On the diplomatic front, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to provide more defensive equipment to Ukraine following a phone call with Zelensky, a Downing Street spokesperson says.

“The leaders discussed the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Prime Minister undertook to work with partners to provide further defensive equipment," the spokesperson said.

The two leaders agreed to continue speaking in the coming days.

Footage and pictures from Irpin, 20km (12 miles) from Kyiv, have shown civilians trying desperately to escape today amid the ongoing bombardment there.

The town is being battered by artillery and air strikes - because it lies in the path of Russian troops trying to advance on Kyiv.

Victoria Prisedskaya, from BBC News Ukrainian, found her father had been caught up in the chaos. She writes:

My father took this picture yesterday from the window of his flat in Irpin, a picturesque city hidden in the forests near the Ukrainian capital.

They settled there only a year ago, having changed many rented flats during the previous seven years. They were the so-called internally displaced people - or simply refugees - from the eastern Donbas region, part of which has been controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, they had to flee a second war. After several days of continuous air strikes on the residential area of the town, they took a difficult decision to evacuate.

Except that evacuation from Irpin was already life-threatening. The bridge on the road near the town was blown up to stop the advance of Russian tanks, and people had to cross the river under the bridge - which risks plummeting at any moment.

"As we were running along the road towards the volunteers' cars that were waiting for us we were continuously shelled," my 73-year-old father told me later.

"We heard blasts everywhere and the Ukrainian soldiers were shouting at us to fall on the ground."

My parents were happy to reach Kyiv safely, where they now hope to find a car or take a train to flee further to the West.

No home again, only two small backpacks with essentials.

The United Nations Human Rights office has updated the number of casualties it has confirmed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, on 24 February.

It says at least 364 civilians have been killed,, external including 25 children, and 759 others injured.

But, it adds, the real figures are likely to be "considerably higher".

"Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the office says.

Image source, EPA

Earlier we reported that Putin and France's Emmanuel Macron had spoken by phone for nearly two hours - we're now getting details of what was said from both Paris and Moscow.

The Elysée said Macron had urged Putin to end the Russian assault and ensure the security of Ukraine's nuclear sites after shelling caused a fire on the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Putin told Macron Russia did not seek to attack nuclear plants, the French readout says.

Putin also told Macron that Russia would achieve its aims through "negotiation or war", the French presidency said.

Meanwhile the Kremlin readout says Putin blamed Ukrainians for the nuclear plant incident. He told Macron it had been a "provocation" staged by "Ukrainian radicals". Ukraine has blamed shelling by Russian forces.

The Kremlin added that Russian and Ukrainian personnel were jointly guarding the site, and that the radiation levels were "normal".

Putin also said Saturday's attempts to evacuate civilians from the southern cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha had failed because "Ukrainian nationalists" refused to let people leave and used the temporary ceasefires only to reinforce and entrench themselves.

Ukraine said Russian shelling had continued during the ceasefires on both Saturday and Sunday. Earlier today the Red Cross said the two sides had failed to agree details of how the evacuations would work.

Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent

Senior UK military officers are genuinely worried that some British troops - regulars or reservists - might try to join the battle in Ukraine.

Last week the UK's chief of defence people, Lt Gen James Swift, sent out a message to the chain of command stressing that UK military personnel were "not authorised" to travel there.

If there was any suspicion that troops were trying to make their way to Ukraine, he said, it should be reported immediately to the service police.

The message warned that if serving British military personnel went to fight in Ukraine they would be putting not only their lives in danger but also risked giving "the mistaken perception" to Russia that Britain had sent in troops to engage in hostilities.

Chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has now underlined that message, telling the BBC it would be "unlawful and unhelpful".

At present the Ministry of Defence does not believe there are any examples of full-time British military personnel going absent to fight in Ukraine. But it is harder for them to keep tabs on reservists who often also have another career.

Amid the bloody horror of war, a couple from Ukraine's territorial defence forces have got married, not far from a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kyiv.

In the surreal scene, Valery and Lesya, both dressed in camouflage, held a small ceremony surrounded by other members of Ukraine's armed forces - and Kyiv's mayor.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Around 3,500 anti-war protesters have reportedly been detained across Russia today, according to Russian news agency Interfax citing the interior ministry.

According to the report:

• About 2,500 people took part in protests in Moscow on Sunday, of whom 1,700 were detained
• A further 1,500 people protested in St. Petersburg, where 750 were subsequently arrested
• A total of 1,200 other people took part in protests across other parts of the country, and 1,061 of them were detained

Those who were arrested were taken to local police stations for questioning where "the issue of bringing them to justice is being decided", said an interior ministry spokesperson.

According to human rights website OVD-Info, external, a total of 10,946 people have been detained at anti-war protests across Russia since Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Zelensky has also warned that Russian forces are preparing to bombard the southern city of Odesa.

