Chris Bell
BBC News

An American civilian living in the southern city of Kherson, the largest in Ukraine to fall so far, has told the BBC he's seeking help from a US senator to organise a humanitarian convoy into the city.

Don Flett moved to Kherson from New Jersey over two years ago to be closer to his wife's Ukrainian family. He says he's in contact with the office of US senator Bob Menendez to organise aid to the city.

"We're working with him to set up a humanitarian convoy to Kherson from either Romania or Hungary," he says.

Flett says the mayor has asked him to negotiate with the local Russian commander on behalf of the city to let the aid through, which he's preparing to do.

On the situation in Kherson, Flett says it deteriorated two days ago "when there was a rocket attack on the Tavirski area around 200 yards from my apartment".

"The rocket got my attention. That's the first explosion we had in my apartment complex," he says. "I consider it objectively dangerous in the city."

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

It has been a week since Russia invaded Ukraine and attacks are intensifying on key cities - although only one major city has fallen.

Here's some of what has happened today:

• Russian forces have taken control of the key port city of Kherson, in the south of Ukraine. It is the first major city to be captured by Russian troops
• More than a million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began last Thursday, the UN says, with more than 500,000 of those heading to neighbouring Poland
• An investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine has been launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague
• Several cities have come under intense shelling, including Mariupol - where the mayor has warned that the wounded cannot be helped due to the sustained bombardments
• Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that a third world war would be nuclear, but he says this is not something Russians are thinking about
• The capital, Kyiv, remains in government control, although there have been several large explosions, and a large Russian armoured convoy remains some distance away - with the US saying it has stalled due to fuel shortages

Russian troops have completely captured the Kherson regional state administration building, the head of the administration, Hennadiy Lahuta, has reported on Facebook.

"However, we have not given up our duties," Lahuta wrote.

"The regional operational staff, which I head, continues to work and address pressing issues to help residents of the region.

"We are waiting for humanitarian aid."

He added: "Please don't believe in fakes and don't panic."

Image source, Getty Images

Kyiv residents of all ages - adults and children - again headed underground last night as the capital city continued to be targeted.

Some, as pictured here, went down into the metro stations which are being used as bomb shelters. As many as 15,000 are taking shelter in the stations, the city's mayor has estimated.

Some managed to sleep while others tried to keep young children entertained.

Four major explosions were heard overnight and captured on video by witnesses, although it's not clear what the targets were or if there were casualties.

BBC correspondents have said the blasts could be heard from two storeys underground in their bunker.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Makeshift maternity wards have been set up across Ukraine, with women having to give birth in bomb shelters and hospital basements.

Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Hungary border

Image source, Tim Mansel

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has reiterated that his country would be willing to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking to the BBC at the Hungary-Ukraine border, Orban said that responsibility for ending the war lies, above all, on the Russian side.

In the past, Orban has enjoyed close relations with President Putin, with 11 meetings in the past 12 years, the most recent one month ago in Moscow.

At the same time, his government has had strained relations with Ukraine, because of a language law the government says discriminates against the large Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

This morning, as he visited a refugee reception centre at Beregsurany on the Hungary-Ukraine border, I asked him what his message is to President Zelenszky of Ukraine and President Putin of Russia.

"I don’t have a message to anybody. I have a message only to those refugees who are here," Orban replied.

"Hungary is a good friend of Ukraine and Ukrainian people, if they need any help here, they can count on us. I don’t think the leaders need any message and advice on my side. They are big guys and they know better than me what should be done. What the Hungarian wish is, it’s not an advice, not a message. Just a wish from my heart. Peace, please, peace."

The Hungarian government has offered Budapest as a venue for future peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as an alternative to the relatively low-level talks which have already taken place in the Belarus capital, Minsk.

"The war can be stopped only by negotiations, and peace talks and a ceasefire," Orban said.

Russia zeroes in on Ukraine's southpublished at 11:51 Greenwich Mean Time 3 March 2022

11:51 GMT 3 March 2022

Image source, TASS

In the seven days since this conflict began, southern Ukraine has become a critical defensive front against Russia's advances.

Moscow has chosen to lay siege to multiple cities there, viewing the region as strategically vital to the success of the invasion as a whole.

Not only would controlling the coast sever the rest of Ukraine from the sea, it would also create a direct connection between Russian-annexed Crimea and the Russian-speaking Donbas region.

Let's take a minute to recap what's been happening there:

Kherson has a population of 280,000 and is so far the largest city to fall to Russian forces. It sits on the banks of the Dnieper River, giving those in control access to critical canals supplying water to Crimea.

Another large port is Mariupol, population 430,000, which is being shelled and encircled. If successfully seized, Russia will have established a direct link between eastern Ukraine and Crimea, both of which are already Russian-controlled.

Crimea is a Russian-speaking part of Ukraine that was annexed by Moscow in 2014. It's where Russia launched much of this southern offensive from one week ago.

Odesa is Ukraine's third-largest city and the country's most important port on the Black Sea, as well as being a major oil terminus. So far its one million residents have escaped the worst of the fighting. This is because Russia has currently made no concerted effort to advance west of Kherson - beyond isolated reports of paratrooper landings.

More now from the southern port city of Mariupol, which has come under sustained attack from Russian forces.

The local authorities there say that Russians are stopping the supplies of electricity, water and heat, and also destroying bridges and rail links.

"They are hindering food supplies, blocking us like in Leningrad," the city council says in its latest statement, referring to the deadly and prolonged siege of the Russian city by German forces during World War Two.

"Soldiers from the Putin horde are constantly shelling the city, preventing us from evacuating the injured, and women and children.

