Chernobyl nuclear plant staff are under shelling bombardment from Russian troops, sparking fears that increased volatility in the area could trigger another disaster.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed “concern” that Russian forces are shelling Ukrainian checkpoints in the city of Slavutych, the home of many people working at the abandoned Chernobyl plant, “putting them at risk”.
Its director-general Rafael Grossi said the incident came “just a few days after technical staff at the Chernobyl (plant) were finally able to rotate and go to their homes in Slavutych and rest after working for nearly four weeks without a change of shift”, and warned of forest fires nearby.
Russian forces took control of the plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history in 1986, on February 24. Around 100 Ukrainian technicians then ran daily operations there for nearly four weeks without being rotated.
Ukraine’s government also said on Wednesday that Russian forces had looted and destroyed a laboratory near the plant which was used to monitor radioactive waste.
Follow the latest updates below.
09:37 AM
Ukrainian city of Chernihiv cut off by Russian forces – regional governor
The northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has in effect been cut off by Russian forces, the regional governor said on Friday.
“The city has been conditionally, operationally surrounded by the enemy,” governor Viacheslav Chaus said on national television, adding that the city was under fire from artillery and warplanes.
Around 150,000 people are stuck in the city with scarce supplies after Russia cut them off from the capital, Kyiv, 100 miles to the south, prompting local officials to bring in drinking water rationing.
09:31 AM
Grant Shapps to take in Ukrainian refugee family
British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Friday he had arranged to take in a family of Ukrainian refugees who contacted him on Facebook – a six-year-old boy, his mother, grandmother and the family dog, Max.
Mr Shapps was one of more than 100,000 Britons who have signed up to a government scheme to match those fleeing war in Ukraine with families who can offer them a minimum of six months shelter.
Britain has insisted on security checks and pre-entry visas for those seeking to come from Ukraine, while the European Union, which has land borders with Ukraine, has taken a less restrictive approach.
Mr Shapps said there were some outstanding visa issues to be resolved with the family who contacted him, but he looked forward to welcoming them to his home as soon as possible.
“We had the conversation as a family about this, and of course it means the house is more crowded and there’s less room for a desk to study at,” Mr Shapps told Good Morning Britain.
“But every time we came to the end of the conversation, we thought ‘But look at what’s happening to these people, look at what’s happening to their home’.”
09:20 AM
We had to eat a stray dog, say desperate people in besieged Mariupol
It is thought about 2,000 civilians have now been killed in Mariupol. About 100,000 people are trapped there.
Through social media, The Telegraph has been able to contact some remaining residents who have either left in recent days or remain trapped. One claimed they had been forced to eat a stray dog to stave off hunger.
Alexandr Volodko, 21, a student, said: “We spotted a stray dog, it was already not doing well. We were so desperate we cooked it. We were starving and I am ashamed to say it.”
Yevheniia Kudria, 24, who managed to escape Mariupol a matter of days ago, said her mother had stayed in the city, too scared to leave, with “the smell of corpses and the smell of burning in the air. People are simply buried in front gardens near houses”.
09:05 AM
EU deal for US gas is confirmed in drive to move away from Russia
The US and EU announced a task force Friday aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels in the face of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The initiative being unveiled by president Joe Biden and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will see the US strive to help supply Europe with an extra 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas this year, a statement confirmed.
The US will work to supply 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European Union markets this year, as Europe seeks to wean itself off Russian gas supplies, according to a factsheet provided by the White House.
The Commission will also work with EU countries to ensure they can receive about 50 bcm of additional LNG until at least 2030.
About 10 per cent of EU gas needs are met by domestic production. Russia typically supplies some 41 per cent of the rest of the bloc’s needs.
08:56 AM
Four killed in shelling of Ukrainian aid centre, say police
Russian shelling hit a clinic that was acting as a centre for humanitarian aid in the eastern city of Kharkiv, killing four people, the regional police said in a statement on Friday.
“As a result of the morning shelling of civilian infrastructure from multiple rocket launchers, 7 civilians were injured, 4 of whom died,” said a statement on social media. “There is no military facility nearby.”
