Russia's defence ministry has given its first figures for casualties sustained during its invasion of Ukraine.

It says 498 Russian soldiers have been killed and 1,597 wounded so far, according to Russian media reports.

The claim is significantly less than Ukraine's assessment of Russian casualties - Kyiv claims it has killed 5,840 Russian troops.

Russia has also claimed that more than 2,870 Ukrainian service members have been killed and about 3,700 wounded. Kyiv has not given any figures.

The BBC cannot independently verify either the Russian or Ukrainian claims, but the UK Ministry of Defence believes that Moscow's forces have suffered heavy losses.

Earlier Ukraine's emergency services said more than 2,000 civilians and 10 emergency services personnel had been killed so far.

Image source, Anadolu Agency

As Ukraine's capital is encircled by hostile Russian forces, authorities in the city are telling civilians to stay inside - preferably underground.

One maternity hospital in the capital has converted its basement floor into a medical ward allowing pregnant women and newborn babies to be cared for away from the crosshairs of Russian weaponry.

These pictures, taken today, show expectant parents and some of Kyiv's youngest new residents taking shelter in the hospital's basement.

Image source, Anadolu Agency

Image source, Anadolu Agency

Image source, Anadolu Agency

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says 874,026 people have left Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last Thursday.

Poland has received more than half that total, it says., external

The UNHCR has appealed for nearly $2bn (£1.5bn) for its relief operation – but says its original prediction that up to four million Ukrainians could end up fleeing the country might be an underestimate.

Image source, UNHCR

Image source, @m1Hussain

Russia says it’s seized control of the port of Kherson in southern Ukraine, although that is disputed by the city’s mayor.

Earlier today Hussain, who lives there with his wife and three-year-old daughter, posted a video of tanks outside his apartment, 10 metres away from his balcony.

He tells BBC News that Russian soldiers have been firing warning shots in the air and he's seen people running away in the streets, describing it as “terrifying”.

He says he's never been that scared in his life.

Hussain says supermarkets are closed and he is running short of food. He has rice, beans, some potatoes and tomatoes, and he and his wife are limiting their own food intake to give it to their daughter instead.

He adds: “I don’t know if the war is going to kill people, but hunger definitely will."

Abdujalil Abdurasulov
BBC News

"If anyone tries to leave the town, there is a risk to be killed," a woman tells me from the town of Ivankiv, north-west of Kyiv.

The area's now under the control of the Russian military, after heavy fighting there last week.

The woman, who we're not naming, says no-one feels safe leaving home "because in the beginning they were opening fire at civilians".

But she has to take this risk in order to get food from the shops that are still open.

"On Monday we buried a woman who died in her basement during the shelling. Probably she had a heart attack. We buried her in a garden because we can't go anywhere," she says.

Some volunteers have been helping to evacuate families whose homes were destroyed in a multi-storey apartment block.

"So, people are trying to do something even in this crazy, horrible and terrifying situation," she says.

"We're not losing our spirit."

It now appears that a second round of talks between representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian governments are to take place.

The two sides met on Monday, but with no obvious results.

A Russian delegation is reportedly heading to a meeting point for talks, according to Belarus' Belta news agency., external

It did not say where, or when, the discussions would take place.

Earlier, Russian state news agency Tass reported Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia had a delegation ready to continue talks.

And Ukrainian presidential adviser Olexiy Arestovych earlier told Suspilne TV that talks would take place.

But he said: "I think things will stay the same. Nothing will change. We will stick by our position."

Image source, EPA

If you are just joining us, or want a recap, here is a summary of some of the key points on day seven of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian forces have intensfied attacks on key cities.

In the south:

• Russia says it has taken control of the port of Kherson, although its mayor says Ukrainian forces are still holding on
• There are fears of mass casualties in the city of Mariupol near the border with Russia, with the deputy mayor saying one district has been "nearly totally destroyed"

In the northeast:

• There are reports of a rocket attack in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, on the regional police department and part of a university
• Earlier, Russian paratroopers landed in the city and began fighting for control, Ukraine's military said

In other developments:

• More than 2,000 civilians have been killed since Russia began its invasion, Ukrainian authorities have said
• Peace talks will resume on Wednesday evening between Russia and Ukraine, according to Russian state news agency Tass
• The UK PM has been urged by opposition leader Keir Starmer to target Roman Abramovich - owner of Chelsea Football Club - with sanctions. Abramovich has denied being close to Vladimir Putin

The mayor of Kyiv says he's proud of the people who've stayed in the city to defend it from Russian forces.

Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir - both internationally renowned boxers - spoke to the BBC from Kyiv.

