All options would be on table in response to any use of chemical weapons in Ukraine by Russia, James Heappey, the Armed Forces minister, has said.
“There are some things that are beyond the pale, and the use of chemical weapons will get a response and all options are on the table for what that response could be,” Mr Heappey told Sky News.
His comments came as foreign minister Liz Truss said Britain was working with its partners to verify the details of reports Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on Mariupol.
“Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account,” she warned.
Last night the Azov Brigade claimed chemical weapons had been used in the southern city. But an aide to the city’s mayor says that has not been confirmed and that they are “waiting for official information from the military”.
Follow the latest updates below.
06:49 AM
Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline in Donbas region
06:23 AM
Gazprom continues gas exports to Europe via Ukraine, Ifax reports
Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom continued to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday in line with requests from European consumers, the Interfax news agency reported.
Requests stood at 74.5 million cubic metres for April 12, Interfax reported, citing Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator.
06:11 AM
Nokia to stop doing business in Russia
Telecoms equipment maker Nokia is pulling out of the Russian market, its CEO told Reuters, going a step further than rival Ericsson , which said on Monday it was indefinitely suspending its business in the country.
Hundreds of foreign companies are cutting ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine and after unprecedented Western sanctions against Moscow.
While several sectors, including telecoms, have been exempted from some sanctions on humanitarian or related grounds, Nokia said it had decided quitting Russia was the only option.
“We just simply do not see any possibilities to continue in the country under the current circumstances,” Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said in an interview.
He added Nokia would continue to support customers during the exit process, and it was not possible to say at this stage how long the withdrawal would take.
06:07 AM
Ukraine deputy PM says nine humanitarian corridors agreed for Tuesday
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed for Tuesday to evacuate civilians, including from the besieged city of Mariupol by private cars.
Ms Vereshchuk said in a statement that five of the nine evacuation corridors were from Ukraine’s Luhansk region in the east of the country, which Ukrainian officials have said is under heavy shelling.
06:03 AM
Ukraine’s displaced seek clothes
Ukrainian dentist Yana held up a small jean jacket against her five-year-old daughter Maya to see if it might fit at an aid distribution centre in western Ukraine.
The mother of two said she had spent 12 days in a basement hiding from shelling in the eastern city of Kharkiv near the Russian border, before the Ukrainian army could organise a convoy of cars and buses to evacuate them in early March.
Yana, who had her own dentist’s practice in Kharkiv, said former clients had offered her family shelter in Lviv.
But she broke down in tears explaining that her mother and mother-in-law had stayed behind.
05:56 AM
Pregnant Ukrainian mother: ‘We have nothing’
Expectant mother Tatyana Kaftan has spoken of fleeing her home in Ukraine’s south following Russian bombardment.
Standing between boxes of donated clothes in western Ukraine, she clutched a soft baby onesie and a tiny pair of trousers against the green jumper clinging to her belly.
Expecting her first child and with her due date just three weeks away, she arrived in the city of Lviv three days ago.
“We left everything at home,” the 35-year-old travel agent said, who drove with her husband all the way from Mykolaiv on the Black Sea.
“We have nothing.”
05:44 AM
Russia’s focus remains on Donetsk and Luhansk
Russia’s attacks remain focused on Ukrainian positions near Donetsk and Luhansk, with further fighting around Kherson and Mykolaiv, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
“Russian forces continue to withdraw from Belarus in order to redeploy in support of operations in eastern Ukraine,” the ministry posted on Twitter.
04:58 AM
Russia aims to take control of Mariupol
Russian troops were on Tuesday aiming to take control of the city of Mariupol as defending forces tried desperately to hold them back.
Russia is believed to be trying to connect occupied Crimea with Moscow-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas, and has laid siege to the strategically located city.
However, on Monday the Ukrainian army insisted that “the defence of Mariupol continues”.
“The connection with the units of the defence forces that heroically hold the city is stable and maintained,” the Land Forces of Ukraine wrote on Telegram.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made another plea to his allies for more weapons to boost the defence of the city.
