Image source, PA Media

The conflict in Ukraine is set to last months, if not years, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab tells Sky News, as he says allies need to show "strategic stamina" to ensure Russia's Vladimir Putin fails.

Raab will be speaking to Sophie Raworth on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, which starts in a few minutes - watch it live in the UK on BBC One or iPlayer here.

As we've just been reporting, the Mariupol city council says a ceasefire has been declared in the city from 10am local time. That means it should already be in place as it's nearly 11am in Ukraine but it's unclear if fighting has stopped.

Civilians will be able to evacuate Mariupol on buses leaving from three sites in the city using a pre-agreed route ending in Zaporizhzhia, officials say.

Private vehicles can also join the evacuation, but are asked to drive behind the buses, in a convoy led by the Red Cross. Drivers should fill all seats in their cars, says the city council.

The news of the ceasefire is positive, but should be treated with some caution. A similar plan was announced on Saturday for the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, but it fell apart quickly and the mass evacuation was postponed.

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A temporary ceasefire has been announced in Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine, from 10:00-21:00 local time (08:00-19:00 GMT), according to the city council.

Civilians will be able to evacuate the city along an agreed route from 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT).

A similar plan announced on Saturday fell apart shortly after it was announced, due to renewed bombing.

Ukraine's MP for Volnovakha - one of two cities in south-eastern Ukraine where plans for a humanitarian corridor fell apart on Saturday - has told the BBC that no evacuation of civilians is expected from the city today or in the foreseeable future.

"The whole world saw how agreements with Russia work," Dmytro Lubinets tells the BBC. "When people gathered, they started shelling the route that peaceful residents were about to take."

"The world sees that Russia cannot be trusted. The highest authorities headed by the president will continue their attempts to arrange peaceful evacuation, but the Russian side does not fulfil its promises," said Lubinets.

He added that some people had been evacuated from Volnovakha despite coming under fire, "with the help of civilians, volunteers and the armed forces".

Reports from Volnovakha suggest nearly every building in the city has been damaged or destroyed.

Image source, .

In the city of Zaporizhzhia to the north-west, officials have been preparing to receive a flood of families seeking safety.

The state circus has been transformed into a hub, with mattresses and pillows laid out in the ring and heaps of warm clothes, bedding and food - vats of soup and boxes of burgers - ready for those who manage to escape here.

Once registered, families will then be offered beds in schools, kindergartens and hostels in the city. Despite the collapse of evacuation efforts on Saturday, officials here say they're standing ready to help as many people as possible as soon as they make it to the city.

Marta Shokalo from the BBC's Ukrainian Service describes life 10 days into the Russian invasion.

We are now well into the second week of this war, and I've noticed that I don't cry any more.

I start the day reading the overnight news, counting new blasts all around Ukraine. A couple of days ago, I woke up to reports of major rocket strikes in Kyiv, near where my dad lives. It took me 10 minutes to pluck up the courage to call him, to ask if he and his partner were all right. They were, and I experienced a wave of relief.

My mother is more worried about how to get food for her dog and cats than for herself, but she called me the other day just to happily announce that she had managed to buy two loaves of bread! This is in a city where food used to be available in great abundance.

The village where I am staying has two checkpoints, manned by local men. They are ready to protect their small communities with everything they have.

This sense of unity has never been so strong among Ukrainians. The country is full of activity like a beehive, producing hope for victory.

Read more from Marta

Ukraine's defence ministry has published its daily report on the conflict. Here are the main points:

• Russian forces have lost 88 aircraft and helicopters since the war began
• A number of Russian pilots have been captured
• Ukraine's armed forces continue to defend the major port city of Mariupol in the south-east
• A "considerable quantity" of Russian equipment was captured in the Mykolaiv region - in the south, near Odesa
• Russian soldiers are "demoralised" by the strength of Ukrainian resistance

The BBC can't independently verify what the Ukrainian military is claiming. Russia has provided few details of losses suffered by its forces in Ukraine but military experts assess that it has been surprised by the strength of the Ukrainian resistance and has suffered problems with supply lines and troop morale.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, payments giants Visa and Mastercard are pulling out of the Russian market in protest at its invasion of Ukraine. Together, the two companies control 90% of credit and debit payments in the world, outside of China.

But how big an impact will the move have on ordinary Russians?

Russia's major banks have already downplayed the impact on their clients. Russia's central bank said all Visa and Mastercard bank cards issued by Russian banks would continue to operate normally on Russian territory.

And Sberbank said the same, adding the cards would work "to withdraw cash, make transfers using the card number, and for payment at offline as well as at online Russian stores".

Cards will continue to work on Russian territory, the bank said, because all payments in Russia are made through a national system and don't depend on foreign systems.

However, Russian-issued Mastercard or Visa cards won't work abroad, and foreign-issued cards won't work inside the country.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Ukrainians they have "withstood the blow" of Russia's invasion as he urged citizens to continue fighting.

