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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Samantha Lock (now) ; Dani Anguiano, Richard Luscombe, Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier)

US officials dismiss Putin’s claim that his forces have ‘liberated’ the port city of Mariupol as disinformation – as it happened

Ukraine Russia United States United Kingdom Mariupol Mykhailo Podolyak Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelenksyy Kyiv Pentagon

Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

This live blog is now closed but you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blog below.

Summary

It is just past 8am in Ukraine. Here’s what we know so far:

  • Russia plans to “falsify” an independence referendum in the partly occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed.
    Zelenskiy urged residents of areas under Russian occupation to not provide any personal information, like their passport numbers, to the Russian forces, in a video message aired late on Thursday evening.
  • Russia has been hiding evidence of its “barbaric” war crimes in Mariupol by burying the bodies of civilians killed by shelling in a new mass grave, the city’s mayor said, as a US satellite imagery company released photos that appeared to match the site.
  • Civilians are trapped under buildings in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks plant, deputy commander Svyatoslav Palamar from Ukraine’s Azov regiment has said. “We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings,” he told the BBC. Some children are believed to be as young as three months old.
  • US officials have dismissed Vladimir Putin’s claim that his forces have “liberated” the port city of Mariupol as disinformation. The Russian president made the claim despite an admission by his defence minister that Russia’s military was still battling thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in Azovstal steelworks.
  • Western officials said Putin is “still in a position to win” in Ukraine despite failing in his pre-war objectives. Russia had started to address some of the issues that had hindered its army at the start of the invasion, one official said.
  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia rejected a proposed Easter truce, but that he remains hopeful of prospects for peace. Earlier this week Russia rejected the same request from the UN, claiming it was not “sincere” and would give Ukrainian fighters more time to arm themselves.
  • Zelenskiy also told leaders of the World Bank and IMF that Ukraine will need “hundreds of billions of dollars” to recover from war. Ukraine needs $7bn each month to keep its economy afloat amid the “economic losses” inflicted by Russia, Zelenskiy said via video link. He also proposed a special war tax on Russia. World Bank president David Malpass said the physical damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure has reached $60bn.
  • Germany will provide a further €37m ($40.12m) to Ukraine for reconstruction as a result of the war, Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper reported, citing development ministry sources.
  • Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, confirmed war crimes experts are helping Ukraine “to ensure the inevitability of Russia’s responsibility”. The United States said it has also been in contact with Ukraine’s prosecutor and is assisting with the preservation and collection of evidence of war crimes committed by Russia, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said. More than 7,600 war crimes committed by Russia have been recorded, Venediktova claimed.
  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister apologised to residents of Mariupol for failed evacuation efforts from the besieged port city. She added that authorities will not give up. Officials estimate that 100,000 people are currently trapped in the city.
  • The US defence secretary will host Ukraine-focused defence talks with allies in Germany next week, the Pentagon has confirmed. Lloyd Austin will meet allies on 26 April at the Ramstein Air Base in south-western Germany, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. The pentagon also confirmed newly disclosed ‘Ghost’ drones are part of America’s latest arms package for Ukraine.
  • Russia has slapped “indefinite’ travel bans on US vice president Kamala Harris and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg as well as dozens of prominent Americans and Canadians in retaliation for sanctions imposed over Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry said the travel restrictions on 29 Americans and 61 Canadians - which also includes defence officials, business leaders and journalists from both countries - would remain in effect indefinitely.
  • UK prime minister Boris Johnson revealed that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in the UK, learning how to use 120 British armoured vehicles before returning with them to fight in the war against Russia. British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on how to use anti-aircraft missiles, the prime minister said.
  • About 120,000 civilians are blocked from leaving Mariupol, Zelenskiy said. Three school buses filled with people from Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhzhia today after crossing through territory held by Russian forces, but Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the number of evacuees was far smaller than had been hoped for.
  • Russian forces captured dozens of villages in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, an aide to Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said.
  • The bodies of 1,020 civilians are being stored in morgues in and around Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanishyna, told Agence France-Presse. Her comments came after police said they discovered the remains of nine civilians in the town of Borodianka, 54km (34 miles) from the capital, buried in communal graves and showing signs of torture.
  • Joe Biden announced that the US will provide another $800m (£614m) military assistance package to Ukraine to “further augment Ukraine’s ability to fight in the east, in the Donbas region”. The new US weapon deliveries will include 72 howitzers and their towing vehicles along with 144,000 artillery rounds and more than 120 drones tailored for Ukraine’s needs. Biden also announced that the US will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees under a new programme.
  • Seven people were killed after a huge fire broke out at a key Russian defence research institute in Tver north-west of Moscow, according to reports. Local authorities said 25 people had also been injured in Thursday’s fire, Tass news agency reported, citing emergency services, and that at least 10 people were missing.

As usual, please feel free to reach out to me by email or Twitter for any tips or feedback.

In case you missed our earlier report, seven people were killed after a huge fire broke out at a key Russian defence research institute in Tver north-west of Moscow, according to reports.

Local authorities said 25 people had also been injured in Thursday’s fire, Tass news agency reported, citing emergency services, and that at least 10 people were missing.

The death toll was initially put at five but Tass said it had increased to seven.

“We confirm a number of seven deaths at the moment,” Tass cited the source as saying. It added that the number of casualties could increase.

The fire erupted in an administrative building of the aerospace defence forces’ central research institute, which operates under the Russian defence ministry. It quickly engulfed the building’s upper three floors, forcing those inside to jump from windows and causing the roof to cave in.

Photographs of the main building showed it completely gutted by fire. Video footage from the scene, which is about 160km (100 miles) north-west of Moscow, showed thick smoke and flames billowing from the institute’s windows.

Protesters gathered outside of the European Parliament in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday.

205 candles were lit for the number of children so far recorded and killed in the war.

Protesters gather outside of the European Parliament in downtown Warsaw in protest of the unprovoked war on Ukraine by Russia.
Protesters gather outside of the European Parliament in downtown Warsaw in protest of the unprovoked war on Ukraine by Russia. Photograph: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Ukrainian refugees, children, Polish locals and their children as well as other nations came together to mark 57 days since the beginning of the war.
Ukrainian refugees, children, Polish locals and their children as well as other nations came together to mark 57 days since the beginning of the war. Photograph: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Protesters carried a petition and reclamation to European government officials for more financial support and arms.
Protesters carried a petition and reclamation to European government officials for more financial support and arms. Photograph: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Russia plans to 'falsify' independence referendum in Kherson, Zelenskiy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of planning to “falsify” an independence referendum in the partly occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Zelenskiy urged residents of areas under Russian occupation to not provide any personal information, like their passport numbers, to the Russian forces, in a video message aired late on Thursday evening.

I urge the residents of the southern regions of Ukraine - Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions - to be very careful about what information you provide to the invaders. And if they ask you to fill out some questionnaires, leave your passport data somewhere, you should know - this is not to help you...

This is aimed to falsify the so-called referendum on your land, if an order comes from Moscow to stage such a show. And this is the reality. Be careful.”

Zelenskiy also issued a warning to ‘Kherson People’s Republics’ saying their plans “are not going to fly”.

“If someone wants a new annexation, it can only lead to new powerful sanctions strikes on Russia. You will make your country as poor as Russia hasn’t been since the 1917 civil war. So it is better to seek peace now.”

Civilians trapped under buildings in Mariupol's Azovstal plant, Ukraine says

One of the last Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol has said the besieged Azovstal steelworks plant where they are sheltering has been largely destroyed above ground and civilians are trapped under collapsed buildings.

The Azovstal steel plant, the last main Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, has been under constant attack with Kyiv accusing Russian forces of using bunker-buster bombs as hundreds of civilians shelter beneath the factory.

The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to President Zelenskiy, earlier accused world leaders yesterday of having “blood on their hands” while “the world watches the murder of children online and remains silent”.

Deputy Commander Svyatoslav Palamar from Ukraine’s Azov regiment reiterated the claims in an interview with the BBC, claiming Russians had fired on the steel plant from warships and dropped bunker-bombs on it.

All the buildings in the territory of Azovstal are practically destroyed. They drop heavy bombs, bunker-busting bombs which cause huge destruction. We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings,” Palamar said.

He said that civilians were in separate locations away from fighters. They were in basements containing 80-100 people each but it was unclear how many civilians there were in total as some buildings had been destroyed and fighters could not reach them because of shelling.

Entrances to some of the bunkers were blocked by heavy concrete slabs that only heavy machinery could move, he said.

We keep in touch with those civilians who stay in places that we can get to. We know that there are small children there as young as three months old,” he said.

The deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment told Radio Liberty:

It was our makeshift hospital ... Heavy bombs are dropped on the Azovstal steelworks, and now a lot of people are under the rubble ... Azovstal was bombed and destroyed almost completely. We are pulling people from the rubble.”

Palamar appealed for civilians to be given safe passage out of the steelworks and called for a third country or an international body to act as a guarantor for their safety.

These people have got through a lot already, through war crimes. They don’t trust Russians, and they are scared.

After 52 days of blockade and heavy fighting we are running of medicines. And then we also keep unburied bodies of our fighters whom we need to bury with dignity in Ukraine-controlled territory,” he said.

Capt Palamar said there could be no question of surrender.

“As for surrender in exchange for the safe way out for civilians, I hope we all know whom we are dealing with. We definitely know that all guarantees, all statements of the Russian Federation are worth nothing.”

Here are some of the latest images to land on our newswires out of Ukraine today.

Natalia Maznychenko, 57, holds a portrait of her husband, Vasyl Maznychenko, 60, at a cemetery in Bucha.
Natalia Maznychenko, 57, holds a portrait of her husband, Vasyl Maznychenko, 60, at a cemetery in Bucha. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
A family gets in the car after loading up belongings from their apartment in Borodyanka, Ukraine on Thursday.
A family gets in the car after loading up belongings from their apartment in Borodyanka, Ukraine on Thursday. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
Nikolai Ponamarenko and his wife Julia retrieve a water tank from their apartment building after Russian missile strikes hit the town of Borodyanka.
Nikolai Ponamarenko and his wife Julia retrieve a water tank from their apartment building after Russian missile strikes hit the town of Borodyanka. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
A Ukrainian flag is seen outside the window of a demolished room in an apartment building in Borodyanka.
A Ukrainian flag is seen outside the window of a demolished room in an apartment building in Borodyanka. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
A police officer looks on as a girl from Mariupol looks out the window of a bus after a convoy of vehicles arrived at an evacuation point, carrying people from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns to Zaporizhzhia.
A police officer looks on as a girl from Mariupol looks out the window of a bus after a convoy of vehicles arrived at an evacuation point, carrying people from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns to Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Yryna Chebotok, 26, holds a cross as her grandfather, Volodymyr Rubaylo, 71, is buried at the cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine.
Yryna Chebotok, 26, holds a cross as her grandfather, Volodymyr Rubaylo, 71, is buried at the cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Coffee houses in Kyiv are treating Ukrainian servicemen and women to free beverages and desserts by using a post-it system.

