Russia-Ukraine latest news: Civilians still trapped in Mariupol ‘hell’ as Russia launches new assault

Civilians are still trapped in “hell” in Mariupol, the head of the Red Cross said on Tuesday, as Russian forces launch fresh offensives.

More than 100 civilians were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in the port city over the weekend, but some were left behind.

Pascal Hundt from the Red Cross (ICRC) said: “We would have hoped that many more people would have been able to join the convoy and get out of hell. That is why we have mixed feelings.”

Captain Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov regiment wrote on Telegram that some 200 civilians were trapped underground at the steel plant, which was being targeted by artillery and planes.

Palamar said two civilians were killed and 10 injured.

​​Follow the latest updates below.

05:50 PM

Mayor of Lviv reports explosions and advises people to stay indoors

05:47 PM

Pictured: Kyiv rally for people still trapped in Mariupol

05:41 PM

US says Russia has wrongfully detained basketball player

The US State Department has said that Russia has wrongfully detained American basketball player Brittney Griner.

Russia said it had detained Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star player, in February for possession of vape cartridges containing hash oil.

“Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House do whatever is necessary to bring her home,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement.

“The US government will continue to undertake efforts to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner,” it added.

Story continues

Griner’s case is now being handled by Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

05:36 PM

Pope warns head of Russian Orthodox Church not to act as Putin’s ‘altar boy’

By Nick Squires in Rome

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church should not act as Vladimir Putin’s “altar boy” by offering unconditional support for the war against Ukraine, Pope Francis said.

Patriarch Kirill has been widely criticised for his unstinting approval of the invasion, in which Russian troops have been accused of raping Ukrainian women, torturing male captives and deliberately targeting civilian areas.

The Pope said he had a 40-minute conversation on Zoom with Kirill on March 16, in which the Russian Orthodox leader spent the first half of it reading out a justification for the invasion.

The Pope said he listened, but then said to Kirill: “Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus. We are shepherds of the same holy people of God”.

Patriarch Kirill, 75, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009 and a close ally of President Putin, regards the war as a rejection of Western values, particularly tolerance towards homosexuality and other signs of moral “decadence”.

05:30 PM

Ukrainian MP contests Boris Johnson’s ‘finest hour’ comments

Boris Johnson recalled the words of his hero Winston Churchill earlier on Tuesday when he addressed Ukraine’s parliament, saying that their courage in the face of Russian aggression was their “finest hour, that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come”.

However, Inna Sovsun, the deputy leader of the Holos Party, said while the speech gave MPs “hope”, she disagreed with the Prime Minister’s description.

She said: “I don’t know if the definition of ‘finest’ is supposed to be something nice and beautiful – certainly it doesn’t feel like that. It will probably be a glorious time described in history textbooks [and] reading about them is probably nice but living through them is hell, frankly speaking.

“But what we definitely understand and what we agree is this is a historic moment… when the nation is being transformed and reborn as a different type of nation. If that is the definition of the finest hour that could be it – but again, living through that is not something you’ll want for your children.”

Mr Johnson’s speech was met with a standing ovation from Ukrainian parliamentarians, with one MP, Lesia Vasylenko, tweeting that “Ukraine is certainly lucky to have a friend like the UK”.

05:24 PM

PM: We will make Ukraine so strong that no country will attack it again

Britain and its allies will continue to arm Ukraine until it is so strong it can never be invaded again, Boris Johnson told the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday.

“Ukraine will win, Ukraine will be free,” he said in the first address to the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv by a world leader since Russia’s invasion in February.

The Prime Minister was given a standing ovation by Ukrainian MPs. Some brandished British flags and banners thanking the UK for weapons sent by London to help fight against Russia.

Speaking on a live video link, Mr Johnson said Britain would send a new package of support worth £300 million, including radars to pinpoint Russian artillery, thousands of night vision devices and heavy-lift drones to supply Ukrainian forces.