Outside the capital of Kyiv, a massive convoy stretching out over 40 miles (64km) remains stalled outside the city and Ukrainian defence officials say they have been hitting selected targets within the convoy where they can.

In other developments:

• There has been intense fighting to the north-west of Kyiv in a town called Irpin, near the strategic Hostomel airfield and the head of the Russian convoy
• Civilians have been fleeing the area on foot to try and find safety
• Ukrainian officials say a ceasefire agreed to allow civilians to escape from the southern port city of Mariupol lasted for minutes on Saturday before shelling resumed
• Russia sees the south as vital to the success of its invasion and people in the port of Odesa fear a looming Russian assault from the sea

• Kharkiv and Sumy in the east have also come under renewed bombardment
• Russia said it had advanced by 7km (four miles) in the Donbas region, taking several towns and villages

Read more here.

Russia's bombing of populated areas in Ukraine is an effort to break morale, according to the UK defence ministry.

In its daily intelligence report, external, the MoD says the strength of Ukraine's resistance continues to surprise Russia, which has responded by targeting cities including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.

It compares Russia's strategy with its campaigns in Syria in 2016 and Chechnya in 1999, when the Russian military carried out intense shelling of built-up areas.

The report also says that Russia's advance has been slowed by Ukraine's targeting of its supply lines.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

It's just past 08:30 in Ukraine on the 11th day of the war. We're seeing reports this morning of air raid sirens going off in the central city of Poltava, which lies in between Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Here's what else you need to know:

• Ukraine's President Zelensky again called on Western allies to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine in a video call with 300 US lawmakers on Saturday. He also had a call with US President Biden on Saturday night
• Nato has consistently rejected a no-fly zone, which could bring Western forces directly into military confrontation with Russia
• Russia leader Vladimir Putin warned that he would consider a no-fly zone to be an act of war
• Russia continues to bombard the strategic southern city of Mariupol. An initial ceasefire to allow civilians to evacuate has collapsed, Ukraine officials say
• The situation in Mariupol and the region of Sumy is on the "verge of a humanitarian catastrophe", a Ukrainian government official told a local news channel
• There is no electricity or water supply in two cities in the Sumy region, added government adviser Vadim Denisenko

• US payment giants Visa and Mastercard have suspended all operations in Russia

• Russian and Ukrainian representatives will meet for another round of negotiations on Monday

As we've reported earlier, Russian authorities have restricted access to the websites of dozens of western media companies, including BBC websites in Russian and English, as well as to Facebook and Twitter.

Moscow has accused the BBC of spreading "false information" and the speaker of Russia's parliament said western media outlets "are being used against us like weapons, spreading hatred and lies, and we should take care of them first of all".

A new bill passed by MPs in Moscow promises sentences of up to 15 years in prison for spreading "fake news", or reporting on information that challenges the state narrative.

The move to clamp down on independent journalism came after the BBC announced record numbers of people have read the corporation's Russian language service since the invasion of Ukraine began.

Here's a reminder of how to get around the BBC ban in Russia:

• Download the Psiphon app from the AppStore or Google Play Store
• Look for the dedicated BBC site on theTor Browser , externalwhich can be found using this URL, external. Note that this URL only works using the Tor Browser or the Onion Browser (on iPhones)
• If access to the apps is restricted then send a blank email to get@psiphon3.com or gettor@torproject.org. An email will be sent in response with a direct and safe download link

The BBC has also launched two new shortwave frequencies broadcasting World Service English news for four hours a day to Ukraine and parts of Russia:

• 15735 kHz from 14:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT
• 5875 kHz from 20:00 GMT to 22:00 GMT

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said it has suspended its operations in Russia.

In a statement, external, it said its Russian entity was facing bankruptcy proceedings and its journalists were under pressure from the police.

“It is with the deepest regret that I announce the suspension of our physical operations in Moscow today. This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the [Vladimir] Putin regime’s assault on the truth,” said Jamie Fly, president and CEO of RFE/RL.

The organisation will continue trying to reach Russian audiences using “every platform possible”, he added.

Several media organisations, including the BBC, have been forced to temporarily suspend their journalists’ work in Russia in response to a new law which threatens to jail anyone the government deems to have spread "fake" news on the armed forces.

RFE/RL, which has been broadcasting to Russian audiences since 1953, said it would continue reporting on the Ukraine invasion from outside Russia.

The situation in the region of Sumy and the city of Mariupol is "on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe," a Ukraine government official told Ukraine-24 TV channel on Sunday morning.

There is currently no electricity or water supply in the cities of Akhtyrka and Trostyanets in the northern Sumy region, said government adviser Vadim Denisenko.

However, he added that Saturday night passed "relatively calmly".

We also earlier heard reports from Ukrainian officials that an earlier ceasefire meant to allow civilians to escape from the city of Mariupol lasted for less than 30 minutes before shelling resumed.

However the Russian Interfax news agency quoted Eduard Basurin, an official in rebel-run Donetsk, as saying that the humanitarian corridor could be reopened again on Sunday.

