

Reuters witnesses heard two explosions, but their cause could not be independently verified. There was no Russian comment on the blasts.

Russian forces are now entrenched in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have held territory since 2014, and are holding onto a swathe of the south that they seized in March.

Ukraine's general staff said Russia was stepping up its military assault in the Donbas.

"The enemy is increasing the pace of the offensive operation. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions," it said.

Moscow's assault in the east drew new US pledges of military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine on Thursday.

Heeding repeated Ukrainian pleas for heavier weaponry, US President Joe Biden asked Congress for $US33 billion ($A46 billion) to support Kyiv, a massive jump in funding that includes over $US20 billion ($A28 billion) for weapons, ammunition and other military aid.

"We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom," Biden said.

"The cost of this fight - it's not cheap - but caving to aggression is going to be more costly."

Putin calls Moscow's actions a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine, defend Russian-speaking people from persecution and prevent the United States from using the country to threaten Russia.

Ukraine dismisses Putin's claims of persecution and says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab that has flattened Ukrainian cities, forced more than 5 million to flee abroad and killed thousands since the invasion started on February 24.

Washington, which together with its allies has placed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, hopes Ukrainian forces can not only repel Russia's assault in the east but also weaken its military so that it can no longer menace neighbours.

Russia regards NATO's actions as tantamount to waging a "proxy war" against it, and has made a number of threats this week of unspecified retaliation.

It cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday after they refused to pay in roubles, marking Moscow's toughest response yet to Western economic sanctions.

Russia has reported what it says have been a series of Ukrainian strikes on Russian regions that border Ukraine and has warned that such attacks risk significant escalation.

On Thursday, two big explosions were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, two witnesses told Reuters. It was unclear what caused them and whether there were any casualties or damage.

Ukraine has not directly accepted responsibility for strikes inside Russia but says the incidents are payback. Russia has taken umbrage at statements by NATO member Britain that it is legitimate for Ukraine to target Russian logistics.

"In the West, they are openly calling on Kyiv to attack Russia including with the use of weapons received from NATO countries," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow.

"I don't advise you to test our patience further." Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said.

The US mission to the OSCE security body said the Kremlin might attempt "sham referenda" in southern and eastern areas it had captured since the invasion, using "a well-worn playbook that steals from history's darkest chapters".

"These falsified, illegitimate referenda will undoubtedly be accompanied by a wave of abuses against those who seek to oppose or undermine Moscow's plans," the US mission said.

There was no immediate Russian comment.

© AP 2022

Ukraine has acknowledged it is taking heavy losses in Russia's assault in the east, but says Russia's losses are even worse,

This cam as US President Joe Biden called on Congress to send as much as $US33 billion ($A46 billion) to help Kyiv withstand the attack.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Biden's offer of help, which amounts to nearly 10 times the aid Washington has sent so far since the war began on February 24.

In Kyiv, workers were cleaning up rubble in a residential area after Russia fired two missiles at the capital.

Having failed in an assault on Kyiv in the north of Ukraine last month, Russia is trying to fully capture two eastern provinces known as the Donbas.

Ukraine has acknowledged losing control of some towns and villages there since the assault began last week, but says Moscow's gains have come at a massive cost to a Russian force already worn down from its earlier defeat near the capital.

"We have serious losses but the Russians' losses are much much bigger...They have colossal losses," presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Friday.

By pledging tens of billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, Biden has dramatically increased US involvement in the conflict. The US and its allies are now sending heavy weapons including artillery, with what Washington says is an aim not just to repel Russia's attack but to weaken its armed forces so it cannot menace its neighbours again.

"We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom," Biden said.

"The cost of this fight - it's not cheap - but caving to aggression is going to be more costly."

Zelenskiy tweeted: "Thank you @POTUS and the American people for their leadership in supporting Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression. We defend common values - democracy and freedom. We appreciate the help. Today it is needed more than ever!"

Russia has said the arrival of Western arms into Ukraine means it is now fighting a "proxy war" against NATO. President Vladimir Putin threatened unspecified retaliation this week, while his foreign minister warned of a threat of nuclear war.

Zelenskiy's office said Russia was pounding the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft. The Ukrainian general staff said Russia was shelling positions along the line of contact to prevent the Ukrainians from regrouping.

The bloodiest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war have been in Mariupol, an eastern port reduced to a wasteland by two months of Russian bombardment and siege.

Ukraine says 100,000 civilians are still in the city, which is mostly occupied by Russia. Hundreds of civilians are holed up with last remaining defenders in underground bunkers beneath a huge steel works.

Zelenskiy's office said an operation was planned on Friday to get civilians out of the plant, giving no details.

In the capital, normal life has largely returned after weeks in which residents were forced to shelter in metro stations from bombardment. The front line, which come right to the outskirts of Kyiv in March, is now hundreds of miles away. Foreign dignitaries have been flying in to pay their respects to Zelenskiy and his government.

But Russia can still hit the city with long range missiles, as it did on Thursday, during a visit by UN Secretary-General Guterres, in what Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called "an attack on the security of the Secretary General and on world security".

No one was killed but at least four people were wounded in the missile strike in the capital, which blew out windows and scattered rubble across the streets.

© AP 2022