You can read the full story here

05:02 PM

‘He’s given us hope’: Ukrainian town to rename street in honour of Boris Johnson

04:48 PM

Macron told Putin to put an end ‘to devastating aggression’ in phone call

French President Emmanuel Macron told Vladimir Putin to put an end “to this devastating aggression” in Ukraine during their telephone conversation on Tuesday, his office said.

Macron’s office released a statement saying he had spoken of “the extreme gravity of the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine” and again demanded a ceasefire.

He also expressed his concern about the situation in Donbas and Mariupol and called on Russia to allow evacuations from the Azovstal steel plant to continue.

He called on Russia “to live up to its responsibilities as a permanent member of the Security Council by putting an end to this devastating aggression”, the statement said.

04:17 PM

Ukraine’s prosecutor general accuses Russia of using rape as war tactic

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, has accused Russia of using rape as a weapon of war, and labelled Vladimir Putin “the main war criminal of the 21st century”.

Speaking during a visit to the city of Irpin, Venediktova said Ukrainian officials were collecting information on allegations of rape, abuse, torture and other suspected war crimes from civilians at the hands of Russian forces.

She said these tactics were intended “to scare civil society… to do everything to [pressure Ukraine to] capitulate”.

She added that some victims who are still in Ukraine are too scared to speak out because they fear the return of Russian soldiers.

03:53 PM

At least 10 killed in Russian strike on factory in eastern Ukraine

At least 10 people were killed and 15 were wounded in a Russian strike on a coke plant in the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, the local governor said on Tuesday.

“At least 10 killed and 15 wounded, the consequences of the shelling of the Avdiivka coke plant by the Russian occupiers,” the governor of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.

He warned that the number of victims may rise.

03:19 PM

Hospitals prepare for injured evacuees from Mariupol

Hospitals have prepared for the arrival of evacuees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and are being assisted by volunteers, the World Health Organisation’s incident manager for Ukraine has said.

Dr Dorit Nizan said: “We are ready for burns, fractures and wounds, as well as diarrhoea, respiratory infections.

“We are also ready to see if there are pregnant women, children with malnutrition – we are all here and the health system is well prepared.”

Some evacuees had already arrived in Zaporizhzhia after making their own way from villages near Mariupol and had minor injuries.

Dr Nizan said mental health is a “big issue” among evacuees, with some having cried when they were finally reunited with family members.

02:46 PM

Keir Starmer threatens to kick out Labour MPs who oppose Nato

Sir Keir Starmer has signalled he could expel left-wing Labour MPs from the party if they are openly critical of Nato.

The Labour leader was grilled on “anti-Nato sentiment” among his MPs and he said he had been clear that under his leadership the party will show “unshakeable support” for the alliance.

He said he would continue to call out any “false equivalence between Russian aggression, and it is Russian aggression, in Ukraine and the acts of Nato”.

Asked directly if he would expel MPs who are anti-Nato, Sir Keir told Times Radio: “Yes, these are principles that are absolutely the root of the Labour Party, centre of the Labour Party, and I’m determined that the Labour Party will face the electorate and not the sort of internal machinations and arguments that we have had too much of in the past”.

Visit our Politics li​ve blog to keep up with all the latest news coming out of Westminster​

02:16 PM

Putin tells Macron that West could put pressure on Kyiv to stop ‘atrocities’

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a telephone call on Tuesday and urged the West to put pressure on Kyiv to halt “atrocities”.

Putin told Macron that the West could help end “war crimes [and] massive shelling of towns and settlements in Donbas” that have led to civilian casualties.

“The West could help put an end to these atrocities by exerting appropriate influence on the Kyiv authorities and by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine”, the RIA news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying.

Russia has denied war crime allegations by Ukraine, and has instead continued to place blame on Ukrainian forces.

Putin also told Macron that Moscow was still ready for dialogue with Kyiv.

01:52 PM

UN: 101 people evacuated from Azovstal steel plant

A UN humanitarian official said on Tuesday that it had successfully evacuated some 101 people from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, with most of the evacuees now in Zaporizhzhia, where they are receiving humanitarian assistance.

