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In the latest fighting in Ukraine, the southern city of Kherson - with a population of a quarter of a million people - is reported to have fallen to Russian troops.

The mayor has been appealing for help from the national government and aid agencies to ensure the delivery of supplies, including food and medicines and the evacuation of the wounded.

A member of the local council told the BBC that 200 people had been killed, many of them civilians.

Meanwhile, in the city of Zhytomyr, in the north-west of Ukraine, emergency workers have been tackling fires in residential buildings hit by an apparent missile strike.

Officials said four people were killed.

US President Joe Biden has begun his State of the Union speech to Congress after being introduced by the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

He opens by acknowledging the gathering in the chamber.

"Last year Covid-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again," he says.

Image source, Reuters

Belarus will double its troop numbers on its southern border with Ukraine, its president has said.

The five tactical battalion groups on the border will go up to ten over the next two days, President Alexander Lukashenko announced.

"These are highly trained mobile groups that are ready to stop any provocation and any military action against Belarus," he told his security council.

Lukashenko called the mobilisation "a preventative action" that would "prevent the penetration of [Ukrainian] radicals and weapons into the country".

Western nations have slapped sanctions on Minsk for Belarusian support to Moscow in the Ukraine crisis, backing up Russian troops with its own forces.

President Joe Biden has arrived at the US Capitol.

He will deliver his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in a few minutes.

We will bring you live coverage of his remarks.

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Energy firm ExxonMobil has announced that will discontinue operations in Russia and end further investments there.

A statement from the Texas-based company said it would exit all projects, including the large oil and gas venture on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East.

"Given the current situation, Exxon Mobil will not invest in new developments in Russia," it said.

"We deplore Russia's military action that violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine and endangers its people," the company added.

Exxon has previously said that it has 1,000 employees in Russia, and that is has operated there for 25 years.

The decision follows similar moves from Exxon's rivals, including Shell and BP.

Image source, Reuters

Right now across Ukraine, ordinary citizens are learning how to make and to use homemade petrol bombs.

In Zhytomyr, a city to the west of Kyiv, a group of men and women were given training on how to light and throw Molotov cocktails at Russian military targets.

In Kyiv, city residents are making thousands of petrol bombs in the streets to prepare for the Russian ground assault on the city.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned earlier in our coverage, the US government will soon close its airspace to Russian-owned and operated aircraft.

European nations and Canada have already shut their own airspace to Russia.

The US order is expected within the next 24 hours and could be announced during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

The measures are already leading to cancelled flights and diverted flight paths.

Russia has not yet indicated how it will retaliate. It has already reciprocated the airspace bans of some EU countries.

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Guerrilla hackers in Ukraine will seek to fight Russia through cyber-attacks on infrastructure, according to the Reuters news agency.

Yegor Aushev, a Ukrainian cybersecurity expert, said he was approached by the defence ministry last week to organise a hacking group to target Russia and do "everything that might stop war".

"The goal is to make it impossible to bring these weapons to our country," he said.

Read more on how Ukraine's tech community is resisting Russian aggression.

Joel Gunter
BBC News, Ukraine

Russia has bombarded Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, since it invaded the country.

Alexandra Markevitch, 29, is among the thousands fleeing the city, leaving behind homes, families and jobs.

"At least on the road you have a chance of getting somewhere safe," she tells the BBC.

She was waiting on Tuesday at a refugee shelter in Lviv, in western Ukraine, with her son Pasha. They are waiting to move on, ideally to Poland.

Vladimir Putin has tried to claim he is liberating cities like Kharkiv from an oppressive Ukrainian government.

But Markevitch says she has "never felt so much love for my homeland and for my city".

Read more on what Kharkiv residents are facing amid the invasion.

Before President Biden's first State of the Union address, we asked some Americans how they feel about the US response to the war in Ukraine.

The US has joined with several nations, particularly its Western allies, to send weapons to Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia.

But Americans remain divided over what more should - and could - be done.

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US President Joe Biden is due to give his first primetime State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday night.

According to excerpts of his speech, just released by the White House, Biden will use the opportunity to condemn Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Russia's southern neighbour.

"Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson - when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos," he will say.

"They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising."

He will go on to praise the Nato military alliance, saying it "was created to secure peace and stability in Europe after World War Two".

"Putin’s war was premeditated and unprovoked," he will tell US lawmakers and high-ranking guests.

"He rejected efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and Nato wouldn’t respond. And he thought he could divide us here at home.

"Putin was wrong. We were ready."

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Ukraine’s ambassador to the US will be among the president's guests at Tuesday night’s State of the Union in Washington DC.

Oksana Markarova has pleaded with lawmakers in recent days to provide her country with more support.

She alleged on Monday that Russia had deployed a vacuum bomb, in violation of international law.

She will be seated in the First Lady's Box.

Also joining the First Lady’s Box for the speech is Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who has testified before Congress on privacy and safety concerns about the platform.

President Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will be in the box, too, alongside selected Americans who champion Biden’s domestic initiatives.

Victoria Spartz, a Republican congresswoman from Indiana, is the first US member of Congress born in a former Soviet Republic.

Spartz was born in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, attended Kyiv National Economic University and met her American husband on a train in Europe.

She is now speaking out against the Russian invasion of her country of origin.

"This is not a war. This is a genocide of the Ukrainian people by a crazy man," an emotional Spartz said on Tuesday, ahead of President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address.

She said her grandmother, who lives in Chernihiv, told her: "We're going to fight, but just give us some guns, so we don't fight with sticks."

"This president [Biden] needs to get his act together and exercise some leadership," Spartz said. "What is happening under his watch is an atrocity."

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine will be foremost in the minds of many as President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union speech to the nation.

The address is typically an occasion for presidents to sell their domestic policy successes and lay out goals for the rest of their term.

But Biden’s speech-writing team has revised the text of the speech as Russia continues to escalate its invasion of Ukraine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the speech will reflect “a moment in time” and assert US leadership in “standing up for values, standing up for global norms”.

Facing his lowest approval ratings yet, the president will also acknowledge record-high inflation not seen in 40 years and other voter concerns such as the coronavirus.

We will bring you live updates once the speech begins, after 21:00 ET (0200 GMT).

It is just after midnight in London and early hours in Ukraine on 2 March, where it is now day seven of the Russian invasion.

Here's a summary of what happened on Tuesday:

• At least five people were killed after a Russian attack on a TV tower in Kyiv early in the day, Ukrainian officials said
• Freedom Square in central Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, was hit by a strike, killing at least 10 civilians
• Fears have risen that Russia will hit civilian targets amid frustrations in Moscow that they have yet to make advances expected after six days of assault on Ukraine
• Tensions are high in Ukrainian cities, especially Kyiv, as satellite images reveal a huge Russian armour convoy just outside the capital

Night has fallen on the US east coast and President Joe Biden is due to speak to the nation in his first State of the Union from the Capitol.

The speech has been rewritten over the past week to address the Ukraine war. Biden will say that "dictators must pay a price" for their aggression.

All our day six coverage of the war is here.