Ukrainian journalist and editor of the Kyiv Independent, Olga Rudenko, posted a snap to Twitter on Thursday.

“In many coffee houses in Kyiv: Pink post-its are beverages and desserts that visitors have paid for as a treat for military or territorial defence members, who can come and claim any of them for free. It’s people’s way to thank their defenders,” she said.

Germany will provide a further €37m ($40.12m) to Ukraine for reconstruction as a result of the war, Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper is reporting, citing development ministry sources.

Some €22.5m would go into the reconstruction of Ukraine’s power grid and additional €14.4m euros would be earmarked to rebuild apartments attacked by Russian forces and for medical equipment, the newspaper said according to a Reuters report.

“My ministry has reallocated funds for this via an emergency programme,” development minister Svenja Schulze was quoted by the paper as saying.

China continues to 'parrot' Russia’s security ideas, US says

The US State Department has said China continues to “parrot” some of Russia’s security ideas amid the war in Ukraine, including the Kremlin’s concept of “indivisible security.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price made the comment at a regular briefing when asked about a speech by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in which he referenced the concept along with his proposed “global security initiative.”

Price reiterated that China would face serious consequences if it gave material support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, but that Washington had not yet seen Beijing provide that kind of assistance to Moscow.

The United States would continue to uphold the rules-based international system it had built with like-minded partners based on respect for human rights, sovereignty, and self-determination, Price said.

“We are committed to upholding the various systems that certain countries around the world and Russia and the PRC are among them - seek to challenge, and in certain instances, seek to tear down and even destroy,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Updated

US to host Ukraine defence talks with allies in Germany

The US Defence Secretary will host Ukraine-focused defence talks with allies in Germany next week, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Lloyd Austin will meet with allies on 26 April at the Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

The goal is to bring together stakeholders from all around the world for a series of meetings on the latest Ukraine defence needs and ... ensuring that Ukraine’s enduring security and sovereignty over the long-term is respected and developed.”

Kirby did not say how many allies would participate.

Updated

Damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure reaches $60 billion: World Bank

The physical damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure has reached $60 billion and will rise further as the war continues, World Bank President David Malpass has said.

Malpass told a World Bank conference on Ukraine’s financial assistance needs that the early estimate of “narrow” damage costs does not include the growing economic costs of the war to Ukraine.

“Of course the war is still ongoing, so those costs are rising,” Malpass said.

During an address to leaders of the World Bank and IMF via video link on Thursday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine needs $7bn each month to keep its economy afloat.

Updated

US ‘Ghost’ drones will help fight in Donbas, Pentagon says

Newly disclosed ‘Ghost’ drones are part of America’s latest arms package for Ukraine, the Pentagon has confirmed.

The White House said earlier on Thursday that more than 121 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems would be provided to Ukraine as part of the new arms package.

The Pentagon said the Ghost drones are well suited for the coming fight in Ukraine’s Donbas region, which officials have described as flat terrain reminiscent of the US state of Kansas. The drones have been developed for attacking targets and are destroyed after a single use.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said:

It was developed for a set of requirements that very closely match what the Ukrainians need right now in Donbas.

It can also be used to give you a sight picture of what it’s seeing, of course. But its principal focus is attack.”

A small number of Ukrainians have been trained in the United States on how to operate Switchblade drones, single-use weapons that fly into their targets and detonate on impact.

Kirby said training for the Ghost drones would be similar to the training on the Switchblade.

The Ghost drones have so far not yet been delivered to Ukraine.

• This post was amended on 22 April 2022 to remove an image of a Ghost drone that is not of the type being sent to Ukraine.

Updated

Russian President Vladimir Putin alone can decide the fate of the 100,000 civilians still trapped in Mariupol, its mayor has said.

Vadym Boichenko said satellite images of a mass grave site were proof Russians were burying bodies to try to hide the death toll as Mariupol continues to endure what is now nearly two months of siege that has led to the most intense battles of the war and its worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Under heavy bombardment, citizens who did not flee have suffered without electricity, heating or water.

It’s important to understand that the lives that are still there, they are in the hands of just one person - Vladimir Putin. And all the deaths that will happen after now will be on his hands too,” Boichenko told Reuters.

“There were no plans to liberate the city. It was a plan of destruction,” Boichenko said. He estimated that 90% of the southeastern port city has been damaged or destroyed.

Ukraine needs $7bn a month to keep its economy afloat, Zelenskiy says

Ukraine needs $7bn each month to keep its economy afloat amid the “economic losses” inflicted by Russia, President Zelenskiy has said.

Zelenskiy addressed leaders of the World Bank and IMF via video link on Thursday:

The Russian troops are deliberately destroying all facilities in our country that could provide an economic basis for life. Railway stations, food warehouses, bakery plants, oil terminals, etc...

As of now, given the economic downturn and broken economic ties, we need up to $ 7 billion in financial support each month. Ukraine will need hundreds of billions of dollars to recover from this war. I’m sure each of you has these calculations, I’m sure of it.”

Updated

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, has confirmed war crimes experts are helping Ukraine “to ensure the inevitability of Russia’s responsibility”.

The United States said it has also been in contact with Ukraine’s prosecutor and is assisting with the preservation and collection of evidence of war crimes committed by Russia, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday.

Venediktova said experts from Slovakia - including police, judicial and medical experts - arrived to Kyiv on Thursday to help in the investigation of war crimes.

Over 7,600 war crimes committed by Russia have been recorded, she added with support of the world in the gathering of evidence “desperately needed”.

“Our goal is absolutely transparent - a thorough investigation of every war crime of the Russian Federation for the sake of bringing the culprits to justice,” she said.

Venediktova claimed nine burial places of those killed during Russian occupation, including two children, were discovered in Borodіanka.

[Russian] criminals fired at and ran over civilians by tanks. Prosecutors are investigating circumstances of everyone’s death, and evidence will be presented to and international courts,” she added.

Russia has slapped “indefinite’ travel bans on US Vice President Kamala Harris and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg as well as dozens of prominent Americans and Canadians in retaliation for sanctions imposed over Ukraine.

The Russian foreign ministry said the travel restrictions on 29 Americans and 61 Canadians - which also includes defence officials, business leaders and journalists from both countries - would remain in effect indefinitely.

The foreign ministry said the list was comprised of people responsible for the two countries’ “Russophobic” policies.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price, who has been targeted in the ban, said that the travel ban was “an honour.”

I have to say it is nothing less than an accolade to have earned the ire of a government that lies to its own people, brutalises its neighbours and seeks to create a world where freedom and liberty are put on the run and, if they had their way, extinguished,” Price told reporters.

Asked if he had to cancel any travel plans to Russia, Price quipped: “Fortunately I had no rubles and even if I did they would be worthless by now anyway.”

Other Americans banned by Russia include ABC News television presenter George Stephanopoulos, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius and the Russia-focused Meduza news site’s editor Kevin Rothrock.

The US defence officials include Pentagon spokesman John Kirby and Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks.

The list of Canadians is headed by Cameron Ahmad, who serves as director of communications to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Canadian Special Operations Forces Commander Steve Boivin.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed a war tax on Russia with funds used to help Ukraine rebuild in his latest address to the World Bank ministerial roundtable.

We need a special tax for the war. Russia, and after it any other aggressor, must pay for violating global stability. Such a tax for the war should be imposed on all, without exception, trade transactions with Russia as a state or with Russian companies. On all export-import transactions, all financial transactions that have not yet been blocked.

Funds from the war tax should be used to help Ukraine rebuild everything that Russia destroyed in the war. Or, if this tax is applied to another aggressor, the funds should be directed to the victim of that war.

The world needs an effective tool to respond to the destructive actions of those who do not want to maintain common security and work for the common good of all in the world. I am convinced that a special tax for the war can become such a tool.”

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has apologised to residents of Mariupol for failed evacuation efforts from the besieged port city.

Iryna Vereshchuk said in an update on her official Telegram late on Thursday:

We apologise to the people of Mariupol who did not wait for the evacuation today. The shelling started near the collection point, which forced the corridor to be closed.”

However, Vereshchuk added that “as long as we have at least some opportunities” authorities will not give up.

“Everything is going very slowly. On the Russian side, everything is very complicated, chaotic, slow and, of course, dishonest,” she added.

On Wednesday, residents were evacuated from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia directly on four buses.

Ukraine hoped to evacuate 6,000 people but only around 80 were able to make it to Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian officials estimate that 100,000 people are currently trapped in Mariupol.

Updated

UK training Ukrainian soldiers to use British armoured vehicles

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has revealed that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in the UK, learning how to use 120 British armoured vehicles before returning with them to fight in the war against Russia.

British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on how to use anti-aircraft missiles, the prime minister said.

I can say that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of anti-aircraft defence, and actually in the UK in the use of armoured vehicles,” Johnson said.

Britain has agreed to send at least 120 armoured vehicles, 80 of which are the Mastiff, Husky and Wolfhound protected mobility vehicles, which the British army says are designed to be used in “combat, combat support and combat service roles” driving troops behind and up to the frontlines.

A Mastiff armoured vehicle seen during a military exercise in the UK.
A Mastiff armoured vehicle seen during a military exercise in the UK. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

The other 40 vehicles are for combat reconnaissance, including the Spartan, which can carry four soldiers plus a crew of three, Samaritan ambulances, Sultan armoured command vehicles, and Samson armoured recovery vehicles.

Training on them takes a few weeks, defence sources said, largely so that the Ukrainians can become familiar with the control systems available.

The British forces in Poland are understood to be training the Ukrainian military in using the Starstreak air defence missile system and the Stormer vehicles from which the weapons are launched.

