Damien McGuinness
BBC News, Berlin

Within a few days Vladimir Putin has managed to do what Nato allies have spent years trying to achieve: a massive increase of military spending in Germany.

German weapons for Ukraine. An additional $113 bn (£84 bn) for the German army. And a constitutional commitment to reach Nato’s military spending target of 2% of GDP.

This is arguably one of the biggest shifts ever seen in Germany’s post-war foreign policy. Before Thursday’s invasion of Ukraine, such a militaristic stance would have unthinkable in Germany. Traditionally Germany focuses on diplomacy and dialogue, not military might, and historically there are deep economic and cultural links between Russia and Germany. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked and stunned Germany’s government and German voters. Olaf Scholz called Vladimir Putin inhumane and a warmonger, and pledged unwavering support for Ukraine. Judging by the applause and standing ovations for Ukraine in the German parliament, and the enormous anti-war demonstration in Berlin today, most Germans seem to agree with him.

Image source, Zhitomir.info

We told you not long ago that an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister reported that missiles had been launched from Belarus into northern Ukraine (see our post at 4.34 GMT).

He now says they hit an airport in the city of Zhytomyr.

"This is what's been hit by the Iskanders fired from Belarus at about 17:00... the Russian and Belarusian fascists have targeted Zhytomyr Airport," Anton Herashchenko posted on Telegram.

Ukrainian and Russian officials are to meet for talks on the Belarusian border with Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said earlier, without saying when.

More details now on the new measures announced by the European Union.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would, for the first time in its history, "finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack".

She also said that three new tranches of sanctions would be introduced. They are:

Banning all Russian aircraft from its airspace

"We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians," von der Leyen said.

"We're proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian-registered, and Russian-controlled aircraft.

"These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off, or overfly the territory of the European Union."

She said the move would also cover the private jets of Russian oligarchs.

Banning what von der Leyen called the "Kremlin's media machine"

"The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war," she said.

"We are developing tools to ban that toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe".

Widening its existing sanctions to target Belarus

"Lukashenko's regime is complicit in the vicious attack against Ukraine," she said.

She said the sanctions would target Belarus's "most important sectors" and export products.

BP is to exit its shareholding in Russian oil giant Rosneft, the company has announced.

The firm has been under pressure over its nearly 20% holding - on Friday UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is said to have told the oil company’s boss Bernard Looney about his "concern" over the involvement.

"Russia's attack on Ukraine is an act of aggression which is having tragic consequences across the region," BP chair Helge Lund said in a statement.

"BP has operated in Russia for over 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change.

"It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue."

For the first time, the Russian defence ministry has acknowledged casualties in Ukraine, but it has not given figures.

"There have been killed and wounded among the Russian military during the course of the special military operation," the defence ministry in Moscow said in a statement quoted by TASS news agency.

"The losses suffered by the Russian armed forces are several times less than the number of exterminated nationalists," it said.

The European Union has announced that it intends to begin shipping arms to Ukraine, the first time in its history it has taken such a step.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the move marked a "watershed moment".

She also announced a raft of new sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus, and a ban on Russia using European airspace.

More details to follow shortly.

Iskander missiles were launched from Belarus into Ukraine around 17:00 (15:00 GMT), an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister says.

It comes after President Zelensky's office announced today that Ukrainian and Russian officials are due to meet for talks on the Belarusian border with Ukraine - although they have not said when.

Anton Herashchenko posted the footage on Facebook., external

"Iskanders launched against Ukraine from the vicinity of Mozyr," he wrote. "This means they've brought death somewhere... so this is the kind of ceasefire we have?"

A Ukrainian statement earlier said that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had "taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return”.

Yaroslava Kiryukhina, BBC Monitoring in Moscow

Image source, Rossiya 24

Four days into Russia's invasion and Kremlin-run TV is providing viewers with a parallel reality - holding the line that rebel forces from the east are advancing in Ukraine with the support of Russian forces carrying out "precision strikes" on Ukrainian military infrastructure.

