Ben Tobias
BBC News

Image source, Russian Defence Ministry/Getty Images

More than 100 workers at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant - the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986 - have been stuck there for more than 12 days, unable to leave after Russian forces seized the facility on the first day of the invasion.

Another 200 Ukrainian guards, who'd been in charge of security at the time of the assault, also remain trapped.

Russia says it has secured the site jointly with the Ukrainian national guard, but Ukraine disputes this and says Russian troops have full control.

Workers continue to go about their duties and the atmosphere is said to be calm, but the BBC has been told that the conditions inside are difficult, with food and medicine limited.

Because the workers don't know how long they will be there for, they are limiting themselves to one meal a day (prepared by cooks who are also stuck), and the food is said to be basic - mainly bread and porridge.

There are also growing concerns that stress could be affecting their ability to carry out their duties at the nuclear site.

"The situation is complicated and tense," Yuri Fomichev, Mayor of Slavutych, told the BBC. "It is difficult for them morally, psychologically and physically."

Read the full story here.

Image source, Getty Images

The United Nations' head of humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths has called for fleeing Ukrainian civilians to be allowed to leave in the direction they wish.

He told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that the safe passage of aid, particularly medical supplies, into impacted areas was also crucial.

"All civilians, whether they stay or leave, must be respected and protected," he said.

All parties need to maintain "a system of constant communication" to ensure the safe passage of civilians, he said.

Griffiths added he had sent a team to Moscow to help facilitate better humanitarian coordination.

Paul Kenyon
BBC Panorama, Odesa

In the port city of Odesa, we've just heard three or four loud explosions coming from the west.

We're told it was the Ukrainian defence system taking down incoming Russian missiles fired from one of several war ships situated off the coast here.

Tensions are rising in Odesa - a key strategic target for Moscow. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces in the city claim to have hit one of the Russian fleet causing significant damage, with images on social media showing soldiers celebrating noisily.

There are daily curfews here starting at 7pm, and air raid sirens were heard for more than an hour on Monday, with warnings that Russian ships were repositions themselves in preparation for an attack.

Image source, Office of Ukraine's president

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has just posted his latest video address, saying he is staying in his office in Kyiv.

"Not hiding. And I'm not afraid of anyone. [I'm staying] as long as it takes to win this... war!"

Zelensky showed the views of the night Kyiv from his office in the heart of the capital to prove that the message was recorded on Monday evening.

Image source, Getty Images

New York City's Metropolitan Opera will host a special concert in support of Ukraine next Monday.

All ticket sales and proceeds from the event - titled "A Concert for Ukraine" - will go to relief efforts in the country.

The orchestra will be led by the Met's current music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

“The Met and its artists, led by Yannick, wish to lend our support to the innocent victims of Ukraine, whose lives have been torn asunder," wrote General Manager Peter Gelb in a statement on Monday.

"We hope the power of our performance will provide some measure of artistic solace, while helping to inspire empathetic people around the world to make donations.”

Last week, the Met cut ties with its veteran soprano Anna Netrebko - who is of Russian origin - after she failed to renounce her support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Image source, Getty Images

Pressure is growing on Western food and drink giants to pull out of Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.

Several global companies have chosen to boycott Russia and move business away from the country.

McDonald's and Coca-Cola have been criticised on social media for failing to speak out about the attacks and continuing to operate in Russia.

The BBC has contacted McDonald's and Coca-Cola for comment but they have not responded.

Well-known firms like Netflix and Levi's have already suspended sales or stopped providing services in Russia.

#BoycottMcDonalds and #BoycottCocaCola were trending on Twitter on Monday and over the weekend respectively.

Read more here.

Ukraine's Ministry of Energy says more than 742,000 people do not currently have access to electricity around the country.

It said the situation is most dire in the Russian-contested Donetsk region in the east, where over 233,000 are "completely disconnected".

The ministry added that more than 238,000 Ukrainians are without gas.

