Abdujalil Abdurasulov
BBC News, Kyiv

We have some more details on the evacuation of civilians from Sumy in north-east Ukraine, which is now under way, according to news agency Reuters.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to organise a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to escape from the city, which has been partially encircled by Russian forces and heavily shelled - with nine people reportedly killed on Monday.

The agreed ceasefire is expected to last from 09:00 till 21:00 local time.

The column with evacuees will travel south along the route from Sumy to Poltava - a Ukrainian city 175km to the south.

Earlier Moscow had proposed to evacuate Ukrainians into Russia but this has been rejected by Ukraine as a manipulation and propaganda that will put people’s life in danger.

The Ukrainian side has called on the Russian authorities to respect the agreement on the ceasefire.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister Irina Vereshchuk says they are planning to evacuate international students from India, China and other countries as well.

On the subject of a no-fly zone, Mr Wallace reiterated the UK's position on not being in favour of imposing such a zone over Ukraine - which Ukrainians have been calling for.

He says neither Russian missiles nor artillery would be affected by a no-fly zone, which would also be stopping Ukrainian aircraft from flying.

“If we have a no-fly zone, no one flies.”

But we can provide anti-air capability instead, he said. “That’s another way of achieving the same aim.”

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has just been talking to BBC Breakfast, saying Vladimir Putin's forces were "getting more desperate" and "we are seeing the Russians just double down on brutality".

He says "Russia has still not been making its advances, it's day 13. That northern column that we have often talked about is still pretty much stuck, I mean really stuck, so that's not advancing."

He said the UK would be increasing the amount of lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine, details of which he would announce in Parliament on Wednesday, and is helping organise delivery of aid through Nato and other EU countries.

On the subject of Poland possibly supplying jets for the fight in Ukraine, he said there was a debate going on at the moment about whether Poland would.

"The UK could not supply jets directly to Ukraine, we don't have the same type of fighter jets they fly, MiG-29s and others... Our view would be that it is for Poland on a bilateral basis to decide whether to support Ukraine," adding the UK would support Poland as an old ally.

Humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to be evacuated have been opened from the cities of Cherhihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and the capital of Kyiv, according to the Russian defence ministry.

Previous attempts at such corridors have broken down with civilians coming under fire.

News agency Interfax has reported that the Russian defence ministry says its forces have held fire in Ukraine since 07:00 GMT.

Image source, State Emergency Services of Ukraine via REUTERS

It's the 13th day since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. Here are the latest developments:

• Ukrainian cities have continued to come under heavy shelling from Russian forces with civilians prevented from fleeing
• The UN's humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has called on the two sides to ensure safety for those wishing to be evacuated
• Russia says it is ready to reopen humanitarian corridors on Tuesday morning, with civilians due to be evacuated from Sumy - which has come under heavy shelling - on buses very shortly
• UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says Russia is getting "desperate" as its forces take heavy casualties in Ukraine
• Russia says it it may close its main gas pipeline to Germany if the West goes ahead with a ban on Russian oil
• Later Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will address UK MPs in Parliament via a video-link in what will be an historic moment

The southern city of Kherson was the first major city to fall into Russian control last week.

Hussain, who lives there with his wife and three-year-old daughter, has been telling BBC Breakfast what life is like in the occupied city.

"Things have been calm within the city, you don't see any Russian troops during the day time," he says.

"I think the city's problem is not war right now, we are going through two different issues."

He says these are that there is no clear route to leave, with people he knows who have tried returning and that there is not enough food.

"Our supermarkets are empty, there is nothing edible," he says.

Hussain says he only has crisps and chocolate left in his own home.

"I don't know how long I can survive this," he says, adding that he does not think there will be any more food any time soon.

While some small trucks have come with food there are queues of hundreds of people, he said.

Image source, Ukrainian ministry of defence

A top commander in the Russian army has been killed during fighting near Kharkiv, according to Ukraine's ministry of defence intelligence service.

The BBC cannot independently verify the claim; Russian officials have not commented.

According to a statement from Ukraine’s defence ministry, Vitaly Gerasimov was a major general, chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Army of the Central Military District of Russia.

A number of senior Russian army officers were also killed and wounded, it says.

Ukrainian intelligence says Gerasimov took part in the second Chechen war and the Russian military operation in Syria. He received a medal "for the return of Crimea".

Ukrainian officials tweeted out a photo of someone they said was Gerasimov, with the word "Liquidated" in red letters across the bottom.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams shares this thought on reports of Gerasimov's death.

Image source, Ukraine State Emergency Services (SES)

Civilian casualties have continued to mount as Russian military forces shelled various cities in Ukraine throughout the night and early hours of the morning, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES).

• In Zhyotymyr, west of Kyiv, a fire at the oil depot in Chernyakhiv was extinguished in the early hours of the morning
• In the eastern city of Sumy, aerial bombardment destroyed residential houses and set an apartment building ablaze. One woman was reported injured and nine people were killed, including two children
• In Mykolaiv in the south of Ukraine, several fires in residential areas had broken out. Four civilians were killed in the assault and five others were rescued from the rubble before being rushed to hospital
• In Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Russian shelling set nine floors and 27 apartment units of a residential building on fire - a blaze that took rescuers more than four hours to extinguish. At least four people were killed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been picked for the cover of the New Yorker magazine's latest edition.