We are moving, in conjunction with our allies, to providing new types of equipment that perhaps the Ukrainians wouldn’t have had previous experience of, so it’s only sensible that they get the requisite training to make the best use of it,” Johnson’s spokesperson said.

Summary

Key developments of the day:

Footage shared by Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya whose forces have been fighting in Ukraine, shows Russia backed troops celebrating in front of burning buildings in Mariupol.

In the video, Adam Delimkhanov, a Chechen politician and close ally of Kadyrov, says they have completed “the special operation to destroy and cleanse Mariupol”.

The Guardian’s Shaun Walker points out that many of the troops in the video have relatives who faced similar destruction in the wars Russia waged in Chechnya.

Putin claims Russia has “liberated” Mariupol, which the US has called disinformation from a “well-worn playbook”.

Updated

Russia rejects proposal for Easter truce

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he is still hopeful for peace even after Moscow rejected a proposed truce this weekend over the Orthodox Christian Easter period.

Russia had rejected a similar request earlier this week after the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, called for a truce through Easter Sunday to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and safe passage for civilians attempting to flee the war zone. “The four-day Easter period should be a moment to unite around saving lives and furthering dialogue to end the suffering in Ukraine,” he said.

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said the request was not “sincere” and would give Ukrainian fighters more time to arm themselves.

Updated

Senior Ukrainian official says troops face ‘a very difficult battle’

A top Ukrainian defense official said the country’s military is looking at a challenging conflict against larger and better equipped Russian troops, Reuters reported.

Hanna Malyar, the deputy defense minister, had advised the country to be patient, warning that it takes time to buy and arrange for the delivery of weapons.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pleaded for allies to send more weapons and impose further economic sanctions on Russia as the country continues its battle to take Ukraine. The president said Ukraine needed $7bn a month to help combat economic losses brought by the invasion.

“This is just the first step (for Russia) to gain control of eastern Europe, to destroy democracy in Ukraine,” he told the Portuguese parliament. “We are fighting not only for our independence, but for our survival, for our people, so that they do not get killed, tortured and raped.”

I’m Dani Anguiano, and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments in Ukraine over the next few hours.

Updated

Joe Biden announces $800m in new arms supplies to Ukraine

Joe Biden has announced $800m (£613m) in new arms supplies to Ukraine and said he will go to Congress to ask for more funding to help fend off the renewed Russian offensive in the east and south.

The new US weapon deliveries will include 72 howitzers and their towing vehicles along with 144,000 artillery rounds and more than 120 drones tailored for Ukraine’s needs.

“We’re in a critical window of time when [the Russians] are going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said. “And the United States and our allies and partners are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine the weapons their forces need to defend their nation.”

Fifty Ukrainian artillery officers are being given a week-long course by US instructors on the use of US 155mm howitzers in an unnamed European country, the Pentagon said.

Biden said the latest arms supplies with the emphasis on heavy artillery reflected the requirements of the different landscape of the Donbas, which is largely flat agricultural land, compared with the forests around Kyiv, providing fewer opportunities for ambushes and guerrilla warfare.

The president said the US had so far given Ukraine 10 anti-tank missiles, including Javelins, for every tank Russia has on the battlefield, along with armored cars, armed drones and other heavy equipment, and was playing the role of facilitator for arms deliveries from other countries.

“We won’t always be able to advertise everything that our partners are doing to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said, and he paraphrased a famous quote of Theodore Roosevelt: “Sometimes we will speak softly and carry a large Javelin.”

Read more:

Updated

Russian forces captured dozens of villages in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, an aide to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said, according to Reuters.

Olena Symonenko told viewers on Ukraine TV:

Today 42 villages were added to the list of those that have been occupied. This is at the expense of the Donetsk region.

This happened today and [it] might be that our forces will win them back tomorrow.

Putin's claim to have 'liberated' Mariupol is disinformation, US says

Officials in the US have dismissed as “disinformation” the claim by Russian president Vladimir Putin that his forces have “liberated” the port city of Mariupol, Reuters reports.

At a news briefing Thursday afternoon, Ned Price, spokesperson for the department of state, said:

We understand that Ukraine’s forces continue to hold their ground and there is every reason to believe that President Putin and his defense minister’s show for the media that we saw in recent hours is even yet more disinformation from their well-worn playbook.

Putin made the claim despite an admission by his defense minister that Russia’s military was still battling thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in Azovstal steelworks.

Even so, the situation is “close to catastrophe”, according to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of Metinvest Holding that owns the steelworks.

“When the war started we had stocked quite a good stocks of food and water in the bomb shelters and the facilities at the plant so for some period of time the civilians, they were able to use it and basically survive on that,” he told CNN.

“Unfortunately all the things, they tend to run out, especially the food and daily necessities. I think now it’s close to a catastrophe there.”

Read more:

Updated

Protesters gathered outside the European Parliament in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday to mark the 57th day of Russia’s war in Ukraine and light candles for the 205 children recorded as killed so far.

Here are some of the images:

Young protesters at the European Parliament building in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday.
Young protesters at the European Parliament building in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday. Photograph: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Several hundred people gathered to highlight the deaths of children in the Ukraine conflict:

Protesters at a ‘save the children’ rally in Warsaw.
Protesters at a ‘save the children’ rally in Warsaw. Photograph: Aleksander Kalka/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Many families turned up to get their voices heard:

Protesters in Warsaw demanded an end to the killing of children in Ukraine.
Protesters in Warsaw demanded an end to the killing of children in Ukraine. Photograph: Aleksander Kalka/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Wimbledon has been warned it could face legal action from the Belarusian Tennis Federation after it accused the All England Club of acting illegally by banning Russian and Belarusian players from this summer’s championships.

The BTF said it was consulting international law firms to “protect” its stars, including the two-time grand slam champion Victoria Azarenka and the world No 4, Aryna Sabalenka, as it condemned Wimbledon for inciting hatred with its decision.

“The Belarusian Tennis Federation categorically condemns the decision taken by the organisers of Wimbledon to suspend Belarusian and Russian tennis players,” it said. “Such destructive actions in no way contribute to the resolution of conflicts, but only incite hatred and intolerance on a national basis.

“Throughout the history of tennis, armed conflicts have occurred in the world – in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Yugoslavia and other countries – but never until now have tournament organisers suspended athletes from the United States, Great Britain and other countries,” it added.

It is understood that Wimbledon took legal advice before making its decision, which will significantly alter the makeup of the tournament given 17 of the Top 100 in the men’s and women’s rankings, including the world No 2, Daniil Medvedev, are from Russia or Belarus.

Read more:

Updated

It’s Richard Luscombe in the US taking over the blog for the next couple of hours.

The tit-for-tat rounds of sanctions between Russia, and the western allies opposing its invasion of Ukraine, continues with the Russian president Vladimir Putin removing the welcome mat for a swathe of Canadian politicians, dignitaries and journalists.

According to CBC, several of whose journalists are affected: “On Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry added 61 Canadians to what it calls its ‘stop list,’ prohibiting them from entering Russia indefinitely.

“All are accused of being ‘involved in the development, substantiation and implementation of the Russophobic course of the ruling regime in Canada,’ said the ministry.”

Canada has been an active part of the western alliance supporting Ukraine’s efforts to repulse the Russian invasion, prime minister Justin Trudeau announcing this week more military support and sanctions on certain Russians, including Putin’s adult daughters.

Russia’s move today is presumably an act of revenge.

According to CBC, when he heard he was banned from Russia, Lloyd Axworthy, a cabinet member in the administration of former prime minister Jean Chrétien, and now head of the World Refugee Council, laughed.

“The old saying is that you’re well known by the company you keep and by the company that doesn’t like you. It indicates to me how silly they really are,” he said.

Summary

It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has reportedly said it would be “out of the question” for him to go to Moscow for direct talks with Russian leaders on ending the war. “Nevertheless, under different circumstances and with different rulers in Moscow, anything would be possible,” he was quoted as saying.
  • About 120,000 civilians are blocked from leaving Mariupol, Zelenskiy said. Three school buses filled with people from Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhzhia today after crossing through territory held by Russian forces, but Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the number of evacuees was far smaller than had been hoped for.
  • The parliaments of Estonia and Latvia have recognised Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”. In a statement, the Estonian parliament said Russian troops in temporarily occupied territories had committed “acts of genocide” against the civilian population including “murders, enforced disappearances, deportations, imprisonment, torture, rape and desecration of corpses”.
  • Biden said it was “questionable” whether Putin controls Mariupol and that there was “no evidence yet” that the port city has completely fallen. The US president described the battle of Kyiv as a “historic victory” for the Ukrainians and said the war was now at a “critical window”.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague, Richard Luscombe. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.

Updated

Human Rights Watch has documented “a litany of apparent war crimes” by Russian forces in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv formerly occupied by Russian forces.

Researchers who worked in Bucha after Russian troops withdrew from the area found “extensive evidence of summary executions, other unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and torture”, “all of which would constitute war crimes and potential crimes against humanity”, it said.

Richard Weir, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said:

Nearly every corner in Bucha is now a crime scene, and it felt like death was everywhere.

The evidence indicates Russian forces occupying Bucha “showed contempt and disregard for civilian life”, he said.

A street in the town of Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine April 1, 2022.
A street in the town of Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine April 1, 2022. Photograph: Reuters

The organisation documented the details of 16 apparently unlawful killings in the town, including nine summary executions and seven indiscriminate killings of civilians – 15 men and a woman.

In one documented case, a nine-year-old girl was shot in the shoulder while trying to run away from Russian forces.

Updated

The situation at the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol is “close to a catastrophe”, the head of the company that owns the steel works told CNN.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, the CEO of Metinvest Holding, told CNN:

When the war started we had stocked quite a good stocks of food and water in the bomb shelters and the facilities at the plant so for some period of time the civilians, they were able to use it and basically survive on that. Unfortunately all the things, they tend to run out, especially the food and daily necessities.

I think now it’s close to a catastrophe there.

Ryzhenkov said there had originally been enough supplies for two to three weeks but they were almost eight weeks into the blockade.

A hotline has been set up for employees of the Azovstal steel plant and so far 4,500 had been in contact, he said. Around 6,000 are yet to be accounted for.

Hopefully they are still alive, hopefully they are ok and hopefully they will get out and we will be able to provide them with all the necessary comfort,

The company has said the plant will not work under Russian occupation, he said.

