Russia-Ukraine latest news: Two British humanitarian workers ‘captured by Russian troops’

Two British volunteers providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine have been captured by Russian troops, according to the organisation.

The non-profit Presidium Network said the two men had been detained by Russian forces at a check point south of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Monday.

“The Foreign Office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people,” Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the International Trade Secretary, said.

The Presidium Network said the men, both civilians, were working as part of a project in Ukraine to help provide food, medical supplies and evacuation support.

It comes a day after the British Government confirmed that the British national Scott Sibley had been killed in Ukraine and another is missing.

​​Follow the latest updates below.

09:11 AM

Ukraine says Russia taking ‘colossal losses’ in eastern battle

Ukraine acknowledged on Friday it was taking heavy losses in Russia’s assault in the east, but said Russia’s losses were even worse.

It comes US President Joe Biden called on Congress to send as much as $33 billion (£26bn) to help Kyiv withstand the attack.

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

In Kyiv, workers were cleaning up rubble in a residential area after Russia fired two missiles at the capital during a visit on Thursday by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which Ukraine called an attack on the United Nations itself.

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

“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much much bigger…They have colossal losses,” presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.

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08:46 AM

Britain sends in war crime experts to Ukraine

The UK will send war crimes experts to help the Ukrainian government with investigations into Russian atrocities, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced.

The team will support the government in Kyiv in gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes and will include experts in conflict-related sexual violence.

They will arrive in neighbouring Poland early next month to examine how they can assist.

The announcement comes as Ms Truss meets with the president of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Friday.

08:23 AM

Russia confirms ‘high-precision’ strike on Kyiv during UN visit

Russia’s defence ministry on Friday confirmed it had carried out an air strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“High-precision, long-range air-based weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kyiv,” the ministry said in its daily briefing on the conflict in Ukraine.

07:57 AM

Body found in rubble after missile attack on Ukrainian capital – mayor

Ukrainian rescue workers on Friday recovered a corpse from the rubble of a building in Kyiv that was hit by a missile, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The death was the first reported in Thursday’s missile strike as the head of the United Nations visited Kyiv. Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles had struck the capital. Russia has not commented on the incident.

07:41 AM

British military veteran death in Ukraine ‘terribly sad’

Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the death of a British military veteran in Ukraine was “terribly sad” but denied that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss caused confusion by saying in February she would support UK nationals who chose to fight for Ukraine.

The International Trade Secretary told Times Radio: “Terribly, terribly sad news to hear…

“The Foreign Office are working closely with authorities in Ukraine and indeed supporting the family.

“But the Government was clear that the travel advice was: do not go to Ukraine. It was clear and it was reiterated many times.”

07:20 AM

‘Battle for Donbas’ critical for Russia

The “Battle of Donbas” remains Russia’s main strategic focus in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday, but it has suffered significant losses for limited territorial gains.

Russia withdrew its forces from outside Kyiv last month after failing to take the capital in the initial stages of its Feb 24 invasion and launched a massive attack in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Moscow regards winning the “Battle for Donbas” as crucial if it is to achieve its stated aim of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the MoD said.

“Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” it said on Twitter.

But faced with strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited and achieved at significant cost, officials said.

07:12 AM

Zelensky says capital attack requires ‘appropriate, powerful response’

At least ten people have been injured after Russia fired missiles into Kyiv on Thursday, during a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

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

Officials said one person lost a leg and others suffered injuries from being trapped in the rubble when two buildings were hit. The bombardment came barely an hour after Mr Guterres completed talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“There was an attack on Kyiv … it shocked me, not because I’m here but because Kyiv is a sacred city for Ukrainians and Russians alike,” Mr Guterres told Portuguese broadcaster RTP.

The blasts are the boldest attack on the capital since Russian forces retreated weeks ago. Mr Zelensky said the attack required an “appropriate, powerful response”.

06:55 AM

Watch: ‘Intense discussions’ to evacuate Mariupol steel works

06:42 AM

Ukraine hopes to evacuate civilians from Mariupol steel works

Ukraine hopes on Friday to evacuate civilians who are holed up with Ukrainian fighters in the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol.

“An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said without giving details.