The illustration depicts Zelensky standing on his own against a background of explosions. He's dressed in military fatigues and carrying the Ukraine flag high - while facing west.

The magazine said the cover illustration, by Barry Blitt, was called "Resilience".

A World Cup semi-final play-off between Scotland and Ukraine in Glasgow originally scheduled for 24 March has been postponed, and the game is now likely to take place in June.

World football's governing body Fifa has agreed to a request last week by the Ukrainian Football Association.

The winners of the semi-final at Hampden Park will face either Austria or Wales for a place in November's World Cup finals in Qatar.

Ukrainian domestic football has been halted since the country was invaded by Russia on 24 February.

Russia has been suspended from all international football, and will not be able to take part in their scheduled play-off against Poland.

Image source, Getty Images

On Monday, Russia warned it might close off its main gas pipeline to Germany if the West went ahead and banned Russian oil.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said such a move would lead to "catastophic consquences" for global supply and lead to the oil price doubling to $300 a barrel.

The US has been exploring a potential ban with allies as a way of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But Germany and the Netherlands rejected the plan on Monday.

The EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia, and has no easy substitutes if supplies are disrupted.

Novok said Russia has every right to retaliate, and pointed to Germany's decision last month to block certification for the second Nord Stream pipeline between the two countries.

You can read more about the Nord Stream pipeline here.

Image source, AFP

Image source, EPA

Ukraine's military has just given its latest update on the Russian invasion, saying that "the enemy is continuing an offensive operation, but the pace of advance of its troops has slowed significantly".

On Day 13 of the Russian assault, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said that - as of 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT) on 8 March - Ukrainian troops were continuing to defend in the southern, eastern and northern sectors. The capital Kyiv as well as the northern city of Chernihiv were still in Ukrainian hands.

It added that the country's air defences were successfully repulsing missile and air strikes.

"The occupiers are demoralised, and are increasingly resorting to looting and violating the rules of international humanitarian law on military conflict."

The Ukrainian military also claimed that Russia was now resorting to psychological warfare, saying that groups of Russian forces were created to "conduct propaganda work" in occupied territories to influence local residents.

The BBC cannot independently verify many of these claims.

Japan unveiled a third round of sanctions against Russia and Belarus in connection with the situation in Ukraine, according to its Ministry of Finance.

This latest package sees personal sanctions being placed against another 20 Russians - some of whom include deputy chiefs of staff for President Vladamir Putin's administration, deputy chairmen of the state parliament, the head of the Chechen Republic and executives of companies with close ties to the government such as Volga Group, Transneft and Wagner.

Twelve Belarusian citizens were also targeted, along with two more Russian and 12 Belarusian organizations.

Japan also imposed a ban on the export of oil refining equipment to Russia and general-purpose items bound for Belarus that could be used by its military, said the Japanese foreign ministry.

Image source, Getty Images

We earlier reported that children are among the victims from aerial attacks on the city of Sumy and its surrounding suburbs late on Monday, according to a local Ukrainian military official.

Dmytro Zhyvytsky, who leads the Sumy Regional Military Administration, said in a video posted on Facebook that after 23:00 local time Russian warplanes carried out strikes on the north-eastern city.

"Unfortunately, children are among those killed." Zhyvytsky said, adding that more than 10 people were killed.

The BBC could not independently verify the claims.

"The kids are being killed," he wrote in a Facebook post, sharing video of the reported attack.

"We will never forgive this!" he later added.

Image source, Getty Images

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths called on Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing fighting and for the delivery of humanitarian aid into areas of active hostilities.

The UN and its partners have provided food to hundreds of thousands of people, but the security situation has made it difficult to reach certain areas.

The statement comes as both sides lobbed accusations at each other of preventing civilians from safely leaving.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN accused Russia of shelling humanitarian corridors - blocking civilians from fleeing to Europe and preventing the delivery of life saving aid.

But Russia’s ambassador to the UN denied the allegations, claiming without substantiation that it was Ukraine that was denying safe passage.

Griffiths told members of the UN Security Council that his office had sent a team to Moscow to work on better humanitarian aid efforts in hopes of reaching the most vulnerable in Ukraine.

Image source, Reuters

Russia will declare a "silence regime" and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors in Ukraine at 10:00 Moscow time (07:00 GMT), said Russian state media reports.

They are quoting Russian defence ministry officials as saying this will be done to evacuate civilians from the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

Most of the evacuation routes offered by Moscow are to Russia - a condition previously described as unacceptable by the government in Kyiv. Ukraine has not publicly commented on the new Russian initiative.

Each of several previous evacuation attempts failed, with the warring sides blaming each other.

Welcome to our continued live page coverage. Here's the latest as we begin the thirteenth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

• The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has called on Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing fighting
• Russian shelling is still preventing the evacuation of civilians from besieged cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy and Kharkiv, Ukraine says
• Russian state media said they were ready to re-open humanitarian corridors on Tuesday morning
• Ukraine had earlier rejected a Russian proposal to allow civilians to escape after it emerged many of the routes would only lead to Russia or its ally Belarus

• A third round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks ends with little agreement - a fourth round will take place on Tuesday
• Ukraine and Russian foreign ministers are also due to meet later this Thursday in Turkey