There are reports of multiple military checkpoints in the city, but the streets remain calm and largely empty.

Almost one million people live in the historic port city on the Black Sea coast. Odesa is close to the Moldovan border and the Russia-backed breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria.

Russian forces have made progress in southern Ukraine since their invasion.

Mykhailo Shmushkovich, the city official in charge of European solidarity, said more than 100,000 people had already fled Odesa.

But he said the city was "ready to fight".

"It could happen any moment. You can't ever be ready for that," he added.

Our colleague Ben Tobias explains why southern Ukraine is so important.

Image source, Reuters

A little earlier we reported Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky describing the total destruction of the civilian airport in the city of Vinnytsia, south-west of Kyiv.

In a video posted on social media, external, he also repeats his plea to world leaders for a no-fly zone.

"We are people and it is your humanitarian duty to protect us, protect people. And you can do it," he says.

"If you do not do that, if you at least do not give us aircraft for us to be able to protect ourselves, there can only be one conclusion: You also want us to be slowly killed."

Nato countries have so far rejected the idea of establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. That would mean engaging directly with any Russian planes spotted in those skies and shoot at them if necessary.

That, they argue, would trigger a wider conflict with Russia.

Here's more on what a no-fly zone means and why the West won't act.

Image source, .

We're getting more details now on the collapse of Mariupol's evacuation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (IRIC) was hoping to start evacuating 200,000 people from the besieged port city.

It says its teams began opening up the evacuation route, external from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia before "hostilities resumed".

Russia and Ukraine had agreed in principle to evacuate civilians, but had failed to agree the detail of how the evacuation would take place, the ICRC said.

In particular, it said, the two sides had not agreed on:

• Specific time, locations and evacuation routes
• Who may be voluntarily evacuated
• Whether aid can be brought in, not just the evacuation of civilians out

The ICRC was facilitating dialogue but "cannot be the guarantor of a ceasefire agreement between the parties or of its implementation".

It said its teams remain in the city to help facilitate further attempts at a ceasefire, "if the parties reach an agreement, which is for them alone to implement and respect".

Nomia Iqbal
BBC Washington correspondent, travelling with Secretary Blinken

Image source, EPA

Could Moldova be next? There are fears by leaders here it could be targeted by the Kremlin.

US Secretary Antony Blinken has met the two women who run this country: PM Natalia Gavrilita and President Maia Sandu. He is only the third US secretary of state to visit Moldova.

There were the usual pleasantries before the doors were closed for their meetings. We heard same lines from Secretary Blinken about unity but the Moldovans want strong reassurances for their security. Last week, days after Russia's invasion, they applied for EU membership.

There is no concrete evidence to confirm Moldovan fears. It is based on decades old history: 128km (80 miles) to the east of the capital, on the border with Ukraine, is Transnistria, a Russian-backed region that broke away from Moldova in 1990. Moscow still has a military base there of about 1,500 soldiers.

But it didn't help when Belarus's pro-Putin leader stood in front of a battle map indicating Moldova.

It is a vague short answer from Secretary Blinken when we ask him what his reassurances are: "You've seen the global response we've mobilised against Russia's aggression, whenever and wherever that aggression might appear, we will do the same thing."

He also said he would seek funding to help Moldova look after the Ukrainian refugees it has taken in. The country is struggling to cope. Moldova is one of the poorest and smallest nations in Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone again on Sunday, in a call that lasted one hour and 45 minutes, the French presidency says.

We still haven't been given details of what was discussed. Both leaders had spoken by phone on Thursday, in talks that left Macron with the impression that Putin's goal was to take the whole of Ukraine, according to a French official.

Macron is one of several world leaders who have talked to Putin in recent days hoping to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Earlier on Sunday, Putin spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for an urgent cessation of hostilities.

According to a Kremlin readout of the call, Putin told Erdogan that Ukraine's negotiators should take a more "constructive approach" at talks, "fully taking into account the emerging realities".

"It was underlined that the suspension of the special operation is only possible if Kyiv stops military operations and carries out well-known Russian demands," said the Kremlin. Russia has been calling its invasion a "special operation".

Joel Gunter
BBC News, in Lviv

Image source, .

A second attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol has failed, with both sides once again blaming each other for breaking the ceasefire.

After the first failed evacuation yesterday, Maxim, a 27-year-old IT developer who is caring for his grandparents in their sixth-floor apartment, told the BBC the day began with hope and ended in desperation:

"As fast as I could, I packed four bags for me and my grandparents with warm clothes and food and all of our remaining water and I packed them into my car.

"Right when I was ready to drive, the shelling started again. I heard explosions near to us. I carried everything back upstairs as fast as I could to the apartment. From there, I could see smoke rising from the city and smoke rising from the highway to Zaporizhzhia, where people were supposed to escape.