08:54 AM
‘See-through houses’: Mariupol drive-by shows extent of damage after month of conflict | Ukraine war
[embedded content]
08:42 AM
Fresh drive to evacuate Mariupol civilians
Ukraine hopes some civilians who have been trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol will be able to leave in private cars on Friday, the deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Repeated attempts to arrange safe passage out of the southern port city, which is surrounded by Russian forces, have failed.
Mariupol, which is normally home to about 400,000 people, has been under heavy bombardment for weeks. Civilians trapped there have been sheltering in basements with little food, power or running water.
Those who manage to leave Mariupol will find buses awaiting in the nearby city of Berdiansk which will take them to the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ms Vereshchuk said.
“We will do everything in our power so that buses filled with Mariupol residents reach Zaporizhzhia today,” she said.
08:32 AM
Thousands flee city near Ukrainian international airport
About 20,000 people have answered appeals to flee the Ukrainian city of Boryspil, which is near an international airport, Boryspil’s mayor Volodymyr Borysenko said on national television on Friday.
He urged others to evacuate, saying the large number of civilians in villages nearby made it difficult for Ukrainian troops to clear Russian forces from the area.
Boryspil international airport is about 30 km (19 miles) east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
08:27 AM
War in Ukraine: latest pictures
08:15 AM
Russia says it has destroyed largest military fuel storage site in Ukrain
Russia’s armed forces destroyed a major fuel depot outside Kyiv in a missile strike, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing that the strike happened on Thursday evening, using Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the sea. Konashenkov said the depot was used to supply Ukraine’s armed forces in the centre of the country.
“On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Konashenkov’s remarks could not be immediately independently verified.
08:06 AM
New US-Europe gas deal as countries try to wean off Russian energy
A deal is set to be unveiled on Friday to supply Europe with more US liquefied natural gas (LNG), as leaders of the European bloc meet to curb their reliance on Russian fossil fuels and deal with an energy price crunch.
The pact to be announced by US president Joe Biden and the president of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, follows a day of three summits in Brussels.
It is understood to involve the US giving at least 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) more LNG to Europe this year than planned before.
“The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people’s lives that are being lost and ruined,” Mr Biden said, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin, after attending the first day of an EU summit on Thursday.
“We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.”
The EU has pledged to cut Russian gas use by two-thirds this year. Russia supplies 40 per cent of the EU’s gas needs and more than a quarter of its oil imports.
07:53 AM
Europe acted too late to stop Russian invasion, says Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky has said Europe acted “a little too late” to stop Russia from invading Ukraine, claiming countries should have sanctioned Moscow and blocked the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline earlier.
Speaking in a video posted on Facebook, the Ukrainian president said he was “grateful” the sanctions had been imposed, but they could have been preventative if applied sooner.
“You applied sanctions. We are grateful. These are powerful steps but it was a little late,” he said.
“If it had been preventative, Russia would not have gone to war.
“You blocked Nord Stream 2. We are grateful to you. And rightly so. But it was also a little late. Because if it had been in time, Russia would not have created a gas crisis. At least there was a chance.”
07:47 AM
Biden to visit near Ukraine border, as solidarity tested
US president Joe Biden will travel to a town near the Polish-Ukrainian border on Friday, trying to signal Western resolve in the face of a Russian invasion that has increasingly turned to a grinding war of attrition.
Air Force One will jet into the eastern Polish town of Rzeszow – bringing the US president less than 80 kilometres (50 miles) from a war-torn nation still struggling to repel a brutal Russian attack.
The trip is designed to underscore Washington’s willingness to defend NATO allies, as fears rise that the month-old war in Ukraine could yet spark what Biden has called “World War III”.
Fearing further escalation, cautious European Union, Nato and G7 leaders in Brussels shied away from Ukraine’s request for more advanced weapons systems and a blanket embargo on Russian oil and gas at a trio of Brussels summits on Thursday.