Media outlets are required by the media watchdog to follow the official narrative, so most channels are sticking to TV series and entertainment shows.

But Channel One has been running a marathon political show justifying Russia's actions. "It was a tough, bad decision, but completely unavoidable as there was nothing else left," said host Anatoly Kuzichev.

There is no mention of any casualties as a result of Russian air strikes, and any civilian deaths are pinned on Ukraine's military or "nationalists".

State media parrot the official line that Ukrainian servicemen are laying down arms en masse, rejecting reports in independent media of Russian soldiers being taken captive.

Some independent media such as Novaya Gazeta and Mediazona have called the attack on Ukraine a war and an invasion instead of the Kremlin's term "special military operation", openly defying a warning from the media watchdog.

They usually have a much smaller audience than major news websites and state TV, and may face hefty fines or even blocking.

Image source, Getty Images

At England's Wembley Stadium there are displays of support for Ukraine from both sets of fans as Liverpool prepare to take on Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who is believed to be close to Vladimir Putin, announced that he was handing stewardship of the club to the trustees of its charitable foundation on Saturday.

Following Abramovich's statement - which did not reference the invasion of Ukraine - Chelsea released a short statement on Sunday which said the situation in Ukraine was "horrific and devastating".

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, West Ham players wore shirts with the name of teammate Andriy Yarmolenko on - and captain Declan Rice carried his shirt out with the team before their match with Wolves.

The Ukrainian international has been given time off following the invasion of his home country.

Image source, Getty Images

Another Cuban Missile Crisis?published at 15:52 Greenwich Mean Time 27 February 2022

15:52 GMT 27 February 2022

Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News

The Russian announcement evokes fearful resonances of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 – the time when Washington and Moscow came closest to nuclear war.

In that case both sides stepped back thanks to a combination of skilful diplomacy, brinkmanship and the fear of the consequences.

But historical parallels are not always exact. At the moment, we are not at the same level of crisis or risk.

So how dangerous is this situation?

The risks in crises are often of miscalculation.

Over Ukraine, Putin himself may have miscalculated. He may have underestimated how much resistance he would face on the ground from Ukrainians - and also internationally from a West more united than he thought.

That may have led him to reach for new options. This could include escalating the kind of military force he has to use on the ground - and also the threats internationally.

Putin’s very public announcement about the nuclear alert is a very public signal and warning. His aim is likely to be to try and deter Nato support for Ukraine by creating fears over how far Moscow is willing to go.

He will want to create ambiguity over what counts as too much - and what he is willing to do in response. But that is not the same thing as actually wanting to use the weapons - Putin will know the consequences for him and Russia would be terrible.

But even if that is right, it does not mean the threats will be taken lightly. So far, the Western response has been not to escalate the language in response.

But the fear will be that further miscalculations could escalate this crisis into more dangerous territory and make it closer to what happened in Cuba.

The world's largest aircraft - the Antonov An-225 - has been destroyed in the Russian advance, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says.

The plane was designed and built during the final years of the Soviet Union. It is so big the plane's cargo hold is as long as the Wright brothers’ first flight.

It was built to transport space shuttles and more recently used to transfer Covid supplies. It was destroyed during fighting at the Hostomel airport near Kyiv, the minister said.

Image source, Reuters

Police have detained more than 900 people protesting against the invasion Ukraine in 44 cities across Russia today, according to data released just now, external by an independent monitoring group.

The OVD-Info group says it brings the total number of anti-war protesters detained in Russia to over 4,000 since the conflict began four days ago.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify either figure.

Today's protests coincided with the seventh anniversary of the murder of opposition politician and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov.

Demonstrators in Moscow have been detained today at an improvised memorial near the Kremlin site where Nemtsov was shot.