Vitali said he'd seen a line "hours long" of civilians queuing up to get weapons and join the fight.

He said people's patriotism has surprised him - from doctors to actors, people are taking up weapons.

"Right now, people are proud," he says.

When asked if the brothers will be staying in the city to fight, Wladimir said: "This is our home. Our parents [are] buried here, [our] children go to school here. Why should we flee? What would you do if someone gets in to your house? You defend it."

Wladimir also urged the international community to give more support to Ukraine. He said there's a "huge demand" for food and water and while some aid is beginning to arrive, "it's absolutely not enough".

Image source, Reuters

The mayor of the south-eastern city of Mariupol says that scores of civilians have been killed over the past 14 hours in relentless shelling of residential areas by Russian forces.

Vadym Boychenko told Ukraine's 1+1 TV Channel that Moscow's troops have also stopped civilian evacuations from the port city, preventing thousands from fleeing the battle.

"There’s been colossal destruction of residential infrastructure, there are many wounded and unfortunately many civilian dead, women, children, old people," Boychenko said. "A full-scale genocide of the Ukrainian people is under way."

The city of Mariupol sits in a strategic location, splitting Russian forces on the annexed Crimean Peninsula from separatist troops in eastern Ukraine.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent, in Dnipro

There are desperate scenes at the train station in Dnipro, as Russia’s war on Ukraine gets uncomfortably close and families have begun fleeing west from the fighting.

There are no times or destinations on the departures board, just big crowds of people on the station steps, in the halls and on the platforms.

Every so often a train pulls into the station and crowds begin shoving forward to squeeze on board. No-one even asks where it’s going.

Most people are carrying only the most basic luggage: a small case, a plastic bag - but some have brought their pets in crates or on leads because they fear they might not be coming back.

In the crowd, men shout orders for the women and children to be let through; there is shrieking and tears and last hugs. Fathers kiss the train windows and press their hands to the glass. Then they pull away in tears, so their children don’t see.

One man told me he was staying to fight. We will win, he said, like he was convincing himself – not telling me. But these goodbyes are heartbreaking.

Will Vernon
BBC News, Moscow

In Russia, the authorities are continuing to crack down on independent news coverage of what the Kremlin describes as its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Last night, the authorities took independent radio station Ekho Moskvy off the air and blocked access to the website of leading independent internet TV channel Dozhd.

In recent days, the authorities have sent threatening letters to a number of independent media demanding they take content about the war in Ukraine down or be blocked.

According to the demands, media are not allowed to use words such as "war" and "invasion" and must not include "unverified" (i.e. not from official state sources) information about civilian casualties and killed and injured troops.

Today, Ekho Moskvy has said the prosecutor’s office is trying to block the station’s social media accounts too. Both Ekho and Dozhd continue to be hosted on some services like YouTube.

Gabriel Gatehouse
BBC Newsnight

When I saw reports and photographs on Tuesday suggesting that primary school children had been arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying “No to war” I refused to believe it was real.

But now it has been confirmed by the Nobel prize-winning newspaper Novaya Gazeta. In an update the newspaper says the children have since been released.

The images show the children with officers behind metal bars, perhaps in a police vehicle, and then in a police station, holding their flowers and placards.

The Kremlin appears to be taking increasingly draconian measures to try to keep a grip on its war narrative.

BBC Newshour
BBC World Service

Tanya Herasymova from the Fight For Right disability rights organisation in Ukraine has been telling the BBC World Service's Newshour programme about leaving her home in the city of Kamianske in eastern central Ukraine.

Tanya and her mother, who also has a disability, have managed to get to safety in Poland.

Describing the journey on a packed train as "the hardest of her life", she says disabled Ukrainians are finding it difficult to flee due to inaccessible infrastructure.

She says disabled people haven't been given priority support to leave the country.

She's also told the programme about the plight of her fellow disabled Ukrainians who remain in the country.

"No-one talks about people with disabilities... people are sitting in their own homes, some without food, without medicine. Basements and bomb shelters are not accessible," she says.

Image source, HoC

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs earlier that if President Vladimir Putin “doubles down, then so shall we”.

He also said the government would match donations by British people to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Ukraine, starting with £20m.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer urged the prime minister to take action against Russians he says are linked to Putin.

He says Roman Abramovich - the owner of Chelsea Football Club – is “a person of interest... because of his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices”.

He also raises the case of Putin’s former deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, who he said owned “two flats not five minutes’ walk from this House – they are worth over £11m”.

Boris Johnson replies that “there was more to be done” but adds that the UK has taken "a leading role” in implementing sanctions against Russia.