“Thanks to the operation, 101 women, men, children, and older persons could finally leave the bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks and see the daylight after two months,” Osnat Lubrani, UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which was also involved in the safe passage operation, released a statement saying some 100 people from the Mariupol plant area had reached Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday.

Some of the number were wounded, it added.

01:28 PM

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK urges Priti Patel to relax ‘bureaucratic’ visa scheme rules

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has urged Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, to relax the “unnecessary, long, bureaucratic” visa scheme for people fleeing the war.

Vadym Prystaiko said: “Now it’s time maybe for a temporary [relaxation of visa requirements] just to relieve people from this unnecessary, long, bureaucratic and difficult bureaucratic procedures.”

According to the latest Government figures, 59,000 people have had their visa applications approved but have not yet reached Britain. Of the 74,700 Ukrainians who applied for visas under the sponsorship scheme, only 15 per cent have arrived in Britain.

01:08 PM

Russia resumes attack on Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday that Russian troops resumed shelling the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol after Ukrainian soldiers moved into fighting positions.

According to the RIA news agency, Russian officials said: “Azov and Ukrainian servicemen, who are stationed on the plant, took advantage of it [the ceasefire]. They came out of the basement, they took up firing positions on the territory and in the factory buildings”.

“Now units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People’s Republic, using artillery and aviation, are beginning to destroy these firing positions,” the ministry added.

It comes after a number of civilians were evacuated from the plant over the weekend as a temporary ceasefire was declared.

12:41 PM

Scholz warns ‘imperialistic’ Putin could attack other countries

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that other countries should not assume that Russia would not attack other nations, given its violation of international law in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke the post World War Two order and was forcing Europe to bolster its defence strategy, Scholz said.

“No-one can assume that the Russian president and government will not on other occasions break international law with violence,” he added.

He was joined by the prime ministers of Sweden and Finland, Magdalena Andersson and Sanna Marin, and said Germany would support the countries if they decide to join Nato.

In a separate interview with Stern magazine, Scholz was quoted as saying that Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy was imperialistic.

“He wants to expand his territory and push borders with violence,” he said. “He is desperately trying to re-establish Russia’s old significance in a world that has changed.”

12:09 PM

‘This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story’

12:09 PM

UK donates armoured vehicles to help Ukraine evacuation effort

Britain will donate 13 armoured vehicles to help evacuate civilians from besieged areas in eastern Ukraine, the government said on Tuesday.

“This latest donation of armoured vehicles will help protect innocent Ukrainians attempting to flee Russian shelling and support Ukrainian officials carrying out vital work,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

The steel-plated vehicles, which can resist high velocity bullets, anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices, will also be used to transport officials to temporary command posts and to help workers rebuilding railway lines.

The vehicles were being donated from a foreign office fleet in response to a request from the Ukrainian government and would start arriving within days, the statement said.

11:59 AM

Boris Johnson says Ukraine has crushed myth of Putin’s ‘invincibility’

Boris Johnson has expressed further support for the Ukrainian government and people, and said the country will succeed against Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Speaking to the Ukrainian parliament via video link, the Prime Minister said: “Ukraine will win. Ukraine will be free”.

Mr Johnson praised the courage of President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who have taken up arms against Russian forces.

“Your farmers kidnapped Russian tanks with their tractors. Your pensioners told Russian soldiers to hop as we say… And though your soldiers were always outnumbered – three to one it is now – they fought with the energy and courage of lions,” he added.

“You have exploded the myth of Putin’s invincibility and you have written one of the most glorious chapters in military history and in the life of your country.”

11:51 AM

Boris Johnson says UK will hold Russia ‘to account’ for war crimes

Boris Johnson has said the UK will do “whatever we can” to hold Russia to account for committing war crimes in Ukraine.

Speaking to Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday, the Prime Minister received a standing ovation from lawmakers after praising the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

Mr Johnson said: “It is a big honour for me to address you at this crucial moment in history and I salute the courage with which you are meeting, the way you have continued to meet, in spite of a barbaric onslaught on your freedoms.

“Day after day missiles and bombs continue to rain on the innocent people of Ukraine. In the south and the east of your wonderful country, Putin continues with his grotesque and illegal campaign to take and hold Ukrainian soil.

