Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian military officials have claimed 5,710 Russian troops have been killed and injured in the first five days of intense fighting in the country.

In a video message posted to Facebook, a spokesperson for the country's general staff added that over 200 Russian soldiers have been taken captive by Ukrainian forces.

The official also claimed that 198 Russian tanks, 29 planes, 846 armoured vehicles and 29 helicopters have been destroyed.

The BBC cannot independently verify these claims, but the UK defence ministry believes that Moscow's forces have suffered heavy losses during its invasion of Ukraine.

On Sunday, officials in Moscow were forced to admit that their forces had suffered casualties, after days of claiming that no Russian soldiers had been killed.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister has tweeted a video of the explosion in Kharkiv's Freedom Square and accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes. He is calling on the world to isolate Russia.

Warning - the video below contained distressing footage. It has been verified by the BBC but the source is unknown.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's president has described the bombardment of Kharkiv, which has killed dozens of civilians, as a war crime.

Nine people, including three children, were killed on Monday after suspected Russian cluster bombs targeted residential buildings in Ukraine's second city.

In comments made before the latest strike in central Kharkiv, Volodymyr Zelensky said there were eyewitness accounts of civilians being deliberately targeted.

"Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery," Zelensky said during a late night address to the Ukrainian people.

"It was clearly a war crime. Peaceful city. Peaceful residential areas. No military facilities. Dozens of eyewitness records prove that this is not a single false volley, but the deliberate destruction of people. The Russians knew where they were shooting."

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, wants to open an investigation into Russia's invasion after he said he believed there was "reasonable basis" to believe war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed in Ukraine.

The leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has told state media that his forces will not join Russian troops in the invasion of Ukraine.

Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin, said that the "Belarusian army isn't taking part in military action, and never did".

"We can prove this to anyone. More than that, the Russian leadership never raised this issue with us - our involvement in the armed conflict. And we don't intend to take part in this special operation in Ukraine in the future. There is no need for this."

Fears had been raised on Monday that Lukashenko was preparing to send a military force to join in the attack on Kyiv.

A spokesperson for the US State Department, Ned Price, said on Monday that Russia had "make a mockery" of Belarus' sovereignty by launching its invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

Image source, SES of Ukraine

The regional head in the Kharkiv area has alleged that Vladimir Putin's forces have been targeting residential areas with Grad missiles - a truck mounted artillery system capable of firing dozens of rockets simultaneously.

Oleh Synehubov wrote on the social media outlet Telegram that Russian troops have fired on the "square in front of the regional state administration office" and said that officials are "now estimating casualties among the civilian population".

Local emergency officials wrote on Facebook that six civilians were injured during shelling of the state administration office, including one child. The BBC cannot verify this claim.

"Our enemy has no other option but commit treacherous war crimes like this because our army is strong and we are holding our defences," Synehubov said.

Under the Geneva Convention, which Russia has ratified, the deliberate targeting of civilians during an armed conflict is considered a war crime.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The approach of this huge convoy of Russian armour has given a new and entirely terrifying meaning to the expression the world is watching.

Everyone around the world can see that this convoy is on its way, there are even reports that it is reinforcing before it reaches the city.

Amplifying these fears are the reports coming in from other parts of Ukraine, that Russia is laying siege to populated areas using "medieval tactics", surrounding areas and denying them food, and water and essential supplies.

When this invasion started, there was an expectation that it would be just a matter of days, even a matter of hours before the mighty Russian army swept in to Kyiv.

It is now six days and Ukraine is still standing - standing because of the resistance put up by the Ukrainian army, using western weapons and ammunition, but also protected by citizens who are picking up guns, signing up for neighbourhood defence forces and going up to the front lines.

But there is no denying that this convoy, even if it is inching, is getting closer and closer and the explosions are getting closer and closer.

They used to mainly be on the rim of the city, last night it was so close that our own building shook.

Russia will use "even more heavy handed tactics" in Ukraine and any war crimes will be prosecuted, the UK's deputy prime minister says.

Dominic Raab says: "On top of all the measures we are taking we are also supporting the efforts to make sure evidence of war crimes is preserved."

