JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank by assets, has said it is exiting from Russia and will not pursue new business in the country.

The move comes after Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, announced earlier on Thursday that it would wind down its business in Russia.

Russia makes up a relatively small part of the two banks' portfolios, but a bigger blow to Moscow's financial functions is more likely to come from the exit of Western Union, one of the world's largest payment companies, which also announced that it was suspending services in Russia and Belarus on Thursday.

The company, which provides international money transfers for over 200 countries, condemned the war as a "prolonged assault on Ukraine".

Warner Music, Sony Music Group and Uniqlo were among other firms to suspend operations on Thursday.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville and cameraman Darren Conway have spent a week in the embattled city of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian forces are fighting to stop a further Russian advance.

The city - the second largest in Ukraine - has come under nightly Russian airstrikes and artillery fire, leaving dozens of civilians dead and hundreds injured.

Ukrainian soldiers at the frontline also report facing tanks and groups of Russian saboteurs attempting to probe their positions.

This report contains graphic images of casualties.

Ukraine has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it has lost all communications with the Chernobyl power plant.

The claim from Ukrainian authorities came as IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the agency had "scheduled physical inspections" of nuclear sites. No further details were given.

Additionally, Grossi said the nuclear watchdog had not yet been able to confirm reports that electricity lines to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have been repaired a day after losing its external power supplies.

He added that both sides are "disposed to work" with the IAEA to prevent fighting at Ukrainian nuclear facilities and ensure the free flow of critical equipment.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Russia's diplomatic mission to the United Nations has requested that the international body hold an emergency meeting to discuss unfounded allegations that Ukraine is producing biological weapons with US assistance.

"Russian Mission asked for a meeting of #SecurityCouncil for 11 March to discuss the military biological activities of the US on the territory of #Ukraine," tweeted Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN.

The US has claimed that Russia will fabricate claims of weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine to justify its own potential future use of chemical weapons in the war.

Testifying to the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, CIA Director Burns described Russia's strategy as "false flag efforts in the creation of false narratives".

Earlier on Thursday, Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the US was helping to develop biological weapons and use virus-carrying birds that migrate through Russia.

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has confirmed that it is changing its rules on violent speech in several countries because of the Ukraine invasion.

The company says that it has "temporarily" made allowances for violent speech - for example “death to the Russian invaders” - that would usually break its rules.

Meta said, though, it won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.

The internal emails discussing the policy were obtained by Reuters, and have not been seen by the BBC.

The Reuters report says that posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be allowed in several countries.

The temporary policy change allowing for calls for violence against Russian soldiers applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, according to one email.

Image source, Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Beyond the manoeuvering on the battlefield and in the corridors of political power, Russia's invasion is also having an impact on the cultural world.

In Italy, Russia has requested the return of highly valuable artworks currently on loan to galleries there.

The Russian state museum, The Hermitage, in St Petersburg, wrote to the Palazzo Reale gallery in Milan requesting the return of artworks currently on show by the end of the month - including the Venetian painter Titian's Young Woman with a Feathered Hat.

The museum's director said the artworks would be returned, but that the Russian request made him feel bitter because "culture should be protected from war", Reuters said.

Another gallery in Milan, Gallerie d'Italia, told Reuters it had received a request to return 23 artworks on loan from three Russian museums.

Similar requests have reached Casa Cavazzini gallery in Udine and the Fendi Foundation in Rome, said Reuters.

Maddy Savage
BBC News, Stockholm

Image source, Reuters

Sweden's government is increasing its military spending to 2% of the country's GDP, up from 1.5% in 2020, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

"The war in Europe is going to affect the Swedish people. We need to continue to strengthen Sweden’s defence capabilities," Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told a news conference earlier on Thursday.

Sweden made big cuts to its defence budget in the 1990s, but it has increased spending in recent years, partly in response to growing concerns about Russian incursions into Swedish airspace, as well as cyber-attacks.

Thursday's spending announcement followed a rare national televised address by Andersson last week, in which she suggested she did not believe there was a threat of an armed attack on Sweden by Russia.

Sweden is not a member of Nato, and the Swedish government has said that joining now could destabilise security in Europe and further increase tensions.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, PA Media

Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum is the latest institution to say it will suspend ties with Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich.

"In light of recent developments, Yad Vashem has decided to suspend the strategic partnership with Mr Roman Abramovich," it said in the briefest of statements.

In the UK, Abramovich may be best known as the owner of Chelsea FC, but in Israel the oligarch, who is Jewish, has made a name for himself as a donor to different causes.

Just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Yad Vashem announced that he had pledged an “eight figure sum” (at least $3m) to help its work.

Abramovich became an Israeli citizen four years ago, after the UK delayed the renewal of his visa. It enabled him to travel more easily.