“And his soldiers no longer have the excuse of not knowing what they are doing. They are committing war crimes, and their atrocities emerge wherever they are forced to retreat – as we’ve seen at Bucha, at Irpin at Hostomel and many other places.

“We in the UK will do whatever we can to hold them to account for these war crimes”.

11:48 AM

Ukrainian MP shares clip of Boris Johnson’s standing ovation

11:46 AM

Priti Patel faces legal action over visas for Ukrainian refugees

Priti Patel could face legal action over delays in the visa system for Ukrainians fleeing the war.

The process has been criticised amid cases of families being unable to travel to the UK because not all of them have received their permission to travel letters or visas.

Lawyers are now preparing a class action on behalf of hundreds of Ukrainians who applied to travel to the UK weeks ago but whose cases have been stuck in a backlog, The Guardian has reported.

The newspaper said an immigration lawyer has been instructed to launch legal proceedings by advocacy groups Vigil for Visas and Taking Action Over the Homes for Ukraine Visa Delays.

The Guardian reports that legal action is also being prepared on behalf of lone children who have been unable to access foster placements set up for them in the UK because of visa delays.

11:26 AM

Ukraine ambassador says return to Kyiv was ‘incredibly emotional’

Melinda Simmons, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, has returned to Kyiv as Britain reopens its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Simmons said her return had been “incredibly emotional” and insisted that Kyiv was the “right place” for her and fellow ambassadors to Ukraine to reside.

She also spoke about her shock at seeing the devastation wrought upon Ukraine – including on its “bombed-out” playgrounds, schools and hospitals – by the Russian invasion.

“It’s so obvious really that right from the beginning this was about hitting the Ukrainian nation,” she said.

11:15 AM

Nine civilians killed by shelling in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

At least nine civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram that at least three civilians had been killed during an aerial bombardment of the town of Avdiivka.

Three more were killed by shelling of the city of Vuhledar and three were killed in shelling of the town of Lyman, he wrote.

The Ukrainian president’s office said earlier on Tuesday that other areas of Donetsk were under constant fire and regional authorities were trying to evacuate civilians from frontline zones.

10:45 AM

Putin announces swathe of new retaliatory sanctions against West

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on retaliatory economic sanctions in response to the “unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organisations”, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

According to the decree, Russia will forbid the export of products and raw materials to people and entities that it has sanctioned.

The decree also prohibits transactions with foreign individuals and companies hit by Russia’s retaliatory sanctions and permits Russian counterparties not to fulfil obligations towards them.

Under the decree, the Russian government has 10 days to compile lists of foreign individuals and companies to be sanctioned, as well as to define “additional criteria” for a number of transactions that could be subject to restrictions.

10:24 AM

WHO to hold special meeting on health impact of war in Ukraine

The World Health Organisation’s European delegation will hold a special meeting next week regarding the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on health and healthcare.

“There will be a meeting on 10 May on the impact of war on Ukraine’s health system,” said Tarik Jasarevic at a press briefing in Geneva.

Reuters reported last week that the Ukrainian government had requested the meeting, and cited a letter written by Kyiv’s diplomatic mission in Geneva that had been signed by some 38 other countries.

Russia, one of the 53 members of WHO’s Europe region, has not yet commented on the event.

10:07 AM

Russian forces continue shelling Azovstal steelworks after temporary ceasefire

10:05 AM

Emmanuel Macron to speak with Vladimir Putin

French President Emmanuel Macron will speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin via the phone at around midday Paris time (11am London) later on Tuesday, said Mr Macron’s office.

Russian forces fired rockets at the encircled steel works in Ukraine’s Mariupol and smoke darkened the sky above the plant, where officials say 200 civilians are still trapped despite evacuations, while the EU prepared to sanction Russian oil.

Mr Macron had last spoken to Mr Putin on March 29.

09:40 AM

Citizens in Azovstal steel plant ‘on the way’ to safety

The World Health Organization’s incident manager for Ukraine says evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol “are on the way” toward government-controlled areas away from the most intense combat zones where Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting.