He told BBC Breakfast the international community was not willing to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine because it would involve a willingness to shoot down Russian planes which is "clearly escalatory".

Instead, the UK was putting all of its efforts into economic sanctions that were starving Putin's war machine of finances. These were also hitting oligarchs who need access to the international system and who will apply pressure on Putin, he says.

Asked if western countries should go further in terms of the supply of oil and gas, Raab says: "Yes I think we will look at that very carefully... As we take action to starve the Russian war machine, there is nothing that is off the table."

Here are pictures of the destruction in Kharkiv's Freedom Square in the aftermath of that huge strike on the historic government headquarters building that we have been reporting.

The images below show the extensive damage from the blast which has also ruptured the roads. Freedom Square is the historic centre of the city.

Image source, TSN CHANNEL

Image source, TSN CHANNEL

Image source, TSN CHANNEL

Russia has moved from having 40% of its forces inside Ukraine to around 75%, a military academic says.

The 75% figure has also been cited by a senior US defence official.

Dr Jack Watling is a research fellow in land warfare and military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme a large body of Russian troops is advancing south from Belarus and starting to set the conditions to be able to conduct an assault into Kyiv.

Asked about the suggestion that Russia has used grad missiles on residential areas in Kharkiv, he describes these weapons as multiple launch rocket systems which fire large numbers of unguided missiles into an area.

He says there's also evidence some of these many have contained cluster munitions.

"It's the fact that they're unguided and you're putting huge amounts of high explosive into densely populated civilian area," he says.

The Ukrainian army is no longer functioning in military formations, but now in fairly fixed defending positions and becoming more and more part of the territorial defence and volunteer force that it is operating alongside, he says.

Central Kharkiv has been hit by a Russian strike. The morning strike appeared to target government offices in Freedom Square in the city centre.

A viral video on Ukrainian social media channels shows a missile slamming into the front of the Regional State Administration building. That causes a huge, fiery explosion that blows out windows and nearby cars.

Video of the aftermath shows burnt out cars and debris in the city square. The strike was reported at 08:00 local time. No injuries or casualties have been reported yet.

The BBC has verified the setting of the video below which shows the aftermath of the blast.

The north-eastern city of Kharkiv has seen heavy fighting and aerial bombardments in the past few days. It is Ukraine's second-largest city and home to 1.6 million people.

Ukraine's government has said it plans to sell bonds from today to pay for its armed forces as they defend the country from the Russian invasion.

In a Twitter thread, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine said each one-year bond would have a nominal value of 1,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (£24.80; $33.27) and the interest rate offered to investors would "be determined in the auction".

"The proceeds from the bonds will be used to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," it added.

Read more about Ukraine's war bonds here

Good morning. It's been another bloody night as Russia continues its full-on assault on Ukraine.

Here's what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

• At least 70 soldiers were killed in a Russian artillery strike, Ukrainian officials have confirmed. Emergency workers are sifting through rubble trying to find survivors
• The regional centre of Kherson is now surrounded by Russian troops, say reports, with soldiers and military equipment reportedly "on all sides"
• The Russian army is steadily continuing its advance on Kyiv, with satellite images showing an armoured convoy that is about 40 miles (65km) long
• Dozens of civilians were killed earlier on Monday in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv
• Ukraine's government has said it plans to sell war bonds to pay for its armed forces

Image source, Getty Images

More pictures are emerging of the carnage at Okhtyrka military base where a Russian missile killed at least 70 Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday.

The pictures below have been shared by local official in the Sumy region, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi. They show rescuers' frenzied efforts to recover survivors from the smouldering rubble.

Image source, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi/Telegram

Image source, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi/Telegram

Image source, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi/Telegram

Ukraine's State Emergency Service has also tweeted footage from the site.

Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Hungary border

Image source, Getty Images

In the sports hall of the primary school in Beregsurany, two dozen families are temporarily huddled inside for shelter.

Small children are bouncing happily on the mattresses. Babies dozing in their mothers’ arms. Older children pore over jigsaw puzzles, donated by local people. For a moment, the war in Ukraine is almost forgotten.

Outside in the courtyard of the village hall, another minibus arrives from the border. These people make up some of the 84,571 who had crossed from Ukraine to Hungary since dawn on Friday.