"This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people," the statement says.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

French authorities have seized a yacht belonging to Igor Sechin, chief executive of the Russian state energy company Rosneft, as part of the European Union's sanctions over the Ukraine invasion.

Customs agents seized the vessel overnight after identifying Sechin as the majority shareholder of the company which owned it, the French finance ministry said.

The yacht had arrived in La Ciotat, Marseille, in January for repairs. But French authorities said it had been making "arrangements to sail urgently, without having completed the planned work" when it was inspected.

Image source, Getty Images

As we reported earlier (09:20 GMT post), explosions in Kyiv interrupted CBS TV reporter Charlie d'Agata overnight.

Watch the footage here.

And here's more from the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who's in Lithuania with the UK's Baltic state Nato allies.

She says tackling Russian aggression is a fight "not just for Ukraine's freedom and self-determination", but for "all of our freedom and security".

Outlining steps already taken by the UK, she insists "we need to go further" by including all Russian banks in the ban from the Swift payment system (see 10:53 GMT post) and reducing dependency on oil and gas from Russia.

"We need to... degrade the Russian economy." Truss says.

"We need to make sure... that the Russian economy is crippled so it is unable to continue to fund Putin and the war machine."

Chris Bell
BBC News

With the key southern port city of Kherson now under Russian control, one resident tells us new rules have been implemented in the city.

Nina (the BBC has decided not to use her full name) says: "Now in the city it’s quiet. Yesterday it was quiet also. Before, there were fights and explosions.

"Yesterday nobody went out from their homes because it was too dangerous but today people are going out, trying to buy some food."

But she says fighting can still be heard in the outskirts of the city.

"We have some rules to follow. They agreed with our government that we should not provoke the Russian soldiers.

"We can’t be in groups, we can’t drive fast in cars. We have to be ready to stop and show what we have in our car and not to provoke anyone."

Residents now have water, electricity and the internet, and are hearing that medical supplies could be expected, she adds.

"I just hope that it won’t take too much time and that we will be OK.

"All ordinary people are against all the war, against fighting, but we can do nothing."

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's deputy prime minister says Nato is partially responsible for civilian deaths in the country by refusing to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Speaking to the World Tonight on BBC Radio 4, Olha Stefanishyna said "it is inhumane knowing that the civilian population and kids will be killed by not taking this decision".

"The blood of those civilians - including the mother and father of two kids who were born just yesterday and only today lost their parents in a shelling - is not only on Russian hands."

The Ukrainian deputy PM apologised for not being diplomatic in her choice of language, but said she was speaking while "sitting here in a bomb shelter".

Nato members have refused to establish a no-fly zone as they are worried it would escalate the conflict by putting Western forces into direct combat with Russian air power.

You can listen to the BBC interview here.

The UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is in Lithuania, meeting counterparts from the Baltic states.

She tells a news conference the West needs to make sure no Russian bank has access to the Swift banking system. Some - but not all - have been barred from the system so far.

"We worked with the US, the EU and G7 to cut off funding for Putin's war machine... we need to go further," she says.

Read more about the Swift system - and why it's so important - here.

Andrei Kortunov is a former supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an adviser on foreign affairs to the Duma - the Russian parliament.

He told the BBC the situation in Ukraine is a tragedy and "definitely something which should have been avoided".

Kortunov believes it will be extremely hard to reach a peace deal and said Putin would need something to be able to declare - "he cannot declare defeat because politically that would be too risky for him".

But he said this would be tricky for the West as it would be considered appeasement. He suggested Angela Merkel or China's President Xi as possible candidates to find a solution.

Listen to his full interview here on BBC Sounds.

As we've been reporting, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has begun gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan says he opened an immediate investigation after being urged to do so by 39 nations.

It will cover allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and would extend to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, he said.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC but Kyiv has accepted the court's jurisdiction.

Khan said it is important that an investigation take place: "Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects amounts to a war crime. That's very clear.

"And even if attacks are aimed at military objectives but the weapons used are wide-use weapons that are not precise, it may also amount to a war crime as they are likely to cause excessive civilian harm."

Ukraine's army regularly puts out updates on the damage it says it's inflicting on Russian forces, which continue to press on key cities, particularly in the south.

We should stress that the BBC can't verify this information, but the latest update from the General Staff of the Armed Forces says that approximately 9,000 Russian personnel have been killed or wounded.

It also says Ukrainian forces have destroyed:

• 217 tanks
• 90 artillery systems
• 31 helicopters
• 30 planes or other aircraft

For its part, Russia yesterday for the first time gave a specific number for casualties it had suffered in Ukraine, saying 498 Russian soldiers had died and nearly 1,600 had been wounded.

It said it had killed 2,870 Ukrainian soldiers and "nationalists".

It's worth remembering that hundreds of civilians have already died in the conflict, with warnings of a humanitarian crisis that is only growing.

Authorities in Mariupol have accused Russia of deliberately attacking the southern Ukrainian city's critical civilian infrastructure to put pressure on its population.

"We have no light, water or heat again," said the city council in a statement.

"They are breaking food supplies, setting us up in a blockade, as in the old Leningrad."

Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, is still in Ukrainian hands and as well as being encircled by Russian and pro-Russian forces has been targeted with continued shelling this morning.

Moscow's defence ministry is urging civilians to evacuate the city by a so-called "green corridor".

But the city's mayor says this is impossible: "We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from apartments, since the shelling does not stop".

Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky says he's returned to his home country to fight against the Russian invasion.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live, he says he doesn't have any experience of fighting - but wants to "defend what's ours, defend our country".

"Putin has made it much easier for Ukrainians to join [the military reservists] because he's decided Ukraine never existed," he says.

"I have a gun and I'm prepared to use it."