Dr. Dorit Nitzan, speaking by video to reporters in Geneva from government-controlled Zaporizhzhia, said WHO teams have been among workers from the U.N. and other aid groups who have deployed to help dozens of evacuees – up to 100 – from the plant.

“Things are moving,” she said Tuesday. “We know that they are on the way.”

Dr Nitzan said the UN health agency was not clear what kind of health needs that the evacuees would present but that hospitals nearby and trauma teams were on standby to help the arriving evacuees.

09:22 AM

Russia says Israel supports neo-Nazis

Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, further escalating a row which began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins.

Israel lambasted Mr Lavrov on Monday, saying his claim – made when talking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who is Jewish – was an “unforgivable” falsehood that debased the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.

Leaders from several Western nations denounced Mr Lavrov’s comments and Mr Zelensky accused Russia of having forgotten the lessons of World War Two.

The Russian ministry said in a statement that Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s comments were “anti-historical” and “explaining to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”.

Moscow reiterated Mr Lavrov’s point that Mr Zelensky’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis.

“Antisemitism in everyday life and in politics is not stopped and is on the contrary nurtured (in Ukraine),” it said in a statement.

Mr Lavrov made the Hitler assertion on Italian television on Sunday when he was asked why Russia said it needed to “denazify” Ukraine if the country’s own president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was himself Jewish.

Israel has expressed support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February. But wary of damaging relations with Russia, a powerbroker in neighbouring Syria, it initially avoided direct criticism of Moscow and has not enforced formal sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

You can read our full report on Mr Lavrov’s outrageous claims here.

09:01 AM

How Western artillery is helping Ukraine target Russia from a greater distance

08:45 AM

Pope says he wants to meet Putin in Moscow

Pope Francis says he has requested a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war but has heard nothing back.

The 85-year-old told Italy’s Corriere Della Sera newspaper that he had sent a message to Mr Putin around 20 days into the conflict saying “that I was willing to go to Moscow”.

“We have not yet received a response and we are still insisting, though I fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this time,” he said.

The pope has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and denounced a “cruel and senseless war” but without ever mentioning Mr Putin or Moscow by name.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church also said he would not be travelling to Ukraine anytime soon.

“I’m not going to Kyiv for now. I feel I shouldn’t go. I have to go to Moscow first, I have to meet Putin first,” he said.

08:26 AM

Russia says it hit logistics centre near Odesa used to deliver foreign weaponry

Russian high-precision missiles have hit a logistics centre located at a military airfield near Ukraine’s Odesa which was used to deliver weaponry given to Kiev by the West, the Russian defence ministry have said.

“Hangars containing unmanned Bayraktar TB2 drones, as well as missile weapons and ammunition from the U.S. and European countries, were destroyed,” the statement said.

On Monday evening governor of Odesa Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram that a rocket strike had hit the Black Sea port city on Monday evening, causing deaths and injuries. One boy aged 14 was reported to be killed, with a 17 year old girl injured.

08:08 AM

Threats to British diplomats ‘beyond the pale’

Boris Johnson has said any threat or attack on British diplomats in Ukraine is “totally beyond the pale”.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the UK’s ambassador, the Prime Minister said: “I’m proud of our diplomats in Ukraine and Melinda Simmons, who is going back to open the embassy and she has done an amazing job.”

Mr Johnson added that threats toward British diplomats are “totally beyond the pale” and that there is “no justification for it”.

He said the UK has “led the world in helping the Ukrainians to protect themselves against wanton aggression, barbaric aggression” and later added that the UK has also “marshalled the world in delivering a very tough package of economic sanctions”.

“We are not saying we are doing this to drive some geopolitical change or have some outcome in Moscow,” he said.

“What we care about is Ukrainian people and their suffering. It is totally unjustifiable to have a free country like Ukraine to be overwhelmed and obliterated like it has been.”

07:53 AM

Boris Johnson defends extra support for Ukraine

The Prime Minister is today unveiling a new £300 million package of support for the Ukrainian military.