Among his properties in Israel is an exclusive beachside neighbourhood in Herzliya. Abramovich has some influential backers. A chief rabbi and the chairman of Yad Vashem were among those who wrote to the US ambassador last month appealing to Washington not to sanction him.

Image source, Getty Images

An ex-Canadian Army marksman billed as one of the world's deadliest snipers has reportedly arrived in Ukraine to help defend it from the Russian invasion.

The 40-year-old sniper - known only by his nom de guerre, Wali - fought in Afghanistan and is reported to have killed enemy fighters at a distance of two miles (3.2 km) while serving there. The Canadian also claims to have fought alongside Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State in Iraq.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), he is in Ukraine alongside three other former Canadian servicemen.

"I want to help them. It's as simple as that," he told CBC. "People here being bombarded just because they want to be European and not Russian."

Authorities say as many as 20,000 volunteers from dozens of countries have gone to Ukraine to join the fight.

The BBC is unable to independently verify Wali's claims.

Russian forces have moved three miles (5km) closer to Kyiv in the past 24 hours, a senior US defence official has said.

That means Russian troops advancing from the capital's north-west are now just nine miles (15km) from the city centre, the official told reporters.

Russian forces advancing from the north-east are about 25 miles (40km) from the city, the official added.

The northern city of Chernihiv is now "isolated", the official said.

The official also said Russian forces have fired 775 missiles of "all stripes, all varieties" since their invasion of Ukraine began.

Earlier on Thursday, Kyiv's mayor said the capital was defended by armed civilians and had basically become a fortress.

Image source, Getty Images

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a "paradigm shift" on the scale of the 9/11 attacks that has "shaken the architecture" of global security, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.

Speaking at an event in Washington DC, Truss said that how the world responds will "set the pattern for this era".

"If we let Putin’s expansionism go unchallenged it would send a dangerous message to would-be aggressors and authoritarians around the world," she said. "We simply can't allow that to happen."

Truss added that the global response to the invasion had left Putin "shunned and isolated" and made Russia "a global pariah".

She added, however, that the world was "not doing enough" and called for more sanctions, including a total ban on Russia from the Swift financial system and the freezing of all Russian bank assets.

"We must double down," she said. "We have to ramp up the global pressure on Putin."

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Security experts in the airline industry are growing increasingly worried that surface-to-air missiles in Ukraine could end up in the wrong hands.

Britain is amongst several Western countries supplying Ukrainian forces with sophisticated shoulder-launched missiles to help them resist the Russian invasion. But aviation safety analysts fear some of the country’s arsenal could eventually turn up on the black market.

Flying at four times the speed of sound, the Starstreak missile system, which UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced this week may soon be sent to Ukraine, is one of the fastest and most sophisticated means of bringing down a low-flying aircraft in flight.

It’s part of a package of additional military support for Ukraine now under consideration as the country battles to fend off the Russian advance. But although the Starstreak system is technically a ‘MANPAD’ – a Man Portable Air Defence System – it is not as light or as easy to conceal as some of Ukraine’s older, Soviet-era stock of shoulder-launched missiles, such as the SAM-7.

Aviation safety analysts fear that, amid the chaos of war, these could end up in the hands of organised criminal gangs. Matt Borie, the chief intelligence officer for Osprey Aviation Solutions, which monitors the proliferation of such weapons, says there is now a risk that the chaotic situation in Ukraine could mirror that of Libya after the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011.

There, thousands of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, were looted from government armouries. An international effort then had to be launched to buy them back before they fell into the hands of al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.

A British Airways official said the airline planned to stay clear of Ukrainian airspace for the foreseeable future.

Beth Timmins
BBC News

The International Monetary Fund has lowered its global growth forecast for next month because of the war and sanctions against Russia, which have caused a contraction in global trade.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said the Russian economy faced a "deep recession" and that a default on the country’s debt was not an "improbable" eventuality.

This, she said, is spilling over into the global economy, causing a rise in energy and food costs.

"We got through a crisis like no other with the pandemic. We are now in an even more shocking territory. The unthinkable happened: We have a war in Europe," she added.

In another example of Russia's growing isolation, the IMF's offices in Moscow are no longer operational.

Ms Georgieva said that the IMF has no program or policy relations with Russia at this point. Russia however retains its membership in the global lender.

US-headquartered Walt Disney Co has become the latest business to end operations in Russia after announcing a "pause" its businesses in the country.

The move includes content and product licensing, National Geographic magazine and tours, Disney Cruise Line, linear TV channels, and the production of local content.

"Some of those business activities we can and will pause immediately," the company said in a statement. "Others - such as linear channels and some content and product licensing - will take time given contractual complexities".

