One person has died and another five people have been injured after Russian forces bombarded the Ukrainian port city of Odesa with more missile strikes.
The Ukrainian military said seven missiles were fired from the air on Monday night, hitting a shopping centre and a warehouse.
“While seeking strategic targets, obsolete missiles managed to hit an ‘extremely dangerous’ shopping centre and a warehouse for consumer goods,” Natalya Gumenyuk, a military spokeswoman, said on Facebook.
Witnesses said they heard several loud explosions in the city centre about 10pm local time, which caused buildings to shake.
Social media footage showed at least one fire burning, with a witness reporting a large shopping centre went up in flames.
Follow the latest updates below.
07:27 AM
44 found dead in Izyum – Ukrainian official
A Ukrainian official says authorities have found the bodies of 44 civilians in the rubble of a building destroyed by Russia in March.
Oleh Synehubov, the head of Kharkiv’s regional administration, made the announcement Tuesday via a message on social media. Izyum is in the Kharkiv region.
He said the five-story building had collapsed with the civilians inside.
He said: “This is another horrible war crime of the Russian occupiers against the civilian population!”
Izyum is an eastern Ukrainian city that Russia has been holding as a key front-line node.
Mr Synehubov did not identify specifically where the building was.
07:18 AM
EU deal on Russian oil ban could be reached this week – France
French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said European Union members could reach a deal this week on the EU Commission’s proposal to ban all oil imports from Russia.
“I think we could strike a deal this week,” Mr Beaune told LCI television, adding that French President Emmanuel Macron was due to talk to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban later in the day.
Hungary is the most vocal critic of this planned embargo on Russian oil.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday she had made progress in talks with Viktor Orban on this project.
07:05 AM
North Korea congratulates Russia on Victory Day
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a congratulatory message to President Vladimir Putin on Russia’s Victory Day holiday, expressing his country’s “firm solidarity” with Moscow, the North Korean news agency KCNA reports.
In his letter sent on 9 May, Kim “extended firm solidarity to the cause of the Russian people to root out the political and military threat and blackmail by the hostile forces”.
The North Korean leader also “expressed belief that the strategic and traditional relations of friendship between the two countries would steadily develop”.
North Korea has recently highlighted its close ties with Russia, and publicly backed Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
In February, it blamed the Ukraine conflict on the “hegemonic policy” of the United States and the West.
06:47 AM
Russia could target Ukraine’s chemical industries
The Ukrainian military is warning that Russia could target the country’s chemical industries.
The claim by Ukraine’s general staff wasn’t immediately explained in a report Tuesday. However, it comes after oil depots and other industrial sites have been targeted by Russian shelling in the war.
The military said, “The possibility of sabotage at the chemical industry of Ukraine with further accusations of units of the armed forces of Ukraine is not ruled out.”
06:28 AM
Latest MoD update
06:14 AM
Photos capture two ships off Snake Island
Satellite pictures analysed by The Associated Press show two ships off Russia-occupied Snake Island just before 3pm on Monday.
The images from Planet Labs PBC showed one appearing to be a landing craft off to its east, another was a ship with two smaller rafts near it.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian positions there recently, suggesting Russian forces may be trying to restaff or remove personnel from the Black Sea island.
On Sunday footage emerged of two Ukrainian air force pilots carrying out an audacious night time attack on the island, levelling buildings held by enemy combatants.
05:07 AM
Poland, Ukraine work on shipping more oil products to Ukraine, say officials
Poland and Ukraine are working out ways to ship more oil products to Ukraine and ease fuel shortages there caused by the Russian invasion, officials from both countries said after a joint meeting on Monday.
“Poland can act as a major fuel transporter for Ukraine, ensuring the arrival of more than 200,000 tons of product monthly,” Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a Facebook post.
Last month, Ukraine received only 60,000 tons, she added.
Poland imports almost all of its crude oil and much of the finished petrochemical products it needs, so it is well placed to act as an intermediary, Poland’s deputy prime minister, Jacek Sasin, said, according to the Polish weekly Wprost.
04:27 AM
Buildings in Odesa ruined after heavy shelling
Buildings in Odesa lay in ruins on Tuesday after Russian forces pounded the southern Ukrainian port with missiles.
It comes as President Vladimir Putin led defiant celebrations on Monday marking the Soviet’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
While Putin was silent about plans for any escalation in Ukraine, there was no let up in fighting with a renewed push by Russian forces to defeat the last Ukrainian troops holding out in a steelworks in ruined Mariupol.
“You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War Two. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, castigators and Nazis,” Putin said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his own speech on Monday, promised Ukrainians would triumph.