Image source, .

Image source, .

Joe Tidy
Cyber-security reporter

Image source, Mykhailo Fedorov

Ukraine's youngest cabinet minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, has been leaning on tech giants to boycott Russia, urging hackers on to the attack, and getting Elon Musk to move satellites to benefit Ukraine. And most of it has been done from a smartphone.

Mr Fedorov, 31 - Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation - is currently in an underground shelter in a secret location in Kyiv.

But while his friend, the country's president, rallies forces for the physical war above, Mykhailo Fedorov and his team are waging a different kind of war on Russia.

Using his preferred weapon - social media - Mr Fedorov has been urging CEOs of big businesses to cut ties with Moscow. He's also taken the unprecedented move of setting up a volunteer "IT Army of Ukraine" to launch cyber-attacks against "the enemy".

His work is being celebrated as a key part of the war effort, but not all of his campaigning is being welcomed internationally.

Read more about his efforts here

As we've been reporting today, Ukraine's President Zelensky has once again called for the West to instate a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

But that has been resisted by Nato. Why?

A no-fly zone in a war is aimed at stopping aircraft from entering banned airspace, usually to prevent attacks or surveillance.

But such a ban needs to be enforced by military means.

A no-fly zone over Ukraine would mean that military forces - specifically Nato forces - would engage directly with any Russian planes spotted in those skies and shoot at them if necessary.

That would effectively bring Western nations into military combat with Russia - a dramatic escalation to the war.

Read more here about the no-fly zone debate.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've reported earlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on world leaders to mount a renewed effort to ensure that Russia's "horrific" invasion of Ukraine fails.

He has set out a six-point plan to maintain pressure on Russian President Putin.

Here's what he's said:

• World leaders should mobilise an "international humanitarian coalition" for Ukraine
• They should also support Ukraine "in its efforts to provide for its own self-defence"
• Economic pressure on Russia should be ratcheted up
• The international community must resist Russia's "creeping normalisation" of its actions in Ukraine
• Diplomatic resolutions to the war must be pursued, but only with the full participation of Ukraine's legitimate government
• There should be a "rapid campaign to strengthen security and resilience" among Nato countries

Johnson is also expected to deliver his message at meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Downing Street on Monday.

Read more here.

Russian military is underperforming in Ukrainepublished at 04:57 Greenwich Mean Time 6 March 2022

04:57 GMT 6 March 2022

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Much of Russia’s military has so far underperformed in Ukraine. Prior to the invasion, it was assumed that the army had undergone a radical overhaul, reorganising itself into so-called “Battalion Tactical Groups”.

These units of 800-1,000 men would operate in close coordination with tanks, drones and multiple-launch rocket systems to deliver a multi-faceted punch to the enemy. But it hasn’t worked out like that.

Russian commanders, especially in the north, have manifestly failed to make full use of this modern kind of warfare.

Their vehicles have also suffered mechanical breakdowns and they appear to have underestimated the strength of Ukrainian resistance, losing large numbers of men and equipment. So now, as grimly predicted, the gloves have come off.

Russian military tactics have reverted to a crude but tried and tested doctrine: encircle a city, pummel it with airstrikes, tank and artillery fire, and break the morale of both its defenders and those simply trying to survive.

International condemnation of the mounting civilian casualties will not bother President Putin. He’s made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of calling off this invasion.

Senior US officials are reportedly visiting Venezuela this weekend in a bid to reinstate relations with the government of President Nicolas Maduro, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter.

The US mission to Venezuela - the highest level visit in years - comes after both countries cut diplomatic ties after Washington accused its leader of rigging his election.

When the US hit Venezuela's oil exports with sanctions in 2019, the South American nation had turned to Russia for economic help.

Now Washington will be looking to see if the nation might be willing to back away from Moscow.

Image source, Getty Images

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Beijing would oppose any action that adds "fuel to the fire", state media reported.

In a Global Times report, Wang Yi said he encouraged direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, adding that the crisis could only be solved through dialogue and negotiations.

This was the second phone conversation between the two officials in two weeks.

The crisis has posed a major challenge to China, which hasn’t condemned or condoned Russia’s attack yet - while Beijing doesn’t want to be seen supporting war in Europe, it also wants to strengthen military and strategic ties with Moscow.

Mr Wang also called for the US, Nato and the European Union to hold “fair talks” with Russia and acknowledge Moscow’s security concerns about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s expansion, said the report.

Image source, Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

An estimated 3,000 Americans have answered Ukraine's call for foreign volunteers to fight Russia's invasion, a representative from the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC told the Voice of America news service.

Western nations are not sending troops to fight on the ground in Ukraine, but have been delivering arms to Ukraine to help in the country's fight.

They have also brought in punishing economic sanctions against Russia and Russian oligarchs and leaders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials have called for the formation of an "international legion" of foreign volunteers to help fight the war.

A few days ago, Zelensky estimated about 16,000 foreigners had volunteered to help fight in Ukraine.