That prompted the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to pointedly question whether some allies – particularly those in Europe – were doing enough, quickly enough.
07:45 AM
In full: West will respond ‘in kind’ if Moscow uses chemical weapons
[embedded content]
07:37 AM
Chemical weapons by Russia should be ‘met in kind’, Labour says
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary has doubled down on comments from the US president about any use of chemical weapons by Russia, saying this would be an escalation and should be “met in kind”.
David Lammy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Absolutely it’s the case that the use of chemical weapons would be an escalation and it should be met in kind.”
He added: “It’s important not to speculate about that escalation and what the response would be.
“I don’t want to signal that to Vladimir Putin but I think that it’s right that the scenario that is now going on both in the White House and in the Ministry of Defence is prepared for that act.”
07:36 AM
UK to double its troops in Eastern Europe as Nato strengthens defences
Britain will double its troops in Eastern Europe and send a new deployment to Bulgaria, after Nato leaders on Thursday agreed to strengthen the alliance’s eastern flank against Russian aggression.
The alliance signed off on the formation of four new battlegroups of between 1,000 and 1,500 troops, up to 6,000 soldiers, at an emergency summit in Brussels on the war in Ukraine.
They will join the 40,000 troops under its direct command in Europe, which was already nearly 10 times the number it had a few months ago before Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
“We’re bolstering our support for the Nato countries on the front line by sending a new deployment of UK troops to Bulgaria on top of doubling our troops both in Poland and in Estonia,” Boris Johnson said.
“This is just the beginning. We must support a free and democratic Ukraine in the long term,” the Prime Minister added.
07:17 AM
Russia fires missiles at Ukraine military unit
Russian forces fired two missiles late on Thursday at a Ukrainian military unit on the outskirts of Dnipro, the fourth-largest city in the country, regional emergency services said.
The strikes destroyed buildings and set off two fires, it said, while the number of those killed and wounded was still being established.
Dnipro is west of the regions along the Russian border that have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
06:58 AM
Ukrainian forces are re-occupying towns: MoD
The UK’s Ministry of Defence says Ukraine has re-occupied towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometres east of Kyiv:
06:05 AM
‘Whole cities, villages turned to ashes’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has provided an update on some of the horrors that have unfolded amid Russia’s relentless invasion of Ukraine.
In his speech on Friday, the President said Russian missiles and tanks had already destroyed more than 230 schools and 155 kindergartens, and killed 128 children.
“Whole cities, villages. Just to ashes. Nothing remains,” he said.
05:47 AM
West denounces Russian ‘barbarism’ as Ukrainians seek shelter
Western leaders have denounced Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour as “barbarism” as thousands in besieged cities sheltered underground from Russian bombardment.
At an unprecedented triple summit in Brussels, the transatlantic alliance Nato, G7 rich nations and European leaders piled on military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said Vladimir Putin had “already crossed the red line into barbarism”.
US President Joe Biden said of the Russian president: “The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people’s lives that are being lost and ruined.”
Responding to Thursday’s show of unity in Brussels, Moscow said the West had itself to blame for the war by arming the “Kyiv regime”.
05:32 AM
Moscow accused of forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of civilians
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been taken against their will into Russia as Moscow pressures Kyiv to give up.
Ukraine’s ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been forcibly removed from shattered Ukrainian cities.
Some civilians may be used as “hostages” in a push to make Kyiv surrender.
05:10 AM
Western sanctions won’t sway Kremlin, Russian ex-president says
Russian ex-president and deputy head of security council Dmitry Medvedev said it was “foolish” to believe that Western sanctions issued against Russian businesses could have any effect on the Moscow government.
Mr Medvedev on Friday told Russia’s RIA news agency the sanctions would only bring Russian society together, rather than cause widespread discontent with authorities.
“Let us ask ourselves: can any of these major businessmen have even the tiniest quantum of influence of the position of the country’s leadership?” Mr Medvedev said.
“I openly tell you: no, no way.”
The West has not hesitated to slap an array of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, as the Kremlin refuses to back down.