Mr Johnson was asked why the UK can find that money for Ukraine but not extra financial support for people in Britain who are struggling with the cost of living crisis.

The PM said he believed the UK has a “duty, even in very tough times, to look after the Ukrainian people as best we can”.

He insisted the Government is “doing everything we can” to help families with the cost of living crisis. He also stressed the “global context” of rising prices.

07:50 AM

86,000 visas issued to Ukrainian refugees

The Prime Minister has announced that 86,000 visas have been issued to Ukrainian refugees and 27,000 people have already arrived in the UK.

Speaking to Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain, Boris Johnson was pressed on why women and children could not be offered visa-free travel. He responded that in a wartime situation, some people might be “pretending” to be refugees. The government has to protect the country.

He claimed the results are “starting to be really excellent”.

But he admitted the Government could have acted more swiftly: “Could we have done it faster? Yes, perhaps we could.”

07:45 AM

UK ‘indifferent’ to what happens in Moscow

Boris Johnson has told Good Morning Britain that the UK is not doing this in order to “drive some geopoltical change”, or have some outcome in Moscow.

The UK is “indifferent” to that, the Prime Minister told ITV.

Mr Johnson also said the UK ambassador in Ukraine is going back to Kyiv to reopen the embassy.

What the UK is doing in Ukraine “is lead the world in helping the Ukrainians to protect themselves against wanton aggression”, he said.

07:39 AM

Slovakia seeks exemption from any EU embargo on Russian oil

Slovakia will seek an exemption from any oil embargo of Russian oil agreed by the European Union in its next set of sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Slovakia’s Economy Ministry has said.

“If it comes to an approved embargo of Russian oil as part of a further package of sanctions against Russia, then Slovakia will request an exemption,” the ministry said in a reply to Reuters questions.

07:32 AM

Ukraine ‘past the point’ of negotiating with Russia

Ukraine are past the point of negotiations with Russia as they approach the “63rd day of a three-day invasion”, according to the country’s ambassador to the UK.

Vadym Prystaiko told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “When we had the chance to negotiate with them and come to some form of neutral points, neutrality itself as a political surrogate factor was considered.

“Now, these negotiations have stalled, for obvious reasons after the atrocities in Bucha. Many Ukrainians can’t even imagine how we could sit at the table of negotiations with these people now.

“The reasonable politicians will remind us that actually we have to sit at the table, because all the worst wars ended up in forms of negotiations. But, frankly speaking, many Ukrainians believe that we have to defeat them physically now.

“Maybe that’s better for Russians. Maybe they will be able to see that this regime is bringing them down along with the whole of Russia.”

You can read more on this, and all the other key talking points from overnight, in our morning briefing here.

07:14 AM

Russia will ‘annex much of Eastern Ukraine’

Russia plans to annex much of eastern Ukraine later this month, a senior U.S. official warned, and the Mariupol steel mill that is the city’s last stronghold of resistance came under renewed assault a day after the first evacuation of civilians from the plant.

Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Monday that the U.S. believes the Kremlin also will recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic. Neither move would be recognized by the United States or its allies, he said.

Russia is planning to hold sham referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that would “try to add a veneer of democratic or electoral legitimacy” and attach the entities to Russia, Mr Carpenter said. He also said there were signs that Russia would engineer an independence vote in Kherson.

Mayors and local legislators there have been abducted, internet and cellphone service has been severed and a Russian school curriculum will soon be imposed, Mr Carpenter said. Ukraine’s government says Russia has introduced its ruble as currency there.

05:56 AM

Russia’s military ‘significantly weaker’ following invasion

The Ministry of Defence has said Russia’s military is now “significantly weaker, both materially and conceptually” as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.

“Recovery from this will be exacerbated by sanctions,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.

“This will have a lasting impact on Russia’s ability to deploy conventional military force.”

05:52 AM

Tensions high in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria

Life, you feel, for people living in Tiraspol, a well-groomed Soviet-designed town on the edge of Europe, should be safe, secure and steady.