Updated

Russia ‘still in a position to win’, Western officials say

Western officials said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, could still win in Ukraine despite failing in his pre-war objectives, Reuters reports.

Putin is “still in a position to win”, one official said, adding that success for Russia might be the consolidation of Russian control over the Donbas and the creation of a land bridge with Crimea.

In what the official termed a worst-case scenario, Russian forces could launch a renewed attack on Kyiv.

Despite these possible outcomes, the invasion of Ukraine would remain a “strategic blunder” for Russia, given its substantial losses and the war’s effect on Europe’s security architecture, the official said.

Russia had started to address some of the issues that had hindered its army at the start of the invasion, another official said:

Command and control has become more effective ... it’s clear that they’re being smarter about how they’re using UAVs and integrating those into their forces as they advance, and how they’re using artillery.

However, the way in which forces were manoeuvring, often in long columns, had not yet improved, the official added.

Updated

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reportedly said it would be “out of the question” for him to go to Moscow for direct talks with Russian leaders on ending the war, Reuters reports.

Zelenskiy was quoted in an interview with Russian media outlet Mediazona as saying:

In the name of my country, I would be ready to visit any place on this planet. But certainly not now and certainly not Moscow. That is simply out of the question.

He was quoted as adding:

Nevertheless, under different circumstances, and with different rulers in Moscow, anything would be possible.

Russia’s political leadership had made a “catastrophic mistake” by invading Ukraine, Zelenskiy also said.

Updated

Ukraine’s military said Russian forces have attempted to storm the seaport and Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Most of Mariupol is under Russian control, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said earlier that Ukrainian troops remain in a part of the city.

Earlier today, the Russian president Vladimir Putin told his defence minister not to storm the Azovstal plant in order to save the lives of Russian troops.

Instead, he said that the plant, which is the main remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city, should be blockaded “so that a fly can’t get through”.

Updated

Three school buses filled with people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol have arrived in Zaporizhzhia after crossing through territory held by Russian forces, AFP reports.

Buses carrying women and children arrived after attempts to open a humanitarian corridor from the port city that has been delayed multiple times because of fierce fighting in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the number of evacuees was far smaller than had been hoped for.

People from Mariupol gather after arriving on an evacuation bus to the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 21 April 2022.
People from Mariupol gather after arriving on an evacuation bus to the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 21 April 2022. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the number of evacuees was far smaller than had been hoped for.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the number of evacuees was far smaller than had been hoped for. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA
People arriving on an evacuation bus to the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 21 April 2022.
People arriving on an evacuation bus to the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, 21 April 2022. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA

Vereshchuk, who was present to receive the buses, said:

Nothing has worked. Only 79 people could come. There were no green corridors.

She said there were almost 1,000 people in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel works waiting for a humanitarian corridor as well as 500 injured soldiers, adding:

If shelling starts, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has to know that he’s bombarding women and children.

Updated

Russian forces accused of secret burials of civilians in Mariupol

Russia has been hiding evidence of its “barbaric” war crimes in Mariupol by burying the bodies of civilians killed by shelling in a new mass grave, the city’s mayor said on Thursday.

The mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russian trucks had collected corpses from the streets of the port city and had transported them to the nearby village of Manhush. They were then secretly thrown into a mass grave in a field next to the settlement’s old cemetery, he said.

The invaders are concealing evidence of their crimes.

The cemetery is located near a petrol station to the left side of a circular road. The Russians have dug huge trenches, 30 metres wide. They chuck people in.

The mayor estimated that more than 20,000 Mariupol residents had been killed since Russian forces began attacking the city during the early days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Most corpses had now been removed, he said, with some disposed of in mobile crematoriums.

Mariupol city council says Russians established a mass burial site near Mangush, west of Mariupol, Ukraine.
Mariupol city council says Russians established a mass burial site near Mangush, west of Mariupol, Ukraine. Photograph: Maxar Technologies Handout/EPA

Boichenko denied claims by Putin that the city had been “liberated” by Russia. He said Ukrainian soldiers remained holed up in the Azovstal steel factory on Mariupol’s left bank, together with between 300 and 1,000 civilians, including women and children.

He told the Guardian:

We don’t know the precise civilian figure because we haven’t been able to get them out. We need a day’s ceasefire for this to happen.

The civilians were living in desperate conditions in a network of underground tunnels, surrounded by Russian troops.

Read more of Luke and Andrew’s article: Russian forces accused of secret burials of civilians in Mariupol

Britain has banned imports of caviar and other high-end products from Russia in the latest round of sanctions, the UK’s department for international trade said.

The import ban will be extended to cover silver and wood products, while tariffs on imports of diamonds and rubber from Russia and Belarus are being increased by 35% points.

In a statement, the UK’s international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said:

We are taking every opportunity we can to ratchet the pressure to isolate the Russian economy and these further measures will tighten the screws, shutting down lucrative avenues of funding for [Vladimir] Putin’s war machine.

Updated

Russia using cluster bombs to kill Ukrainian civilians, pictures suggest

Russian troops have used a number of weapons widely banned across the world, which have killed hundreds of civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kyiv, according to research by the Guardian.

Evidence collected during a visit to Bucha, Hostomel and Borodianka, where Russian occupiers have been accused of atrocities against residents, showed that Russian troops had used cluster munitions, cluster bombs and extremely powerful unguided bombs in populated areas, which have destroyed at least eight civilian buildings.

A Russian rocket carrying cluster munition that landed in the countryside near Hostomel
A Russian rocket carrying cluster munition that landed in the countryside near Hostomel. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Bellingcat, a nonprofit online journalism collective dedicated to war crime investigations, which has reviewed some of the pictures collected by the Guardian, confirmed the presence of tail fins of RBK-500 cluster bombs with PTAB-1M submunitions and cluster rocket, launched by BM-30 Smerch.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian and western allegations of war crimes are concocted.

However, Russia’s withdrawal from the areas of the Kyiv region that it occupied until early April has revealed signs of cluster munitions on the wreckage of cars, streets, civilian buildings and dead bodies, too. Cluster munitions, banned by most of the world under a 2008 treaty called the Convention on Cluster Munitions, were unleashed in areas where there were no military personnel and no military infrastructure.

Updated

Zelenskiy: 120,000 civilians blocked from leaving Mariupol

Around 120,000 civilians are blocked from leaving the besieged city of Mariupol, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Responding to remarks by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, that Russian forces control most of Mariupol, Zelenskiy said that Russia controls most of the port city, but that Ukrainian troops remain in a part of it.

Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said around 200 people were still awaiting evacuation from the city but no buses had arrived as of mid-afternoon today.

A small convoy of buses had evacuated people from Mariupol on Wednesday and was now headed for the city of Zaporhizhia, he said.

He said it is impossible to confirm exactly how many civilians are still inside the Azovstal steel plant, and that it is unlikely there will be evacuations from the site today.

Summary

It is almost 6.30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:

  • The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has said it is under intense bombardment. Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, said Russian forces shelled areas of Kharkiv with multiple systems. He claimed there were about 15 attacks and that five civilians were injured.
  • The parliaments of both Estonia and Latvia have recognised Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”. In a statement, the Estonian parliament said Russian troops in temporarily occupied territories had committed “acts of genocide” against the civilian population including “murders, enforced disappearances, deportations, imprisonment, torture, rape and desecration of corpses”.
  • Biden said it was “questionable” whether Putin controls Mariupol and that there was “no evidence yet” that the port city has completely fallen. The US president described the battle of Kyiv as a “historic victory” for the Ukrainians and said the war was now at a “critical window”.
  • Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow is giving the “necessary assistance” to British fighters who have been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.
    Two British nationals, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, are now prisoners of war in Donetsk after being captured by Russian forces while defending Mariupol.
  • The UK has added 26 new designations to its list of sanctions against Russia, including on military figures who have committed “atrocities” on the frontline in Ukraine. Among those sanctioned are Lt Col Azatbek Omurbekov, the commanding officer of the unit that occupied the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where there have been reports of war crimes with the death toll reaching almost 350.
  • The multibillionaire Russian oligarch, Vagit Alekperov, has stepped down as the president of the London-listed firm Lukoil, after sanctions were imposed on him by the UK and EU. In a statement, Russia’s second-largest oil company said Alekperov, who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin, had formally notified the company of his decision to resign on Thursday.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy has thanked his US counterpart for supporting the people of Ukraine, following Joe Biden’s update a little while ago.

Spanish PM: 200 tonnes of ammunition and military supplies sent to Ukraine

Spain has sent a new batch of 200 tonnes of military equipment to Ukraine, including heavy transport vehicles and ammunition, the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said during a visit to Kyiv today.

Speaking at a joint news conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, Sanchez said:

This is the largest shipment made until now, more than doubling what we have sent so far.

Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez (L), his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen (R) and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy (C).
Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez (L), his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen (R) and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy (C). Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA

A Spanish navy ship loaded with the equipment departed a port in Spain on Thursday bound for Poland, from where the cargo would be transported to Ukraine, he said.

The ship carries 30 trucks, several special heavy transport vehicles, and 10 small vehicles loaded with the military material that will be transferred to Ukraine.

Sanchez also said Spain would ask the international criminal court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine and that it planned to send war crimes investigators there.

During the same briefing, his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, said her country would increase its contribution of weapons to Ukraine by 600m Danish crowns (£67m).

Updated

Biden: ‘Questionable’ whether Russia controls Mariupol

The US president, Joe Biden, has said it was “questionable” whether his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, controls the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Biden said:

It’s questionable whether he does control Mariupol. There is no evidence yet that Mariupol is completely fallen.

Biden’s comments come after Putin claimed victory in Mariupol earlier today, declaring the city “liberated” after nearly two months of siege, despite leaving hundreds of defenders still holed up inside a giant steel works.

The US leader called on Putin to allow humanitarian aid into Ukraine to allow those trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant to be able to get out.

Updated

Biden: War in Ukraine is at a ‘critical window’

The battle of Kyiv was a “historic victory” for the Ukrainians, Biden said, a “victory for freedom won by the Ukrainian people with unprecedented assistance” by the US and its allies.

Biden said:

Now we have to accelerate that assistance package to help prepare Ukraine for Russia’s offensive that is going to be more limited in terms of geography, but not in terms of brutality.

The US and its allies are “moving as fast as possible” to provide weapons to Ukrainian forces, Biden said, announcing another $800 million in military assistance.