Its staff in Russia, however, will remain employed by the firm.

Earlier this week, Disney announced that it would stop releasing theatrical films in Russia.

Dozens of international firms have shut or significantly scaled back their Russian businesses or divested from investments, including Netflix, McDonald's, Shell, BP, Sony and Starbucks.

If you're just joining us, or want a recap, these are the latest updates about Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

• The US has warned that Russian forces have encircled 'multiple' Ukrainian cities and damaged critical infrastructure
• In one such city, Mariupol, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that supplies are dwindling
• Russia, for its part, has reportedly said it will open humanitarian corridors between Ukraine and Russia
• Peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in Turkey made little progress, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he sees little possibility that the talks would lead to a ceasefire soon
• The US and UK governments have again expressed concern that Russia may use chemical or biological weapons
• Economic experts have predicted that Russia's economy will contract as much as 15% as sanctions continue to take a toll

Ben King
Business reporter, BBC News

Image source, BEAUCHAMP ESTATES

Hamstone House in Surrey, linked to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, has been withdrawn from sale on the day that sanctions were imposed on its owner and six other Russian businessmen.

The grade-II listed Art Deco mansion in St George's Hill was on the market with Knight Frank for £18m. The listing has been removed from the agency's website, and a spokesman confirmed that Knight Frank was no longer looking for a buyer for the house.

A cached copy of the listing says the house extends to 23,546 sq ft with "five main bedroom suites, all with ensuite facilities, as well as four principal reception rooms, kitchen, catering kitchen, swimming pool, sauna, steam room, gym, plunge pool massage room, billiard room and changing facilities complimented by an extremely large terrace and three balconies".

Land Registry records show the house was bought for £7.1m in 2001 by a company called Edenfield Investments Limited, incorporated in Cyprus, with a correspondence address in Moscow.

The house was linked to Deripaska in a court case in Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Read more about Oleg Deripaska

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, EPA

Talks between Russia and Ukraine took place today in Turkey, but the two countries failed to agree on a ceasefire.

For one and a half hours, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, sat facing each in a lavish hotel in Antalya.

Kuleba asked for a 24-hour ceasefire, and a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol. But he said Lavrov did not seem empowered to make any commitments.

For his part, Lavrov said Russia was ready to strike a deal. But, he said, Ukraine had first to be disarmed and – in his words "denazified" - and it should give up its hopes of joining the EU and Nato.

Incredibly, Lavrov also defended the deadly bombing of the maternity hospital in Mariupol, claiming it was a base for Ukrainian forces and that there were no women, children or medical professionals there.

Hours later, Russia’s defence ministry denied any responsibility for the attack.

For now, the prospects of a negotiated settlement remain dim.

Kuleba said he was willing to meet again, but Lavrov accused Ukraine of wanting meetings for the sake of meetings.

A Ukrainian MP has described the situation around the south-eastern city of Mariupol as being akin to "a medieval siege".

Dmyrto Gurin told the BBC that the Russian military has surrounded the city, while bombers are dropping explosives on the city around the clock.

"When the Russian army realised they couldn't defeat us on the battlefield they started to just bombard cities," he said.

Gurin, whose parents still live in the city, said that residents are being forced to live in basements and said authorities believe that they have just "two to three days" of food remaining.

He said his parents didn't leave Mariupol because they couldn't believe the Russians would bomb a city that is 95% Russian-speaking.

We've been reporting on Russia's claim that the maternity hospital in Mariupol that was bombed on Wednesday was being used by Ukrainian forces.

Officials offered no proof to back up their claims, and the BBC's disinformation team has found evidence that contradicts the allegations (see our post at 17:30).

Now Twitter has confirmed that it removed tweets about the incident from the Russian Embassy in the UK. A spokesperson told Reuters news agency the tweets broke the platform's rules regarding "denying violent events".

The Russian embassy tweets said the hospital wasn't operational, had been taken over by the far-right Ukrainian Azov battalion, and that a woman pictured at the scene was faking being involved.

The BBC has contacted the embassy for comment.

The US State Department believes that Russian forces have encircled "multiple" cities after destroying much of their critical infrastructure, spokesman Ned Price has said.

Price did not specify which Ukrainian cities are currently encircled.

In his remarks, Price accused the Russian government of "laying waste" to population centres to "break the will" of Ukrainians.

He added that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities have left residents without water, electricity, food, and medicine. Many people, Price added, have been unable to escape as a result of "relentless bombardments".

In a separate update on Thursday, the UK's Ministry of Defence said that Russia is committing "an increased" number of forces to encircle Ukrainian cities.

"This will reduce the number of forces available to continue their advance and will further slow Russian progress," the Ministry of Defence said.

Image source, Gett