"Many people came into the city centre because they heard there was a ceasefire and buses to take them out and to flee the shelling there. Then they could not get back to their shelters when it started again.

Image source, .

"So we have taken many people into the apartment. They are from the left side of the city, they say it is destroyed. All the houses are burning and no one can put out the fires. There are many dead bodies lying in the streets and no one can carry them

"We have run out of bottled water and we are down to the water that I filled in the bath before the taps went off. The gas is the only thing still working, we can use it to boil the bath water to drink.

"Today the police opened the stores and told people to take everything because the people here have no food and drink. Our neighbours manged to take some candy, some fish and some fizzy drinks.

"The ceasefire was a lie, one side never planned to stop firing. If they say there is [another ceasefire] we will have to try go but we don’t know if it will be real. Maybe now we are better to hide."

The Mariupol City Council, which announced a ceasefire and fresh evacuation attempt this morning, has now confirmed that the plans have been aborted.

It says Russian shelling has made the safe evacuation of civilians impossible.

The city is now in its fifth day with no water, no power, no sanitation, and food and drinking water are fast running out.

Image source, .

We've been reporting on civilians fleeing the town of Irpin, north-west of Kyiv, to escape terrifying Russian bombardment.

It's now reported that at least three people have been killed by Russian mortar shells targeting a damaged bridge that residents have been using to try and escape.

The New York Times reports that three members of the same family were killed. The newspaper says that small groups were making a run for it across a section of exposed road, and being helped by Ukrainian soldiers to reach cover.

The video below shows people trying to escape Irpin earlier today. The footage is distressing.

The evacuation of civilians from the besieged south-eastern city of Mariupol has been halted, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

Ukrainian and Russian forces blamed each other for failing to observe a ceasefire to allow local people to escape, after a similar agreement fell apart yesterday.

This was the agreed evacuation route:

Image source, .

We'll bring you more as we get it.

Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Chisinau, Moldova

Moldova's athletics stadium has become a place to stop running. Around 600 Ukrainian refugees are living under the vast grey roof of this Soviet-style block.

Pet dogs are walked at a sedate stroll around the running track. In the middle, nests of camp beds, arranged in family groups, are slung with blankets. Two young sisters lounge on one, playing with a doll half as big as they are; laying it down to rest.

The vast majority of refugees here are Roma. Camps here sometimes have a segregated feel.

At the border, Roma board buses separately to other refugees. Some say that’s a voluntary choice. But there are also reports that officials at some centres in the capital are blocking Roma from entering, pushing them towards other shelters.

Here at the stadium, I meet a family of 16 who have arrived from the city of Kharkiv. Among them are Liolye, her parents, and six of her children - two of whom share their names with US and Russian presidents: the eldest is called Kennedy, the youngest, Vladimir.

There was shooting in their neighbourhood, Liolye told me, so they grabbed the children in the clothes they were standing in and ran.

It took five days to get to the Moldovan border and cross. In that time, one of their houses was hit by shelling back in Kharkiv.

More than 200,000 people have crossed into Moldova since the conflict began. Many keep moving into Romania, but almost 100,000 have stayed here in this small former Soviet state.

Moldova has had by far the highest proportion of Ukrainian refugees per capita. For every 100,000 residents, Poland has received around 1,700 refugees into the country; Moldova almost 4,000.

At the athletics centre, the children run around the track in an endless loop. Above them stretch empty bleachers. The spectators for this event are watching from a distance, all around the world.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of Ukrainian refugees continues to rise sharply, and more than 1.5 million people have fled the country in just 10 days, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Filippo Grandi, the agency's high commissioner, has called it the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

But where exactly are these refugees going and which countries have opened their borders to Ukrainians?

Here is what we know so far:

• A total of 922,400 people have fled Ukraine to Poland since 24 February, according to Polish border guards
• The number of Ukrainians who have entered Moldova has reached 201,133. The country has by far the largest concentration of refugees per capita in the region

• Romania has welcomed 227,446 Ukrainians so far. Of those, 155,680 have already driven or flown out of the country
• About 50,000 Ukrainians have reached the Czech Republic
• Hungary and Slovakia have also seen Ukrainian refugees arrive

The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed staff to Moldova, Poland and Romania "to scale up [the] response capacities of its country offices, including operations, engagement with partners and support to the [Ukrainian] government for the health response".

The civilian airport in the city of Vinnytsia, about 250km (155 miles) south-west of Kyiv, has been completely destroyed by Russian rockets, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

So far, most of the fighting in Ukraine has taken place to the north and east of Kyiv, and also in Ukraine's southern regions.

Image source, EPA

More now from Irpin, a town 20km (12 miles) north-west of Kyiv which has been heavily damaged by artillery and air strikes.

Photos show chaotic scenes of people escaping as the blasts there continue.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images