Scorned for doing too little to help hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers seven years ago, Hungary has found her heart.

Among so many women, only Julia has managed to bring her husband with her. He has Belorussian citizenship.

The couple were terrified as they approached the border-crossing, that he would be turned back. Right in front of them, a Ukrainian man was refused the right to leave, though he was travelling alone with his 13-year-old daughter.

"We have no idea what became of them," she says.

When Julia and her husband's turn came, after a brief quarrel, the customs officials reluctantly let them through. They even managed to bring out their cat.

"It was very difficult to pack a life into one suitcase", says Julia.

Another woman, Anna from Kharkiv, says she believes in a "happy future for our country, for the nation, for our people".

But the situation, aid workers fear, will get worse before it gets better.

The regional center of Kherson in southern Ukraine is surrounded by Russian troops, reports from the area say.

Russian troops had launched a ground assault on the city, located near Moscow-controlled Crimea, earlier this morning, according to eyewitness accounts.

"The Russian army is setting up checkpoints at the entrances of Kherson," mayor Igor Kolykhayev said on Facebook. "Kherson has been and will stay Ukrainian," he said.

"The city is actually surrounded, there are a lot of Russian soldiers and military equipment on all sides, they set up checkpoints at the exits," Kherson-based journalist Alena Panina said on national broadcaster Ukraine 24.

The journalist added that there was still electricity, water, and heating in Kherson but added that challenges had arisen in bringing food into the city of 300,000 as the food was stockpiled in warehouses on the city's outskirts.

Image source, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi/ Telegram

Ukrainian officials have just confirmed that least 70 soldiers were killed in a Russian artillery strike on their military base on Sunday.

The attack took place at Okhtyrka, in the Sumy region which is currently under siege by Russian forces. On Monday, emergency workers were still sifting through rubble trying to find survivors.

Ukraine's Parliament has just tweeted a tribute to the servicemen, saying "Eternal glory to the heroes of Ukraine". Parliament said they were killed by Grad missiles.

Images have emerged of children - some of whom are cancer patients - who are being treated at the basement of a hospital in Kyiv.

Reports say the basement had to be turned into a makeshift bomb shelter and paediatric department, in order to avoid shelling from Russian military forces.

Image source, REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Image source, REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

War analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War have released their latest update on the fighting in Ukraine. , external

On Day 6, the analysts say there’s a slight lull as Russia reorganises its campaigns against a Ukrainian defence that has been much stronger than Moscow bargained for.

Here’s how some of the country's major battles are going:

Kyiv (capital): Ukraine’s defence has been strong here so far. Currently, Russian activity is limited as they’re waiting for reinforcements. Analysts think they will resume their attack with greater strength in the coming hours.

If Russia keeps sending troops, Ukraine probably can’t prevent those forces from encircling, but they can make Russia’s efforts to gain control of the capital "extremely costly and possible unsuccessful", analysts said.

Kharkiv (north-west): Russia's attack has intensified on Ukraine’s second-largest city in the past 48 hours.

Russian forces are now using tube and rocket artillery weapons here. These are causing far more civilian deaths and damage. Dozens have died so far in Kharkiv, Ukraine officials say.

In addition, Russia has been accused of using banned weapons - like a thermobaric weapon or a vacuum bomb. The BBC is yet to verify these reports.

Southern Ukraine: Russian advances in recent days have slowed since the first days of the war, the analysts said.

This might be because Russia is concentrating troops to launch a “decisive” attack on the cities of Mariupol in the east, and possibly Zaporizhia.

Buildings were on fire and cars destroyed after shelling in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk on Tuesday.

Several districts of the city partially lost power after the explosions, Russian state agency RIA Novosti reported.

Residents were visibly upset with one asking: "How much longer until this is over?"

Ukrainian UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya has welcomed the end of Russia's monthly term as president of the UN Security Council.

The presidency of the council rotates between members every month, and in February was held by Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.

"I’m looking forward to midnight, when this abomination, occupation of the seat of the president of the council will be over," Kyslytsya wrote on Twitter earlier on Monday.

The UN Security Council's powers include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorising military action.

Image source, Getty Images