06:38 AM

Russian checkpoint in region next to Ukraine was shelled, governor says

A checkpoint at a village in Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine was shelled on Friday, the region’s governor said.

“Mortars were fired at a checkpoint in the village of Krupets,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.

Starovoyt said Russian border guards and military gave retaliatory fire. “There were no casualties or damage,” he said.

06:19 AM

Russia hits Ukraine from all angles

Russia pounded targets from practically one end of Ukraine to the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago.

Ukrainian emergency services said 10 people were wounded when a Russian missile hit a 25-story apartment building in Kyiv on Thursday evening and set off a fire, which partially destroyed the first and second floors.

The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said Ukraine has become “an epicentre of unbearable heartache and pain.”

A spokesperson said Guterres and his team were safe.

Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country – in Polonne in the west, Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, and Fastiv, a large railway hub southwest of the capital.

The mayor of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said rockets were intercepted by air defences.

06:05 AM

First Ukrainian corn cargo leaves Romanian Black Sea port

A cargo carrying over 71,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn finished loading in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta on Thursday, the first since Russia invaded Ukraine, the manager of port operator Comvex said.

With Ukraine’s sea ports blocked since the war started more than two months ago, the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter has been forced to send shipments by train via its western border or through its small Danube river ports into Romania.

“This is the first panamax vessel with Ukrainian corn to leave the port,” Comvex President Viorel Panait told Reuters.

05:38 AM

Latest from the UK Ministry of Defence

05:32 AM

Oil depot shelled in Donetsk

Ukrainian forces have shelled and damaged an oil depot in the city of Donetsk in the country’s east, which is held by Russian-backed separatists, the RIA news agency quoted a separatist official as saying on Friday.

Fire reportedly engulfed the facility following the attack.

05:22 AM

Battle of Donbas remains Russia’s main ‘strategic focus’

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said the Battles of Donbas remains Russia’s main strategic focus as Moscow aims to secure control over the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

“In these oblasts fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” the ministry said in a post on Twitter.

“Due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited and achieved at significant cost to Russian forces.”

03:58 AM

Ukrainian officials condemn Kyiv attack

02:42 AM

In pictures: Explosions rock Kyiv after Russian missile strike

02:25 AM

Video shows Russia’s bombardment on Kyiv

01:49 AM

Zelensky’s talks with Bulgarian PM ‘very substantive and warm’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “very substantive and warm talks” on energy and defense cooperation with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov during his visit to Kyiv on Thursday.

The two leaders agreed that damaged Ukrainian military equipment could be repaired at Bulgarian plants and then sent back to Ukraine.

“Another issue we agreed on was the supply of Ukrainian electricity to Bulgaria and the joint use of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline to diversify energy supplies in the region,” Mr Zelensky said late on Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation.

Russia this week cut off natural gas supplies to Bulgaria and also to Poland, two NATO members which have been among the strongest European supporters of Ukraine in the war.

01:42 AM

UK’s visa schemes ‘creating and heightening’ trafficking and exploitation risks, report claims

The UK’s visa schemes for Ukrainian refugees are heightening the risk of trafficking and exploitation, a report has claimed.

The report, produced by experts at UCL for the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Dame Sara Thornton, claimed the visa schemes elevated risks of human trafficking and exploitation, while “lacking in clarity, resourcing and accountability”.

More than 100 experts highlighted the “troubling implications” of the UK’s visa-based response, saying they were struggling to make sense of the “chaotic, fragmented and confusing” system.

01:19 AM

Today’s top stories

• Britain is sending 8,000 troops to Eastern Europe in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War

• Volodymyr Zelensky refused to be evacuated from his compound in Kyiv even as Russian assassination squads parachuted into the capital and tried to storm the building to kill him

• At least 10 people have been injured after Russia fired missiles into Kyiv on Thursday

• Two powerful blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine

• Ukraine’s military said Russian troops were subjecting several places in the Donbas to “intense fire”

• Russia is preventing injured Ukrainian troops from being evacuated from a steel plant in Mariupol because it wants to capture them, the local governor said

• Ukrainian investigators have identified more than 8,000 cases of suspected war crimes since Russia’s invasion

• Britain is expected to start sending anti-ship missiles to Ukraine after the Defence Secretary warned any blockade of the Black Sea could see increased food prices