The BBC has contacted Abramovich for a comment. He has previously denied having close financial ties with Vladimir Putin or the Kremlin.

Joel Gunter
BBC News, Lviv

Officials in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, near the border with Russia, say they fear large numbers of people may be dead after many hours of continuous shelling on the city.

Deputy Mayor Sergiy Orlov says a riverside district, normally home to 130,000 people including his father, has been "nearly totally destroyed".

“We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe at least hundreds of people are dead. We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies," he tells the BBC by phone.

"The Russian army is working through all their weapons here - artillery, multiple rocket launch systems, airplanes, tactical rockets. They are trying to destroy the city,” Orlov says.

He says Russian forces are several kilometres away on all sides.

"The Ukrainian army is very brave and they will continue to defend the city but the style of the Russian army is like pirates. They do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts," Orlov says.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Rescuers in Kharkiv are searching for a small child among the debris of a residential building hit by missiles, emergencies service spokesman Yevhen Vasylenko says.

"The city centre has just been hit by missiles," he says in a video posted on Facebook., external

He turns his camera around to show rubble strewn across streets and communications cables torn down.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

He says the city council offices, the Palace of Labour and residential apartment blocks have been damaged.

"People are asking for help. Rescuers are working at the scene, searching every household, leading people out of the building," he says.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

He films civilians and the emergency services standing among the rubble in one courtyard, just behind a car with a smashed out windscreen.

"An ordinary residential building," he says. "Rescuers are searching - there have been reports that a little child is in the building and needs help."

Image source, Ukraine military

We've been focusing on developments in and around the cities of Kyiv, Kharikiv and Kherson - but fighting has also been continuing in many other locations.

The Ukrainian military says the northern city of Chernihiv - which lies between Kyiv and the border with Belarus - has been struck by rockets after an attempt to take control of the city failed.

Rockets hit administrative buildings near the city's hospital, the army said. The blast wave damaged the hospital but patients were in a shelter at the time. Water supplies were also damaged.

Soraya Ali
BBC Africa

African students stuck in Kherson are pleading for help as Russian artillery continues to target the city in southern Ukraine.

Christophe, a 22-year-old Cameroonian student, spoke to the BBC from the basement of his apartment building.

“When bombardments start, we go inside. It's a very little hole," he says.

Christophe says the students have no electricity and dwindling water supplies.

Mamady Doumbouya, from Guinea, is in a basement in another part of the city with his classmates from Gabon, Senegal, and Cameroon.

“We don’t have water, we don’t have light,” he tells me.

“We need help from the government. We are blocked in Kherson city - we don’t have any means to leave here."

More than 7,000 African nationals are among the hundreds of thousands to have fled Ukraine and crossed into Poland in the past week.

Russia has told the global nuclear watchdog that it is in control of the area around Ukraine's biggest nuclear power plant near the city of Zaporizhzhia, on the Dnieper river in southern Ukraine.

According to Russia, staff at the power plant are continuing their normal operations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says. Ukraine's nuclear operator says it is in touch with all its power plants and operations are continuing at all of them.

The Zaporizhzhia plant has six out of the country’s 15 nuclear energy reactors, the IAEA says.

There are reports of residents blocking roads near the city of Energodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located.

Separately, Ukraine's nuclear authorities have asked the IAEA for help coordinating safety activities at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, which has been seized by Russian troops.

Read more - Radiation spike at nuclear plant seized by Russian forces

Joel Gunter
BBC News, in Ukraine

Russia has bombarded Kharkiv - Ukraine's second city - since it invaded the country, shelling first residential areas and then the centre of the city, on Tuesday.

Many thousands of people are fleeing for places further west, by any means possible. Alexandra Markevitch left on Sunday, as Russian shells rained down on her neighbourhood.

She ran with her son Pasha to the station and they made it on to a train headed west. When a pressure wave from a rocket strike hit the train, Markevitch feared it would be derailed, she says. It was Pasha's 11th birthday, and she tried to comfort him.

Others cannot flee, or aren't willing to. Iryna Ruzhynska, 40, was still in Kharkiv on Tuesday, sheltering in her second-floor apartment with her two sons, daughter-in-law and grandchild.

"We have put Scotch tape on the windows and pillows by the windowsills," Ruzhynska says. "We managed to go to the store yesterday, but we queued for four hours and there was virtually no food left."

Kharkivers are proud of their home and are now afraid for their future.

"This is a big, beautiful city - my city," Ruzhynska says. "And they want to wipe it from the face of the Earth."

You can read more people's stories here.