One of the largest demonstration sites is in St Petersburg, where photographs show police detaining some of the several thousand protesters who have gathered in the city's centre.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

If you’re just joining us, here’s a look back at some of today’s biggest developments:

• President Vladimir Putin says he has ordered the Russian military to put its nuclear forces on "special alert" in response to what he described as Nato “aggression”
• The move - which does not mean Russia intends to use the weapons - has been widely condemned, with the US calling it “totally unacceptable”, and Nato’s chief describing it as “dangerous” and “irresponsible”
• Ukrainian and Russian delegations are set to meet on the Belarus border for talks, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky
• Ukrainian forces say they have repelled a Russian assault on the country's second city of Kharkiv
• The number of people fleeing Ukraine has now reached 368,000, according to the latest UN figures
• European countries are continuing to take action against Russia, with many closing their airspace to Russian flights in recent hours

The chief of Nato says Vladimir Putin's order to the Russian military to put its nuclear forces on a higher level of alert is "dangerous" and "irresponsible".

It adds to the Russian leader's aggression over Ukraine, Jens Stoltenberg says.

"Of course when you combine this rhetoric with what they are doing on the ground in Ukraine - waging war against an independent, sovereign nation, conducting full-fledged invasion of Ukraine - this adds to the seriousness of the situation," he tells CNN.

As the Russian invasion continues, thousands of ordinary Ukrainians are volunteering to fight to defend their neighbourhoods, despite many having no previous military experience.

Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country and have been urged to fight.

The Ukrainian defence minister says that 25,000 guns have been handed over to territorial defence members in the Kyiv region alone.

The BBC Ukrainian service visited one centre distributing weapons in the capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said if Russia uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine it will be a "catastrophe for the world".

"But it will not break us down," he claimed.

His comment came after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to put its nuclear forces on "special alert".

Speaking at a news conference, Kuleba said: "This order by President Putin came shortly after the announcement was made about two delegations ready to meet [for talks].

"We see this announcement or this order as an attempt to raise the stakes and to put additional pressure on the Ukrainian delegation.

"But we will not give in to this pressure. We will approach these talks with a very simple approach. We go there to listen [to what] what Russia has to say and we will tell them what we think of all this."

He added: "Ukraine is not falling. We are bleeding, but we continue to successfully defend ourselves."

At no point has Russia been under threat from Nato, says White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in response to President Putin putting Russia's nuclear forces on "special alert".

Putin blamed Nato leaders for allowing "aggressive statements" to be made against Russia. But Psaki said it was a familiar response from Russia's president.

"We've seen him do this time and time again. At no point has Russia been under threat from Nato, has Russia been under threat from Ukraine," she told ABC News.

"This is all a pattern from President Putin and we're going to stand up to it.

"We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to call out what we're seeing here from President Putin," she added.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian forces said they had repelled a Russian assault on the country's second city of Kharkiv.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the city was now rid of Russian troops - after street-to-street fighting.

In these pictures you can see the aftermath of the fierce fighting which took place.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Nuclear warning is exactly what Nato fearedpublished at 14:42 Greenwich Mean Time 27 February 2022

14:42 GMT 27 February 2022

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

Russia’s announcement that its nuclear deterrent has been put on "special alert" is a sign of both President Putin’s anger at the West’s anti-Russian sanctions and his enduring paranoia that his country is under threat from Nato.

His move has certainly got the West’s attention. This sort of escalation is exactly what Nato military planners feared and it’s why the alliance has repeatedly announced it will not be sending troops to help Ukraine repel its Russian invaders.

But Russia’s offensive is not going entirely to plan. On day four, not a single major Ukrainian city is in Russian hands and the Russians appear to be taking heavy casualties.

This will be causing some frustration and impatience in Moscow. And it’s hard to see the proposed peace talks on the Belarus border reaching a deal that works for both Moscow and Kyiv.

Putin wants Ukraine fully back into its sphere, the Zelensky government wants it to stay independent. Short of partition, that doesn’t leave much room for compromise.

So, coupled with today’s nuclear-tipped warning to the West to back off, we are likely to see an intensification of Russia’s offensive on Ukraine in coming days, with even less regard for civilian casualties than has been shown so far.