Several thousand customers have seen their access to power and gas restored over the past 24 hours, it said, but "active hostilities have caused new power grid damage and outages".

If you're just joining us, or want a recap, here's a round-up of the latest developments on day 12 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

• Russian shelling is still preventing the evacuation of civilians from besieged cities, Ukraine says
• Attacks are said to continue despite a proposal from Russia to create safe escape routes out of Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy and Kharkiv. Ukraine branded the proposal "immoral" after it emerged many of the routes would only take civilians to Russia or its ally Belarus
• Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped without power and with little access to food and water in the large port city of Mariupol. Two attempts to evacuate them at the weekend collapsed after planned ceasefires failed to materialise
• About 2,000 people have been able to flee Irpin, north-west of the capital Kyiv, despite continued Russian shelling
• Russia and Ukraine have held a third round of peace talks, but little is said to have been agreed on. A fourth round of talks is set to take place in Belarus tomorrow, according to a Moscow negotiator
• The US, France, Germany and the UK have vowed to continue raising the costs on Russia for its "unjustified" invasion of Ukraine, says the White House
• Western leaders are also pushing for less dependency on Russia's oil supplies across Europe. Russia says rejecting Russian oil would be "catastrophic"
• Oil prices have soared to a 13-year high due to the crisis

Image source, Getty Images

The White House says it is in an "active discussion" over whether to suspend imports of Russian oil but no decision has yet been made.

The US imports more than 500,000 barrels of Russian crude per day.

That accounts for only about 8% of its overall oil imports, but any changes in supply could have serious consequences for Americans.

Oil prices have surged to a 14-year high, while gasoline prices are near their national record.

Press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said the surging price levels are "the direct result of the invasion of Ukraine" but prices were at a high level prior to the attack as well.

Image source, Getty Images

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says there have been more than 1,200 civilian casualties since war broke out in Ukraine less than two weeks ago.

That includes at least 406 dead and 801 injured.

It said most injuries have been recorded in the Russian-contested regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

The figures are a conservative estimate and OHCHR has said it "believes that the real figures are considerably higher".

Wartime casualties are extremely difficult to corroborate, particularly in periods or places where intense hostilities are taking place.

Over the weekend, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said more than 1.5 million people have now fled Ukraine.

He said that amounted to "the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two".

Image source, Getty Images

The World Health Organisation says it has verified at least 16 attacks on healthcare facilities and staff since war broke out in Ukraine.

The attacks have led to at least nine deaths and 16 injuries, including seven healthcare workers.

Other reported incidents are currently being verified.

In a statement on Twitter, the organisation strongly condemned the attacks.

"Attacks on health care violate international law & endanger lives," it wrote.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent, in Kyiv

Kyiv is now a city waiting, a capital digging in. This storied metropolis changes by the day; a cityscape of centuries is being refurbished for war. Every day it looks different.

Soaring classical columns are now draped with Ukraine’s yellow and blue standard. That heart symbol so beloved of cities worldwide - in Kyiv’s iconic Maidan Square it’s an “I Love Ukraine" - is now surrounded by sandbags and “hedgehog” anti-tank beams, and spiked road barriers.

Russia’s armoured convoy, stretching more than 40 miles (65 kilometres), still sits, ominously, on the city’s edge.

Said to be stalled by logistical woes, it’s also coming under missile attack, and ambushes by Ukrainian forces.

A drive through this city is a journey through a ghost town, parades of shops with well-known western logos have gone dark. Some shop windows are criss-crossed with tape to protect them when the blasts come closer.

Many believe it’s just a matter of time, but like every day of this war, it’s still a guessing game. For now, most attacks land on the rim of Kyiv. Occasionally they strike at its heart.

In the Nyvky neighbourhood in the city’s west, soldiers dig trenches, round dinner-plate sized mines are laid along roads, white sandbags and black tyres are piled high. Cars are constantly stopped – by troops, by civilians who’ve taken up guns and proudly sport bright yellow arm bands, a badge of patriotism.