“We are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner. To completely destroy the enemy on our land … in particular, to unblock Mariupol,” he said.
03:47 AM
Vladimir Putin to meet with Belarusian President
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday to discuss the invasion in Ukraine and Western sanctions, news agencies in Russia and Belarus have reported.
Mr Lukashenko has insisted that Belarus must be involved in negotiations to stop the conflict in Ukraine.
He has also claimed Belarus had been unfairly labelled “an accomplice of the aggressor”.
The European Union, the US and other countries have included Belarus in the sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia.
02:35 AM
More than 121,000 children taken from Ukraine, UN ambassador claims
Russia has taken more than 121,000 children out of Ukraine, Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya has claimed.
He alleged Moscow has also reportedly drafted a bill to simplify and accelerate adoption procedures for orphans and even those who have parents and other relatives.
Mr Kyslytsya said most of the children were removed from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol and taken to eastern Donetsk and then to the Russian city of Taganrog.
01:54 AM
Borodyanka destruction: Photos show region under rubble
01:43 AM
UN verifies 142 Ukrainian children killed
The United Nations has confirmed 142 children have been killed and 229 injured since Russia’s war on Ukraine began, although the actual number of deaths are likely much higher.
The UN’s children’s agency on Monday said nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children had fled their homes.
UNICEF’s emergency programs director, Manuel Fontaine, who just returned from Ukraine, described having 4.8 million of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children displaced in such a short time as “quite incredible”.
“They have been forced to leave everything behind – their homes, their schools and, often, their family members,” he told the UN Security Council.
“I have heard stories of the desperate steps parents are taking to get their children to safety, and children saddened that they are unable to get back to school.”
01:23 AM
Pentagon can’t confirm drone report out of Mariupol
The US cannot confirm reports that a drone had dropped a “poisonous substance” on Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in Mariupol, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
However, Mr Kirby noted the administration’s persistent concerns “about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine”.
01:02 AM
Borodyanka: ‘We don’t know how many are under the debris’
Hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers are working to clear rubble after two high-rise apartment blocks were destroyed in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka near Kyiv.
It comes as seven bodies were found on Monday, with the bodies of 19 people recovered so far, the state emergency services said in a statement.
“We don’t know the final number of people under the debris,” ministry press officer Svetlana Vodolaga told Reuters.
“We just have information that during the shelling from this particular building there were calls from people who were under the debris.”
In other parts of the town, volunteers cleared rubble from a children’s playground.
“It’s shocking (seeing this). What else can I say,” Borodyanka resident, Maria Glushenko, said.
“People died, young people died. Such good people.”
12:37 AM
Russian spy chief ‘thrown in jail’
Vladimir Putin has thrown a top spy chief into prison amid concern over apparent leaks to the US about Russia’s plans in Ukraine, according to reports.
A report on Monday suggested Colonel General Sergei Beseda, the head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence unit, has been sent to Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison, typically used to house those suspected of treason.
In the weeks preceding the invasion, US media repeatedly quoted intelligence sources that seemed to have a unique insight into the Kremlin’s preparations for the war.
Read more: Russian spy chief ‘thrown in jail’ as Vladimir Putin ‘turns on security officials’
11:52 PM
Three people ‘have clear signs of chemical poisoning’, Azov claim
Andrei Biletsky, the founder of Ukraine’s Azov battalion, has claimed that three people were suffering effects from an unknown toxic substance following an attack in Mariupol.
“Three people have clear signs of poisoning by warfare chemicals, but without catastrophic consequences,” he said in a video address on Telegram.
The claims have not been verified and are under investigation by the Foreign Office.
Senior Donetsk separatist official Eduard Basurin had spoken of the possibility of using chemical weapons against the southern port city that has resisted Russian bombardment for weeks.
Mr Basurin said the besieging forces could “turn to chemical troops who will find a way to smoke the moles out of their holes”, Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted him as saying on Monday.
Russia has denied committing any war crimes during its offensive in Ukraine.