The US will also ban Russian-affiliated ships from American ports, which he described as “another critical step” to “deny Russia the benefits of the international economic system that they so enjoyed in the past”.

Biden announces $800m military aid package for Ukraine

The US president, Joe Biden, has announced an additional $800m (£612m) in military aid for Ukraine.

The new package will include heavy artillery weapons, dozens of Howitzers, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and tactical drones, Biden said as he delivered an update on US efforts related to the Russian invasion.

Biden said:

We’re in a critical window of time now where (Russian forces are) going to set the stage for the next phase of this war.

The United States and our partners and allies are moving as fast as possible to continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs, its forces need, to defend its nation.

It comes just a week after the US announced a previous $800m to support Ukraine, which included artillery systems, artillery rounds, armoured personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defence boats.

Updated

The US president Joe Biden is talking about Ukraine. You can watch it here:

Updated

US to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees under new 'Uniting for Ukraine' programme

The US will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees under a new programme to be announced by President Joe Biden today.

In the speech he is about to give, he is expected to be launching a programme that will commence next week, allowing Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their home country to come to the US temporarily if they have American sponsors.

Reuters reports US sponsors can submit applications for the programme, called “Uniting for Ukraine,” beginning on Monday – a process an official said could take a week to complete.

Updated

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, is in Washington today. He will be meeting with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other bipartisan congressional leaders later, and it appears he will also be meeting with the defense secretary Lloyd Austin.

Joe Biden is scheduled to take to the podium today at the White House at 9.45am ET (1.45pm GMT) to provide an update on Ukraine and Russia.

An anonymous official told the Associated Press that Biden is planning to detail his plans to build on the roughly $2.6bn in military assistance that his administration has already approved for Ukraine.

This new package should be similar in size to the $800m package that Biden announced last week, and will include much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Yesterday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters that five flights with military assistance have arrived in the region over the last few days, with more than half a dozen flights from the US scheduled to arrive shortly with even more equipment.

Updated

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been giving joint press conference in Kyiv.

Pedro Sanchez (L), Mette Frederiksen (R) and Volodymyr Zelensky (C) in Kyiv.
Pedro Sanchez (L), Mette Frederiksen (R) and Volodymyr Zelensky (C) in Kyiv. Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA

Reuters reports that Frederiksen said her country would give further military aid worth 615m Kr (£69m / $90m) to Ukraine and support further sanctions against Russia. She said Denmark’s total military assistance amounted to around 1bn Kr (£112m / $146m).

The UK’s defence secretary Ben Wallace has said that “We all could do more” to help Ukraine.

Declining to comment on speculation about the types of equipment the UK has recently supplied to Ukraine, he told reporters during a visit to The Hague for the Invictus Games that “We will continue to give them the air defence they need.”

PA Media quotes him saying:

The Ukrainians need, first and foremost, they need long-range artillery and artillery shells. They use currently Russian Soviet stocks and the calibres are different from what the West holds, so not only are we trying to help them source those calibres so that they can immediately be used, but at the same time helping them explore developing new capabilities.

Wallace also said he would be making a statement to Parliament next week regarding the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

He was questioned about the British prime minister’s visit to India. Boris Johnson has travelled there for meetings on trade, but the issue of the UK dealing with India while Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government also maintain their relationship with Russia has dogged the trip. Wallace said:

It’s very important that India has its ability to lead, and I would say, as the prime minister is going to say, or has said, Ukraine matters for all of us. It matters what’s going on there, and that we should all stand tall and be open in condemning Russia’s actions and illegal invasion.

I think what we’ve also learned from the Ukraine invasion is no country benefits from being overdependent on one country, whether you’re Germany and Russian gas supplies, whether you’re India on vast amounts of Russian military equipment, it doesn’t benefit any country to be overdependent.

It’s the same in the United Kingdom. I think more than anything India will look at how Russian equipment has performed in Ukraine and ask itself whether they’ve got the best equipment they could have.

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace speaks to the media at the Invictus Games in the Hague, Netherlands.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace speaks to the media at the Invictus Games in the Hague, Netherlands. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

The multibillionaire Russian oligarch Vagit Alekperov has stepped down as the president of the London-listed firm Lukoil after sanctions were imposed on him by the UK and EU.

In a statement to the stock market, Russia’s second-largest oil company said Alekperov, who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin, had formally notified the company of his decision to resign on Thursday.

Lukoil is among 27 firms whose shares were suspended by the London Stock Exchange in early March in order to avoid market turmoil. The Moscow-headquartered firm is not subject to sanctions.

However, the UK government has said Alekperov was targeted because of his role in the Russian energy sector, including an 8.5% equity stake in Lukoil that was worth £3bn before the shares were suspended.

Putin shaking hands with Vagit Alekperov during a meeting in Moscow in 2020.
Putin shaking hands with Vagit Alekperov during a meeting in Moscow in 2020. Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/AP

The official sanctions list state:

Through his directorship of Lukoil, Alekperov continues to obtain a benefit from and/or continues to support the government of Russia by working as a director […] trustee, or equivalent, of entities carrying on business in sectors of strategic significance to the government of Russia, namely the Russian energy sector.

Lukoil’s latest annual report detailing its tax payments to the Russian government do not appear to be available on the company’s website. But archived copies show it contributed more than £5bn to the Kremlin’s coffers in 2020 alone.

The sanctions imposed on Alekperov – whose personal wealth has previously been estimated at $20bn (£15bn) – are likely to have made it harder for him to exercise his duties as the company’s president.

Updated

Latvia and Estonia recognise Russia’s actions in Ukraine as ‘genocide’

The parliaments of both Estonia and Latvia have recognised Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”.

In a statement, the Estonian parliament said “systematic and massive war crimes” have been committed against the Ukrainian nation by Russia’s armed forces, adding:

These crimes are ideologically incited by Russia’s political and military leadership and its national propaganda authorities.

In temporarily occupied territories, Russians committed “acts of genocide” against the civilian population, the statement continued.

These have consisted of murders, enforced disappearances, deportations, imprisonment, torture, rape and desecration of corpses.

Latvia’s Saeima unanimously passed a statement calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine an act of genocide.

In a statement, Latvian MPs referred to extensive evidence of “mass brutal crimes” committed by the Russian army:

Killing, torture, sexual abuse of Ukrainian civilians, including women and children in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol and elsewhere.

From Latvia’s foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs:

Updated

Natalia Maznichenko, 57, holds a photograph of her husband Vasyl Maznichenko, 61, at his funeral at the cemetery in Bucha, Kyiv region, Ukraine.
Natalia Maznichenko, 57, holds a photograph of her husband Vasyl Maznichenko, 61, at his funeral at the cemetery in Bucha, Kyiv region, Ukraine. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Maznichenko hugs her son as she mourns her husband who according to her was killed during Russian shelling to their building.
Maznichenko hugs her son as she mourns her husband, who according to her was killed during Russian shelling to their building. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

Russia is closing the consulates of three ex-Soviet Baltic nations, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the Russian foreign ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement that it was closing the Latvian consulates in St Petersburg and Pskov, the Estonian consulate in St Petersburg and its office in Pskov, and the Lithuanian consulate in St Petersburg.

All employees will be ordered to leave and declared “persona non grata”.

The ministry said the decision was made “on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, as well as taking into account the provision by the authorities of these countries of military assistance to the (Kyiv) regime and covering up of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population of Donbas and Ukraine.”

Earlier this month, Latvia and Estonia each ordered the closure of two Russian consulates over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania also expelled its Russian ambassador.

Updated

More than 1,000 civilian bodies in Kyiv morgues, says official

The bodies of 1,020 civilians are being stored in morgues in and around Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew from areas around the capital, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanishyna, told AFP.

Her comments came after police said they discovered the remains of nine civilians in the town of Borodianka, some 54 kilometres (34 miles) from the capital, buried in communal graves and showing signs of torture.

The victims were “either killed or tortured to death during the hostilities”, according to the Kyiv regional governor, Oleksandr Pavliuk, adding:

Forensic experts are now examining the bodies, but what we saw was hands tied behind the back, their legs tied and shot through the limbs, and in the back of the head.

An apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodianka, Ukraine.
An apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodianka, Ukraine. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP

Russia says it is ‘taking care’ of captured British fighters

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow is giving the “necessary assistance” to British fighters who have been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Zakharova said:

Don’t worry, the Russian side is taking care of them.

They are fed, watered and given the necessary assistance. Just like other foreigners who have surrendered or been detained.

Two British nationals, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, are now prisoners of war in Donetsk, the eastern Ukrainian city run by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014, after being captured by Russian forces while defending the besieged city of Mariupol.

Updated

A majority of people in Sweden are in favour of joining Nato, Agence France-Presse cites a new poll as showing.

The poll, carried out by the polling institute Novus, showed that 51% of Swedes were in favour of joining the military alliance – up from 45% a week ago. It marks the first time the pollster has recorded a majority on the issue.

The results come as Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats prepare for a debate on whether to abandon the country’s military non-alignment. The party has historically opposed Nato membership, so a reversal of that policy would pave the way for a Swedish bid.

In neighbouring Finland, the issue of Nato membership is currently being mulled by MPs following the publication of a government-commissioned “white paper” last week.

Swedish opinion in favour of joining Nato is increasing because they believe it will be done together with Finland, the Novus chief executive, Torbjorn Sjostrom, said.

If Finland were to join the alliance, 64% of Swedes questioned said they were in favour of joining.

Updated

The prime ministers of Spain and Denmark have arrived in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Pedro Sanchez shared a video of him and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, visiting Borodianka, a town in the Kyiv region.

Sanchez wrote that he was “shocked to witness the horror and atrocities of Putin’s war on the streets of Borodyanka”.

We will not leave the Ukrainian people alone.

Frederiksen pledged to send more weapons to Ukraine, telling reporters as she walked around Borodianka:

We intend to deliver more weapons to Ukraine because that is what is most needed.

Her office said talks with the Ukrainian president would focus on further support for the Ukrainians and the prosecution of “war crimes and human rights violations”.