Billboards send a message to the world beyond: "Nato Close the Sky". It’s a plea repeated time and time again by Ukrainians, including President Volodymr Zelensky, for a no-fly zone that the West rejects, unwilling to be drawn into direct conflict with Russia.

Just outside of Kyiv, once charming train stop towns like Irpin and Bucha will now live in infamy after incessant Russian shelling set them on fire - a blaze which creeps ever closer to the capital.

Moscow is warning it could "mirror" the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that Russia had "every right" to take action on natural gas inflows to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Novak said no such decision had yet been made, but would be proportionate to the "unfounded accusations against Russia regarding the energy crisis in Europe and the imposition of a ban on Nord Stream 2".

Western leaders, like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have pushed in recent days for less dependency on Russia's oil supplies across Europe.

But Novak said replacing Russian oil would take more than a year.

He also warned an outright ban would bring "catastrophic consequences" for the global market and could push prices to over $300 per barrel - more than double current price.

Image source, Reuters

Reality Check

At a press conference this afternoon, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The UK, since 2015, has been the most generous of all European countries in settling vulnerable people."

He made the same claim last week in Parliament.

His office told us he was referring to resettled refugees only, which is people who were admitted from another country where they had initially sought refuge.

The UK has resettled 25,000 people from refugee camps in other countries since 2015, the majority of whom were Syrians.

That figure is indeed ahead of France, which admitted 16,345 under this scheme, and Germany with 12,500.

But that does not include the people who applied for asylum after arriving in the country.

As an indication of how much difference that makes, between 2015 and 2020 there were a total of 185,000 asylum applications in the UK, and 1.9 million in Germany.

Earlier today we heard from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spoke at a joint press conference with his Canadian and Dutch counterparts.

Johnson said nations have to work together to secure alternatives to Russian energy sources, calling for a "step-by-step" move away from dependence on Russian oil and gas as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

Canada's PM Justin Trudeau said Europe did not want to repeat its mistake of being too dependent on Russia.

But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned that forcing a boycott now would have "enormous consequences".

Johnson said he would set out an energy strategy in the coming days.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The US Congress is expected to finalise billions in humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine this week.

Last week, the White House asked Congress to approve $10b (£7.6b).

It said about half would go towards US troop deployments in the region and providing military equipment to Kyiv, while the remainder would help the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) with security and economic assistance.

Congress has the final say on the funding and is rushing to attach the funds to a government spending package that needs to pass by Friday.

Ahead of its passage, Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, thanked lawmakers as she urged them to take urgent action.

In a letter to Congress, she called for the funds to be "maximally flexible in order to ensure we can react immediately to newly emerging challenges".

Markarova also called for other forms of support, most notably "aircraft and air defence systems" for the immediate term.

US President Joe Biden and the leaders of France, Germany and the UK have affirmed their determination to continue raising the costs on Russia for its "unprovoked and unjustified" invasion of Ukraine, the White House says.

Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke in a video call on Monday.

The leaders "underscored their commitment to continue providing security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine", the White House said in a statement.

We heard earlier from Indian students trapped in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials now say the government has helped to evacuate about 20,000 Indian students from areas that have been under attack, according to Reuters news agency.

But there are still about 2,000 foreign students stranded in besieged towns and cities, including Sumy, Chernihiv, Mariupol and Kherson, Reuters quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying.

Image source, Getty Images

Formal business in the House of Commons will be suspended on Tuesday for the Ukrainian president's special address.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle says Volodymyr Zelensky will speak to UK MPs virtually from Kyiv at 1700 GMT.

"Every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House," a statement from Hoyle reads.

Zelensky will speak in Ukrainian and MPs will listen to simultaneous English translations via headsets.

Screens will be installed overnight in the chamber so MPs can watch the speech.

There will be no Q&A at the end of the address.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has just announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak to UK Parliament on Tuesday.

The virtual address will take place at 1700 GMT.