It is a capital city, after all, with a Central Bank that controls its own currency, has a football team that beat the mighty Real Madrid only six months ago and now, possibly, boasts the world’s newest statue of Harry Potter. And yet people here are nervous.

“It’s this awful war in Ukraine and the provocations,” said a dapperly-dressed man as he strolled down October 25th Street, named after the 1917 Bolshevik Russian Revolution.

Tiraspol, with a population of 135,000, is the capital of the unrecognised Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria which borders Ukraine.

Read more: Moldovans in pro-Russian separatist region fear invasion

05:41 AM

In pictures: Houses destroyed north of Kyiv

05:27 AM

Mariupol civilian evacuations to continue

Civilian evacuations from Mariupol are set to continue on Tuesday, Mariupol City Council said.

The ceasefire was agreed upon with assistance from the United Nations and the Red Cross.

It comes after Russian forces resumed pulverising the Azovstal steel plant on Monday after a brief ceasefire at the weekend.

The convoy was set to leave from a roundabout near Berdiansk, a Russian-occupied city to the west of Mariupol, at 7am local time.

“We continue to do everything to save our people from Mariupol,” Mr Zelensky in his nightly video address on Monday.

04:56 AM

Teenage boy killed, girl injured in Odesa missile strike

A 14-year-old boy has been killed and a 17-year-old girl injured in a missile strike in the southern port of Odesa, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed late on Monday.

Mr Zelensky said the missile destroyed a dormitory, with the girl suffering a shrapnel wound.

“For what? What did these children and the dormitory threaten the Russian state with? And that’s how they fight,” he said in his nightly video address.

04:53 AM

PM to address Ukrainian Parliament

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address Ukraine’s Parliament on Tuesday via live video link, the first world leader to address the Verkhovna Rada since the war began.

The Government is set to announce a new £300m package of defensive military aid for Ukraine and send specialised civilian protection vehicles.

Mr Johnson is expected to say this is Ukraine’s “finest hour” and the UK is “proud to be among their friends”.

Read the full story here

04:43 AM

Russia showing clear ‘casualty aversion’

A Ukrainian counter-offensive pushed Russian forces 25 miles east of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, US officials said on Monday night, Colin Freeman, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Nick Allen write.

They also said Russian gains in Donbas had been “minimal at best” and “quite frankly anaemic”, and Vladimir Putin’s troops appeared to be displaying a risk aversion to casualties.

A senior US defence official said: “They were hoping to get Kharkiv and hold it.”

The official added that in areas of Donbas they were “moving in and then declaring victory, and then withdrawing their troops only to let the Ukrainians take it back.

“There’s a casualty aversion that we continue to see by the Russians now.”

Read more: Russian troops forced to retreat from Kharkiv

04:23 AM

Prepare for gas crisis, EU tells member states

The European Union has warned member states to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, insisting it would not cede to Moscow’s demand that imports be paid for in rubles.

The European Commission will on Tuesday propose to member states a new package of sanctions to punish Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine, including an embargo on Russian oil, officials said.

But energy and environment ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday addressed the larger and potentially more complicated issue of Russia’s natural gas, upon which several countries – including EU top economy Germany – depend for much of their power generation.

04:12 AM

Today’s top stories

• Boris Johnson will tell Ukrainian MPs that this is their “finest hour” when he becomes the first foreign leader to address Kyiv’s parliament on Tuesday

• In a video speech echoing Sir Winston Churchill, Mr Johnson will praise Ukraine’s resistance in containing the Russian invasion as he announces £300 million of new military aid

• Mr Johnson’s speech comes in the wake of inflammatory calls on Russian state television for Moscow to detonate a 100-megaton nuclear weapon under the sea near the British Isles

• On Monday, US defence officials said Russian forces had been pushed back 25 miles east of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv

• A British intelligence assessment earlier in the day said Russia had lost a quarter of its invading army

• On Monday, Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, hitting a military target but also killing civilians and damaging a church nearby

• Ukrainian authorities on Monday tried to evacuate a second group of civilians from Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel works after 100 people were able to leave the plant after taking shelter in its sprawling network of bunkers for several weeks