Pedro Sanchez (L) and Mette Frederiksen (R) with Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, during their visit to Kyiv.
Pedro Sanchez (L) and Mette Frederiksen (R) with Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, during their visit to Kyiv. Photograph: Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacassa/Reuters

Updated

Our Shaun Walker writes that today marks three years since Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an actor and comedian with no political experience other than playing the role of president in a TV series, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Updated

Chris Garrett recalled his last conversation with the British fighter Aiden Aslin. Aslin was holed up in Mariupol and surrounded by Russian forces. He had run out of food and ammunition. It seemed unlikely he would get out of the city alive. Garrett said:

We spoke on the phone. Aiden told me: ‘I think we are going to have to surrender.

Two days later, Aslin and his fellow British fighter Shaun Pinner negotiated with a Russian commander. They emerged from the ghostly shattered ruins of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters continue to hold out in underground tunnels. Both are now prisoners of war in Donetsk, the eastern Ukrainian city run by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.

The pair are at the centre of a political row. Downing Street has suggested they should not have been in Mariupol in the first place. The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, said he had sympathy with the captured Britons but that they were fighting in Ukraine “illegally”. He would not comment on government efforts to get them back.

Captured British fighters Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin.
Captured British fighters Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin. Photograph: Alamy, Twitter

Garrett – a British fighter working as a sapper in Ukraine – said Lewis’s remarks were “completely false”. The pair had signed a legal long-term contract several years ago with Ukraine’s ministry of defence and were not in the same category as foreign legion volunteers, who arrived in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, he said. “They have homes and partners here. Shaun has a Ukrainian wife,” he said.

“They are very nice guys,” Garrett added, speaking in a cafe in Kyiv, just off the capital’s main Khreschatyk boulevard.

They have gone through absolute hell. There is no way to comprehend what they have been through. Shaun was injured by shrapnel. Nobody really expected them to get out. If they’d surrendered to Chechens they would be dead.

Read more of Luke’s article: ‘They’ve gone through hell’: fears for British prisoners of war in Ukraine

Updated

UK announces new sanctions against Putin's 'war leaders'

The UK has added 26 new designations to its list of sanctions against Russia, including on military figures who have committed “atrocities” on the frontline in Ukraine.

The move will target those “commanding the frontline” to commit “heinous” acts in Ukraine, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Among those on the updated sanctions list are key leaders in the Russian army, including Col Gen Nikolay Bogdanovsky of the Russian army, who holds the position of first deputy chief of the general staff.

Lt Col Azatbek Omurbekov, the commanding officer of the unit that occupied the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where there have been reports of war crimes with the death toll reaching almost 350, is subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.

In a statement, the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said the UK was “unyielding” in its support for Ukraine and in holding Vladimir Putin and his regime to account, adding:

Today’s new wave of sanctions hits the generals and defence companies that have blood on their hands.

Updated

The office of Germany’s chancellor crossed several heavy weapons off a wishlist of military hardware it has offered to purchase from its armaments industry on behalf of the Ukrainian government, according to a report in German media that casts doubt over Olaf Scholz’s claim to have agreed the procurement process with Kyiv.

At a press conference on Tuesday evening, Scholz said he had asked arms contractors to come up with a list of weapons systems it could swiftly deliver to boost Ukraine’s defensive effort after Germany’s military had exhausted its own stocks.

Scholz said:

Ukraine has now made a selection from this list and we will provide it with the required money for the purchase.

A German soldier prepares a tank with a mounted Panzerhaubitze 2000 earlier this year.
A German soldier prepares a tank with a mounted Panzerhaubitze 2000 earlier this year. Photograph: Gregor Fischer/AFP/Getty Images

According to a report in Thursday’s edition of newspaper Bild, the industry’s offer in mid-March still included several heavy weapons Kyiv says it will need to withstand Russia’s offensive in the country’s east, including armoured “Boxer” transport vehicles, the Panzerhaubitze (PzH) 2000 artillery system, and the Leopard 2 battle tank manufactured by Munich-based defence company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

By the time the list, headed “Support options industry – consolidated”, was submitted to the Ukrainian government at the end of March, Bild said it had shrunk from 48 to 24 pages and included only three of 15 types of arms requested by Kyiv. Two follow-up requests by the Ukrainian government on 9 and 16 April were reportedly ignored by the German side.

The report is likely to add further fuel to a diplomatic row in which Scholz’s coalition government says it is doing everything within its means to help Ukraine withstand Russia’s assault, while Ukrainian diplomats accuse Berlin of stalling on arms shipments out of fear of provoking Putin into escalating the war.

Updated

Ukraine will do everything possible to bring back every person who was “forcibly deported” to Russia, a top Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, has said.

Russia has deported 500,000 people from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the war, a leading member of the Kyiv parliament, Mykyta Poturayev, told the EU parliament yesterday.

Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights, Liudmyla Denisova, said last week that Russia had taken 134,000 people from the besieged city of Mariupol and that 33,000 of those were forcibly deported.

The Guardian could not independently verify these statistics.

Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Today so far …

  • Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol, after his defence minister admitted that the Russian army was still fighting thousands of Ukrainian troops there.
  • Putin described a plan to storm the Azovstal steelworks “impractical” and called instead for Russian troops to blockade the area “so that a fly can’t get through”. The meeting appeared to be orchestrated in order for the Russians to step back from the assault on the steelworks, which has been stymied by a fierce Ukrainian resistance and the difficulties of operating in the industrial area.
  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made an urgent appeal for a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians and wounded soldiers to be evacuated from Azovstal.
  • Russian missiles and artillery struck 1,001 military targets in Ukraine overnight, including 162 firing positions, the country’s ministry of defence claimed.
  • The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has said it is under intense bombardment. Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, said Russian forces shelled areas of Kharkiv with multiple systems. He claimed there were about 15 attacks and that five civilians were injured.
  • Russian forces are advancing towards Kramatorsk while Putin likely desires to demonstrate “significant successes” ahead of Victory Day celebrations, British intelligence has suggested.
  • A court in Moscow has fined Google 11m roubles (£105,000 / $137,000) over what it says is inaccurate data about Russian troops losses and civilian casualties in Ukraine, as well as the distribution of video clips on YouTube produced by Ukrainian groups such as the nationalist Azov battalion.
  • Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, are both expected to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv today.
  • UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has arrived in India on a diplomatic mission to convince his reluctant counterpart, Narendra Modi, to back western action against Russia, along with yielding a variety of other strategic trade and defence partnerships.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping has said his government supports talks to resolve international disputes but reiterated China’s opposition to unilateral sanctions. China has repeatedly criticised western sanctions, including those against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but has also been careful not to provide assistance to Moscow that could lead to sanctions being imposed on Beijing.
  • Five allied countries including the United States have warned that “evolving intelligence” indicates Russia is poised to launch cyberattacks against rivals supporting Ukraine.
  • Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, a 91-year-old holocaust survivor, has been killed in the siege of Mariupol. She died sheltering in a freezing basement without water, in a grim echo of how she had hidden in a basement from the Nazis when she was 10 years old.
  • Posts casting doubt on evidence of alleged war crimes in Bucha have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has found.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for a few hours. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you shortly.

Here are a selection of some of the latest images from Ukraine that have been sent to us over the newswires.

This image is taken from video released by Mariupol City Council on 19 April, showing smoke the above Azovstal steel plant and the destroyed gates of Azov Shipyard.
This image is taken from video released by Mariupol City Council on 19 April, showing smoke the above Azovstal steel plant and the destroyed gates of Azov Shipyard. Photograph: Mariupol City Council/AFP/Getty Images
Damaged Ukrainian army military vehicles seen at the partly destroyed Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant on Monday.
Damaged Ukrainian army military vehicles seen at the partly destroyed Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant on Monday. Photograph: Alexei Alexandrov/AP
A man searches his belongings in his destroyed apartment in a residential building on the outskirts of Kharkiv yesterday.
A man searches his belongings in his destroyed apartment in a residential building on the outskirts of Kharkiv yesterday. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images
A banner with a message in English reading “Close the sky over Ukraine” is seen over a road in Dnipro yesterday.
A banner with a message in English reading “Close the sky over Ukraine” is seen over a road in Dnipro yesterday. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
Local residents on Tuesday climb a ladder to a bridge partially destroyed in the Kukhari village near Kyiv.
Local residents on Tuesday climb a ladder to a bridge partially destroyed in the Kukhari village near Kyiv. Photograph: Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

After second case, total Russian fines on Google rise to 11m roubles over Ukraine war content on YouTube

Earlier we reported that Russia had fined Google 4m roubles over content associated with the war on Ukraine. A court decision in Moscow on a second case has added another 7m rouble fine, taking the total to 11m roubles (£105,000 / $137,000).

Reuters reports that the fines pertained to what Moscow considers the distribution of inaccurate data about Russian troops losses and civilian casualties in Ukraine, as well as the distribution of video clips on YouTube produced by Ukrainian groups such as the nationalist Azov battalion.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Updated

Russia 'furiously bombing' Kharkiv – city's mayor

The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has said it is under intense bombardment.

Ihor Terekhov is quoted by Reuters saying in a televised address “Huge blasts, the Russian Federation is furiously bombing the city.”

He said that around 1 million people remain in the northeastern city, while about 30% of the population, mainly women, children and the elderly, have evacuated.

Putin orders blockade of Mariupol steelworks after Russia claims city taken

Here is Andrew Roth’s report on today’s developments so far with Mariupol:

Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol, after his defence minister admitted that the Russian army was still fighting thousands of Ukrainian troops there.

Putin described a plan to storm the Azovstal steelworks “impractical” and called instead for Russian troops to blockade the area “so that a fly can’t get through”.

The declaration came during a meeting at the Kremlin, where the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, presented a report to Putin about the closely watched battle for the Ukrainian port city and claimed that the city had been “liberated”, although fighting was ongoing.

He said it would take several more days for the Russians to defeat the Ukrainians fighting at the steelworks, a sprawling mass of tunnels and workshops spread over four square miles in the south-east of the city.

The meeting appeared to be orchestrated in order for the Russians to step back from the assault on the steelworks, which has been stymied by a fierce Ukrainian resistance and the difficulties of operating in the industrial area.

Leaving the plant in Ukrainian hands robs the Russians of the ability to declare complete victory in Mariupol. The city’s capture has strategic and symbolic importance.

Read more here: Putin orders blockade of Mariupol steelworks ‘so a fly can’t get through’

Russia fines Google 4m roubles over 'fake' information about Ukraine war

Russia has fined Google 4 million roubles (£38,000 / $50,000) for failing to delete what it terms “fake” information about what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

Reuters quotes a Tass news agency report that Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said earlier this month it was taking steps to punish Google for “spreading fakes” on YouTube, and has previously warned the US company that it would be fined if it failed to comply.

Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova,a 91-year-old holocaust survivor, has been killed in Mariupol. She died on 4 April, sheltering in a freezing basement without water, in a grim echo of how she had hidden in a basement from the Nazis when she was 10 years old.

Obiedkova’s daughter, Larissa, told Chabad.org that her mother “didn’t deserve such a death”. She is the second holocaust survivor known to have died in the present conflict.

Larissa described the conditions where they stayed as Mariupol was besieged as “living like animals”. She said “There was no water, no electricity, no heat – and it was unbearably cold”. Her mother was ill and immobile. “Every time a bomb fell,” Larissa said, “the entire building shook. My mother kept saying she didn’t remember anything like this during the Great Patriotic War [second world war].”

Obiedkova avoided capture by hiding in a basement when German forces occupied the city of Mariupol in October 1941. The Nazis rounded up the city’s Jewish population, including her mother, who was taken and shot along with the whole of her mother’s family. Nazi forces killed between 9,000 and 16,000 Jews in ditches on the outskirts of Mariupol.

Obiedkova’s father, who wasn’t Jewish, managed to get his daughter admitted into a hospital, where she spent two years after the Nazis were convinced she was Greek and not Jewish. Mariupol was liberated by the Soviet army in September 1943.

Her daughter said that a VHS tape of Obiedkova giving an interview in 1998 about her life was destroyed when their home was destroyed. Larissa and her husband buried her mother in a public park near the Azov Sea.

Rabbi Mendel Cohen of Mariupol described Obiedkova as “a kind, joyous woman, a special person who will forever remain in our hearts” who had “lived through unimaginable horrors”.

Boris Romantschenko, another Ukrainian holocaust survivor, was killed during the current conflict in March. The 96-year-old had survived a string of Nazi concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen, and was killed by an explosion during Russia’s assault on the city of Kharkiv.

Updated

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made an urgent appeal on Telegram for a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians and wounded soldiers to be evacuated from Azovstal in Mariupol. She posted:

We demand from the Russians an urgent humanitarian corridor from the Mariupol plant Azovstal. There are now about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers. They all need to be removed from Azovstal today.

I call on world leaders and the international community to focus their efforts on Azovstal now. Now this is a key point and a key moment for the humanitarian effort.

As Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February, countries around the world imposed sanctions on a group of influential Russian billionaires known as oligarchs. The intention being to turn the screw on Vladimir Putin’s war finances.

But who are these oligarchs, and how does Putin manage them and their wealth?

In this video, through the stories of two prominent businessmen – Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Khodorkovsky – our Josh Toussaint-Strauss examines how Putin’s days in the KGB have informed the way he controls his web of oligarchs and their fortunes.

Russian missiles and artillery struck 1,001 military targets in Ukraine overnight, including 162 firing positions, the country’s ministry of defence claimed.

Reuters reports the ministry also said that Russian forces and Russian-backed separatists have also taken full control of the town of Kreminna in eastern Ukraine.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, has posted on Telegram that Russian forces shelled areas of Kharkiv with multiple systems. He claimed there were about 15 attacks and that five civilians were injured.

The latest Russian claim that Mairupol has fallen may not represent any significant change on the ground in the besieged southern port city.

Andrew Roth, our Moscow correspondent, writes that the declaration came during a meeting at the Kremlin, where defence minister Sergei Shoigu presented a report to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, about the closely watched battle for the Ukrainian city and claimed that the city had been “liberated,” although fighting was ongoing.

Shoigu said it would take several more days for the Russians to defeat the Ukrainians fighting at the Azovstal steelworks.

The meeting appeared to be orchestrated in order for the Russians to step back from its assault on steelworks, which has been stymied by a fierce Ukrainian resistance and the difficulties of operating in the industrial area.

Putin called a plan to storm the steelworks “impractical”.

“I order it to be cancelled,” he said.

“This is the case when we have to think, that is, we always have to think, and in this case even more so, about preserving the lives and health of our soldiers and officers,” Putin said. “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities.”

Instead, he called for Russian troops to blockade the area “so that a fly can’t get through”.

Russia says that 2,000 opposition fighters are still occupying the vast Azovstal industrial complex. The Ukrainian forces within the complex have repeatedly refused deadlines to surrender issued by the Russian forces, and they say that they have 1,000 civilians in the steelworks that they are protecting.

Updated

Russian defence minister claims to have captured Mariupol – reports

Russia has claimed it has captured the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, with the exception of the Azovstal metallurgical plant, where about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are holding out. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has ordered the plant to be blockaded, but cancelled plans to storm it.

Reuters is carrying flash quotes about the development from Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu, via the Interfax news agency.

According to the reports, the defence minister has said:

  • Russia has captured Mariupol. The situation is calm, paving the way for the return of civilians.
  • Shoigu said that Russia evacuated more than 142,000 civilians from Mariupol.
  • He claimed 1,478 Ukrainian fighters have already given themselves up, but more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are still defending the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
  • He said the Azovstal plant is securely blockaded.

None of these claims have been independently verified. There has been no word yet from the Ukrainian side to confirm or deny them.

The reports further quote Putin congratulating Shoigu on a successful operation, and instructing that there is no need to storm the Azovstal plant, but that it should be blockaded so that not even “a fly” can pass.

Putin reiterated a Russian guarantee of the lives of those in the Azovstal plant if they give themselves up. Ukrainian forces have repeatedly decline to surrender their position there.

Updated

It appears that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has two guests today. As well as the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, the office of Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has just informed Reuters that she, too, will be in Kyiv.

The timing of Frederiksen’s arrival was not immediately clear, but her office said in a statement the parties would discuss further support for the Ukrainians and the prosecution of “war crimes and human rights violations”.

Updated

A quick snap from Reuters here that Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has arrived in Kyiv to visit Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Sánchez’ spokesperson had made clear earlier in the week that he would be visiting, with the timing kept under wraps for security reasons. Yesterday, president of the European Council Charles Michel made the same trip.

In the UK, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has appeared on Sky News, and was asked about the contrast between the UK and Indian positions on Ukraine as the British prime minister Boris Johnson visits the country. Zahawi said:

We defend the rights of the Ukrainian people. They have been illegally attacked, invaded. War crimes are being committed in Ukraine. The Indian government is very aware of that. India is the world’s largest democracy. They’ve taken a neutral position. We have taken a very different position.

I think our position is clear on the illegality of the invasion of the Ukraine by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. This is something that the prime minister will be discussing.

Ukraine deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has posted to Telegram this morning to confirm that “four evacuation buses managed to leave Mariupol yesterday through the humanitarian corridor.”

She said those on the buses “spent the night in Berdyansk and are now heading to Vasylivka. We are waiting for them in Zaporizhia.”

Vereshchuk said attempts would be made again today at 2pm to board people on buses in the besieged city. But, she warned, “the security situation is difficult” and plans may have to change.

Updated

Posts casting doubt on evidence of alleged war crimes in Bucha have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has found.

Researchers analysed the 10 most shared posts on Facebook mentioning Bucha – a suburb of Kyiv formerly occupied by Russian forces – in 20 countries and found 55 posts disputing evidence of violence against civilians.

These posts were shared 208,000 times in the week to 6 April, compared with 172,000 shares that did not question the veracity of images emerging from the town.

Among the most popular posts mentioning Bucha, the average number of shares was three times higher for posts casting doubt on alleged war crimes compared with those which did not.

The mayor of Bucha told Reuters that 400 dead bodies had been uncovered since the Russians withdrew from the town, though this figure has yet to be independently verified. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and claimed photographs of corpses were staged.

However, satellite images published by the New York Times contradict Moscow’s claim that Ukrainian forces placed dead bodies in the street as a “staged provocation” after Russian soldiers had already withdrawn.

The images, taken in mid-March, show corpses on the streets in the days before the Russian retreat and their positions match those seen in other smartphone photos.

Read more of Niamh McIntyre’s report here: Facebook posts disputing Bucha atrocities shared 208,000 times in a week

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said his government supports talks to resolve international disputes but reiterated China’s opposition to unilateral sanctions.

China has repeatedly criticised western sanctions, including those against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but has also been careful not to provide assistance to Moscow that could lead to sanctions being imposed on Beijing.

During a video speech to the annual Boao Forum for Asia gathering on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, Xi said that efforts are needed to stabilise global supply chains and took aim at western sanctions.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying that China remains “committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, uphold non-interference in internal affairs, and respect the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries.”

We stay committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises, reject double standards, and oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

Russian forces advancing on Kramatorsk, says UK

Russian forces are advancing towards Kramatorsk while Putin likely desires to demonstrate “significant successes” ahead of Victory Day celebrations, British intelligence has suggested.

Russia likely desires to demonstrate significant successes ahead of their annual 9th May Victory Day celebrations. This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date,” the UK ministry of defence said in their latest intelligence report.

Russian forces are now advancing from staging areas in the Donbas towards Kramatorsk, which continues to suffer from persistent rocket attacks.

High levels of Russian air activity endure as Russia seeks to provide close air support to its offensive in eastern Ukraine, to suppress and destroy Ukrainian air defence capabilities.”

Updated

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has arrived in India on a diplomatic mission to convince his reluctant counterpart, Narendra Modi, to back western action against Russia, along with yielding a variety of other strategic trade and defence partnerships.

The visit will “deepen the strategic trade, defence and people-to-people ties between our two countries”, Johnson told parliament before flying out of London.

India has refused openly to condemn the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine, reliant as it is on Russian imports of energy, agricultural goods and military hardware.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss came away from New Delhi empty-handed last month when she pressed the Indians to do more against Russia, and Modi has also given short shrift to appeals from US President Joe Biden.

Johnson’s spokesman told reporters that Ukraine would feature in summit talks on Friday. But he said the intention was not to “lecture” Modi but to “broaden the (western) coalition”.

Film critic Ryan Gilbey writes for us today about the film Putin doesn’t want the world to see: Firebird, a gay love story about fighter pilots.

An unexpected consequence of the invasion of Ukraine is that some countries have expressed a reluctance to release Firebird now that the appetite for Russian stories is negligible.

Britain’s Tom Prior, who portrays a young conscript, Sergey, in the film said: “Russia silenced this film. They don’t want it shown. So to not screen it is kind of doing what Putin wants.”