03:38 AM
Putin is trapped, worries Biden
US President Joe Biden said he is worried that Vladimir Putin does not have a way out of the Ukraine war, adding that he was trying to figure out what to do about that.
Mr Biden, speaking at a political fundraiser in a Washington suburb, said Putin had mistakenly believed the invasion of Ukraine would break up NATO and break up the European Union.
Instead, the United States and many European countries have rallied to Ukraine’s side.
Mr Biden said Putin is a very calculating man and the problem he worries about now is that the Russian leader “doesn’t have a way out right now, and I’m trying to figure out what we do about that.”
03:03 AM
Japan announces fresh economic sanctions against Russia
Japan announced on Tuesday new sanctions on Russia to freeze the assets of more individuals and ban exports of cutting-edge goods to some Russian groups including scientific research institutions.
It came as Japan said earlier it would phase out Russian oil imports after agreeing on a ban with other Group of Seven nations to counter Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The G7 nations committed to the move “in a timely and orderly fashion” at an online meeting on Sunday to put further pressure on President Vladimir Putin, although members such as resource-poor Japan depend heavily on Russian fuel.
“For a country heavily dependent on energy imports, it’s a very difficult decision. But G7 coordination is most important at a time like now,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
02:40 AM
Russia not planning to close embassies in Europe, reports RIA
Russia is not planning to proactively close its embassies in Europe in response to unfriendly measures by the West and expansion of sanctions against Moscow, the RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a deputy foreign minister.
“This is not in our tradition,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told RIA.
“Therefore, we believe that the work of diplomatic representative offices is important.”
On Monday, Russia’s ambassador to Poland was doused in a red substance by people protesting against the war in Ukraine as he went to lay flowers at the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw to mark the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
01:56 AM
The moment Justin Trudeau met Patron, the mine-sniffing dog
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Sunday. As he announced new weapons and equipment for Ukraine, he also got to meet one of the country’s most recently decorated heroes – Patron, the brave Jack Russell who has sniffed out hundreds of mines so far.
01:31 AM
Biden signs Ukraine bill and seeks $40bn aid
Washington sought to portray a united front against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan measure to reboot the World War II-era “lend-lease” program, which helped defeat Nazi Germany, to bolster Kyiv and Eastern European allies.
The signing comes as the US Congress is poised to unleash billions more to fight the war against Russia, with Democrats preparing $40 billion in military and humanitarian aid, larger than the $33 billion package Mr Biden has requested.
It all serves as a rejoinder to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has seized on Victory in Europe Day – the anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender in 1945 and Russia’s biggest patriotic holiday – to rally his people behind the invasion.
“This aid has been critical to Ukraine’s success on the battlefield,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
01:11 AM
Ukraine calls for moves to unblock ports and prevent global food crisis
Ukraine’s president said on Monday that trade at the country’s ports was at a standstill and urged the international community to take immediate steps to end a Russian blockade to allow wheat shipments and prevent a global food crisis.
Volodymyr Zelensky made the comments after speaking to European Council President Charles Michel, who was visiting Odesa – the major Black Sea port for exporting agricultural products where missiles struck tourist sites and destroyed buildings on Monday.
“For the first time in decades and decades, in Odesa there is no regular movement of the merchant fleet, there is no routine port work. This has probably never happened in Odesa since World War Two,” Mr Zelensky said in a video address.
12:48 AM
Europe needs to think about the price to pay for peace, Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Europe has to once again think about the price to be paid for peace on the continent, like it did in World War II.
In his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky said history would hold Russia responsible.
“And we, Ukrainians, will continue to work toward our defense, our victory and on restoring justice. Today, tomorrow and any other day that is necessary to free Ukraine from the occupiers,” he said.
Mr Zelensky ended the address by promising that the Ukrainian flag will one day once again fly over all of its cities.
“The Ukrainian flag will return. Because this is our country. A free European country,” he said.
12:39 AM
In pictures: Odesa destruction as city bombarded with missile attack
12:23 AM
Today’s top stories
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Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow went ahead without a promised display of airpower in a muted display
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The “brutal” Russian military spy unit that tried to assassinate Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 has been handed command of Russia’s intelligence operations in Ukraine
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Ukrainians are being moved to Russia and taken to “camps” against their will, a US defence official has said
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Brussels has dropped its proposed ban on EU tankers carrying Russian oil
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Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said it was very possible Ukraine could defeat the Russian army
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Russia’s ambassador to Poland was doused in red paint when he was mobbed by pro-Ukraine protesters at a ceremony to mark Victory Day
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US congressional Democrats agreed to rush $39.8 billion in additional aid for Ukraine