04:09 AM
‘We are getting closer to victory’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of hope and determination in his night-time video address to the nation late on Thursday.
“It is already night. But we are working,” he said in a quiet voice.
“The country must move toward peace, move forward. With every day of our defence, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory.
“We can’t stop even for a minute. For every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live.”
He reported on his conversations earlier in the day with leaders of Nato and European Union countries gathered in Brussels, and their promises of even more sanctions on Russia.
“We need to look for peace,” Mr Zelensky said. “Russia also needs to look for peace.”
03:20 AM
‘We will find every Russian soldier who commits war crimes’
Russia’s shelling has been relentless but its armoured columns have barely moved in weeks, stalled near the capital Kyiv.
Ukraine says Russian forces have taken heavy casualties and are low on supplies, and US officials told Reuters that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60pc for some of its precision-guided missiles.
With stocks of precision-guided munitions running low, Russian forces were more likely to rely on unguided bombs and artillery, Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl said.
The United States accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, allegations Russia denies.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian forces had tortured Ukrainian prisoners.
“We will find every Russian soldier who commits war crimes, along with their accomplices … do not think that your surnames are unknown to us. No one will be able to escape punishment,” Ms Vereshchuk said.
02:58 AM
Fears Ukrainian refugees will be ‘hostages’
Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken to Russia.
The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia.
Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.
02:18 AM
‘Real’ threat of chemical weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there is a “real” threat that Moscow will use chemical weapons in Ukraine, accusing Russia of having already used phosphorus bombs against civilians in the country.
The governor of the Lugansk region says phosphorus bombs were used in one village hit in overnight strikes on eastern Ukraine that killed at least four people, including two children.
Britain’s ITV network broadcast footage of phosphorus bombs dropping overnight on the flashpoint town of Irpin near Kyiv.
02:02 AM
Brexit and Ukrainian resistance are not the same, says Boris
Boris Johnson has said he “totally agrees” that Brexit and the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion are not the same.
The Prime Minister has come under criticism for comments where he appeared to compare the UK voting to leave the EU, with the Ukrainian fight against Russia.
Speaking at the Conservative Party spring forum at the weekend, he said it was the “instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom”, with the Brexit vote a “famous recent example”.
But speaking to BBC’s Newsnight programme on Thursday, he said: “That was not an analogy that I was making. I’m afraid that was wildly misconstrued.
“I said, I think in the same passage, that there’s been nothing like what we’re seeing in Ukraine since 1945 and it is a horror, and it can’t be compared to anything since 1945.”
01:38 AM
Nato would respond ‘in kind’ if Putin resorted to chemicals
Western leaders spent Thursday crafting the next steps to counter Russia’s month-old invasion – and huddling over how they might respond should Vladimir Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon.
Joe Biden warned that a chemical attack by Russia “would trigger a response in kind”.
“You’re asking whether Nato would cross. We’d make that decision at the time,” Mr Biden said.
However, a White House official said later that did not imply any shift in the United States’ position against direct military action in Ukraine.
Mr Biden and Nato allies have stressed that the US and Nato would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine.
Joe Biden: We will respond in kind if Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine
01:35 AM
US will welcome Ukraine’s refugees
Joe Biden announced the US would welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The President said many probably would prefer to stay closer to home.
The US will provide an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.
01:32 AM
Biden promises more aid is on its way to Ukraine
[embedded content]
US President Joe Biden and Western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine, but their offers fell short of the more robust military assistance that President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for in a pair of live-video appearances.
Mr Zelensky, while thankful for the newly promised help, made clear to the Western allies he needed far more than they are currently willing to give.
“One per cent of all your planes, one per cent of all your tanks,” Mr Zelensky asked members of the Nato alliance.
“We can’t just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100pc security.”
Mr Biden said more aid was on its way. But the Western leaders were treading carefully so as not to further escalate the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Nato has made a choice to support Ukraine in this war without going to war with Russia.
“Therefore we have decided to intensify our ongoing work to prevent any escalation and to get organised in case there is an escalation.”