In case you missed this superb metaphor from Boris Johnson earlier, here is a quick re-cap of the UK prime minister’s remarks.

While boarding a flight to India, Johnson cast doubt on the prospects for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, comparing it to holding talks with a “crocodile” while Johnson speaking with journalists.

How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your leg in its jaws, that is the difficulty that Ukrainians face.

It is very hard to see how the Ukrainians can negotiate with Putin now given his manifest lack of good faith.”

While boarding a flight to India, Johnson cast doubt on the prospects for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, comparing it to holding talks with a “crocodile”.
While boarding a flight to India, Johnson cast doubt on the prospects for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, comparing it to holding talks with a “crocodile”. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AP

Johnson continued that he thinks it’s possible Moscow could “even launch another assault on Kyiv”.

“I really don’t see how the Ukrainians can easily sit down and come to some kind of accommodation,” he added. “How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it’s got your leg in its jaws?”

Instead, Johnson said Nato would “keep going with the strategy” of supplying Ukraine with weapons to defend itself.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, said Russian forces would be in complete control of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Thursday.

“Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” he said in an audio message posted online early on Thursday as seen by Reuters.

Chechen forces have been fighting in Ukraine as part of Russia’s military operation.

Mariupol would be the biggest city to be seized by Russia since invading Ukraine eight weeks ago.

Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Russian province of Chechnya, speaks in a video posted to Telegram. “Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” he said.
Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the Russian province of Chechnya, speaks in a video posted to Telegram. “Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” he said. Photograph: Telegram | Kadyrov_95 via Reuters

Here are the latest images to be sent through our newswires out of Ukraine today.

A rescue worker walks past a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel, Ukraine.
A rescue worker walks past a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel, Ukraine. Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images
A couple walk in front of a shop covered by sandbags in Dnipro, Ukraine.
A couple walk in front of a shop covered by sandbags in Dnipro, Ukraine. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
The bodies of four people who died during the Russian occupation await burial during funerals in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv,.
The bodies of four people who died during the Russian occupation await burial during funerals in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv,. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Two women embrace after returning to Bucha, Ukraine.
Two women embrace after returning to Bucha, Ukraine. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
An apartment raided by Russian soldiers seen in Hostomel, Ukraine.
An apartment raided by Russian soldiers seen in Hostomel, Ukraine. Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images
Ukrainian refugees seen at the settlement for displaced people in Lviv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian refugees seen at the settlement for displaced people in Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Mykola Tys/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

West warns of Russian cyber-attacks

Five allied countries including the United States have warned that “evolving intelligence” indicates Russia is poised to launch powerful cyberattacks against rivals supporting Ukraine.

The members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network - the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - said Moscow could also involve existing cybercrime groups in launching attacks on governments, institutions and businesses, in a statement released on Wednesday.

“Evolving intelligence indicates that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks,” they said in an official cyber threat alert.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could expose organisations both within and beyond the region to increased malicious cyber activity. This activity may occur as a response to the unprecedented economic costs imposed on Russia as well as materiel support provided by the United States and US allies and partners.”

In addition, it said, “some cybercrime groups have recently publicly pledged support for the Russian government.”

“Some groups have also threatened to conduct cyber operations against countries and organisations providing materiel support to Ukraine,” it said.

Wednesday’s alert said Russian state-sponsored cyber actors have the ability to compromise IT networks, to steal large amounts of data from them while remaining hidden, to deploy destructive malware and to lock down networks with “distributed denial of service” attacks.

The alert identified more than a dozen hacking groups, both parts of Russian intelligence and military bodies and privately operated, which present threats.

It warned that infrastructure could be particularly targeted in countries Moscow might want to take action against.

US, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and UK cybersecurity authorities urge critical infrastructure network defenders to prepare for and mitigate potential cyber threats - including destructive malware, ransomware, DDoS attacks, and cyber espionage - by hardening their cyber defences and performing due diligence in identifying indicators of malicious activity,” the alert said.

US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly malicious cyber activity is “part of the Russian playbook”.

We also know that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks against US critical infrastructure.”

“Russia has significant cyber capabilities and a demonstrated history of using them irresponsibly, and state-sponsored malicious cyber activity is a real risk to organisations around the world,” Sami Khoury, Head, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, added.

Ukraine offers unconditional talks on Mariupol

Ukraine is ready to resolve the issue of unblocking Mariupol and evacuating civilians through diplomacy and has proposed to hold a “special round” of negotiations with Russia in the besieged city, officials said.

Ukraine negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak responded late on Wednesday:

Yes. Without any conditions. We’re ready to hold a ‘special round of negotiations’ right in Mariupol.

One on one. Two on two. To save our guys, Azov, military, civilians, children, the living & the wounded. Everyone. Because they are ours. Because they are in my heart. Forever,” he tweeted.

Another key Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said on Telegram that he and Podolyak “are ready to arrive in Mariupol to hold talks”.

Today, in a conversation with the city defenders, a proposal was put forward to hold direct negotiations, on site, on the evacuation of our military garrison.

For our part, we are ready to arrive for such negotiations at any time as soon as we receive confirmation from the Russian side.”

As yet another desperate attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol failed Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “the situation in Mariupol is deteriorating” with thousands of troops and civilians stuck in the city.

Zelenskiy said his country is ready to resolve the issues in Mariupol but Russia has “not yet shown readiness to take such a step” during a meeting with media representatives after talks with President of the European Council Charles Michel in Kyiv.

“The situation in Mariupol is deteriorating. Unfortunately, so far we cannot achieve a positive result there. Our warriors have hundreds of wounded. Protecting ordinary civilians with their backs, they lose their lives. Because, as far as I know, there are about a thousand civilians behind our guys in Mariupol, including children and women,” Zelenskiy said.

The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, brings us this analysis piece today, asking whether Ukraine’s access to weapons could determine the fate of the Donbas offensive.

Russia and Ukraine both declared that Moscow’s offensive in the Donbas region had begun this week – although, in reality, the air and artillery bombardment by Moscow’s forces over the past 48 hours is not yet the intensive attack signalled by the Kremlin when it abandoned its attempt to seize Kyiv.

The strategy is well known: Russia aims to mass its previously overextended forces in the east of the country, where it hopes to gain an advantage of two or perhaps three to one over the Ukrainian defenders, encircling them by attacking south from Izium and, once Mariupol falls, pushing up from there north.

But the key point, for now, is that Russia is far from marshalling all its considerable remaining forces for the fight to come. Pentagon officials said on Tuesday that the attacks so far were simply “a prelude to larger offensive operations” that will determine whether the fighting amounts to a relatively short or far longer war.

After two months of fighting, the crude estimate from the US is that Russia has 75% of its combat power still available and 78 of its battalion tactical groups in Ukraine. At full strength, that would amount to about 62,000, though the figure is likely to be lower, plus thousands more separatists, mercenaries and other irregular forces.

Several thousand Russian troops – 12 battalions, estimates the US – remain tied up in the final stages of the battle for Mariupol, trying to take control of the vast Azovstal steelworks in the city. Others are still being reconstituted after the defeat near Kyiv, however, so the buildup is expected to be gradual.

Read the full story below.

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments until my colleague, Martin Belam, takes the reins a little later in the day.

It is just past 7am in Ukraine. Here’s what we know so far:

  • Ukraine is ready to offer unconditional talks on Mariupol and has proposed a “special round” of negotiations with Russia in the besieged city, the Ukrainian negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. Another key Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, said he and Podolyak were ready to arrive in Mariupol to hold talks and “a proposal was put forward to hold direct negotiations, on site, on the evacuation of our military garrison”.
  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the situation in Mariupol is deteriorating with roughly 1,000 civilians remaining trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with the remaining fighters who are heavily outnumbered. The Ukrainian president said 120,000 people were being kept in Mariupol and that “crimes that are happening there are far more scary and large scale than in Borodyanka”, referencing another devastated Ukrainian town.
  • Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Vladimir Putin, said he believed Russian forces would be in complete control of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol “before lunchtime, or after lunch” on Thursday.
  • Finance ministers from the UK, US, Canada and France walked out of Wednesday’s G20 meeting as Russian representatives spoke, amid divisions over Russia’s continued presence in the body.
  • G7 finance ministers said they have provided and pledged together additional support to Ukraine exceeding $24bn for 2022 and beyond, adding that they were prepared to do more as needed.
  • Intelligence indicates Russia is poised to launch powerful cyber-attacks against rivals supporting Ukraine, members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing network – the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – have warned.
  • Ukraine is working to convince western allies to shift Russia’s shipments of natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Ukraine’s pipeline, increasing Kyiv’s leverage, energy officials told Reuters.
  • Italy has signed a deal with Angola to ramp up gas supplies in a bid to break away from Russian gas. In an interview with the Corriere della Sera, Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, said: “We do not want to depend on Russian gas any longer, because economic dependence must not become political subjection.”
  • US President Joe Biden is set to announce plans on Thursday to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a US official.
  • The US defence department retracted its claim that Ukraine had been supplied with more aircraft, instead saying only parts had been delivered to enable Kyiv to put more jets into action. A senior US defence official said 14 US howitzers were being delivered, along with their ammunition.
  • Germany has defended itself against criticism of its delay in authorising the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. The Bild newspaper reported the government dropped armoured vehicles and tanks from a list that German arms manufacturers were offering to make available to Ukraine – slashing the catalogue from 48 to 24 pages.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated China’s opposition to unilateral sanctions and “long-arm jurisdiction,” and said that “de-coupling” and pressure tactics such as cutting off of supply chains will not work.
  • Zelenskiy spoke of his “cautious optimism” that Ukraine’s partners now better understand the needs of his country, seemingly in reference to supplying weapons and intensifying sanctions on Russia.
  • Ukraine can develop “maximum speed” in joining the EU, Zelenskiy said in a national address on Wednesday evening after meeting the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. He called it a “historic moment”.
  • Russia said it had test-launched its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new addition to its nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon said the test was “routine” and not considered a threat.
  • The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, likened Vladimir Putin to a crocodile, saying he is not optimistic that the Russian leader can be negotiated with. “How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it has your leg in its jaws, that is the difficulty that Ukrainians face. It is very hard to see how the Ukrainians can negotiate with Putin now given his manifest lack of good faith.”

As usual, please feel free to reach out to me by email or Twitter for any tips or feedback.

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