At least 35 people have been killed and 134 injured in the Russian missile attack on a military training base in western Ukraine, the Lviv regional governor says.

Jeremy Bowen
BBC News, Kyiv

Just over a week ago I met a group of young men who had volunteered at a centre in Kyiv to fight for Ukraine.

Most of them were in their late teens, not long out of school. They told me that after three days' basic training they would head for the front line - or very close to it.

Maksym Lutsyk, a 19-year-old biology student, told me he wasn't fazed about trying to become a soldier after less than a week of instruction. He'd manage, after five years in the Scouts, not just learning backwoods skills, but also some weapons training.

Maksym had gone to join up with his friend Dmytro Kisilenko, 18, who was studying economics at the same university.

I'm in touch with Dmytro and Maksym and the other volunteers. This weekend I went to see them at their posts on the eastern edge of the city, where they have been issued with uniforms, body armour, proper infantry kneepads and helmets.

Dmytro told me: "I got used to my gun. I learned how to shoot and how to act in the battle, also many other things that will be very crucial in the fight with the Russians." He laughed, as if he found it hard to imagine what he was contemplating.

I asked him if he felt scared of what is ahead.

"Not much, but it is human nature to feel scared, and of course deeply in my soul I feel a bit scared, as no-one wants to die, even if it's for your country. So, death is not an option for us."

Read Jeremy Bowen's report in full here.

Abdujalil Abdurasulov
BBC News, Kyiv

Our correspondent in Kyiv spoke to a priest from Mariupol who managed to flee the besieged city last Sunday. Father Pavel Pomashevsky said he had witnessed the misery, suffering, and darkness that the besieged city has endured.

“They bombed us non-stop, day and night. Day and night," he said.

"It was impossible to sleep or sit. Something whistled and exploded, jets roared above us and threw bombs, they shelled with Grad [a Soviet rocket launcher] missiles.”

On the 5 March, a humanitarian corridor was announced for the first time. But the column with evacuees never left the city as the Russian authorities renewed the shelling of Mariupol.

Father Pavel managed to get out of the city just before the bombardment started. He was in a column of private cars that left early in the morning. At one of the Russian checkpoints, however, they were stopped and told that no men were allowed to pass.

“We didn’t know whether they would shoot us or not,” he said. “It was very scary. We thought that was our end.”

But then the Russian soldiers allowed them to stay overnight in a nearby village. The column of about 100 cars headed there. The next morning some local drivers offered a different route to bypass the Russian checkpoint to get to the territory controlled by Ukraine. They decided to take the risk.

“On our way, we saw some gruesome scenes of recent battles. There were dead Russian soldiers along the road,” he said.

“We passed several Russian checkpoints. At one place they pointed their machine guns at us thinking that we were Ukrainian soldiers.”

He still doesn’t understand why the Russians let them pass but says that, when they reached the Ukrainian checkpoint, everyone was full of joy.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Yevhen Matveyev/Facebook

Russian forces have abducted the mayor of the southern city of Dniprorudne, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says.

Yevhen Matveyev would be the second Ukrainian mayor allegedly abducted by advancing Russian troops in the past three days, after the mayor of nearby Melitopol was reportedly detained on Friday.

Kuleba says "Russian war criminals" had abducted Matveyev.

"Getting zero local support, invaders turn to terror. I call on all states and international organizations to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and democracy," he says.

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, near Yavoriv military base

We’re near the military base targeted by Russia earlier this morning and the air raid sirens have sounded.

Residents in a complex of apartment blocks not far from the site have now rushed to a shelter.

The use of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine could prompt Nato to reconsider its decision not to intervene militarily in the conflict, the Polish president has said.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sophie Raworth, Andrzej Duda was asked whether he believed President Putin could be preparing to use chemical weapons.

“This is something the world has not seen on this scale since the Second World War,” he said.

“If you’re asking me whether Putin can use chemical weapons, I think Putin can use anything right now, especially when he’s in this difficult situation.

“Politically, he has already lost this war, and militarily, he’s not winning it.”

Asked whether any such use could prompt a Nato intervention, he said: “Of course, everybody hopes that he would not dare do that.

“But… if he uses weapons of mass destruction, this would be a gamechanger in the whole thing.

“For sure, [Nato]… would have to sit at the table and they will really have to think seriously what to do, because then it starts to be dangerous, not only for Europe…, but the whole world.”

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters

A Russian air strike has destroyed a high-rise apartment building in the northern city of Chernihiv, Ukraine's State Emergency Service says.

At least one person has been killed and another wounded in the attack, while seven were rescued, the Service says.

Unverified videos on social media showed black smoke pouring from the nine-storey building as firefighters battled to contain the blaze.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters

A passenger train on its way to pick up refugees being evacuated from eastern Ukraine came under fire from Russian forces, killing a conductor, Ukraine’s national rail company says.

The conductor was killed and another employee was taken to hospital with injuries when the train was attacked near Brusyn station in the Donetsk region, it says.

The train was about to pick up residents being evacuated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions at Lyman station, including 100 children.

The company says it is "making every effort" to evacuate all the train's passengers and crew, as well as the evacuees at the station.

Russia's defence ministry says its forces have destroyed 3,687 Ukrainian military facilities since the start of its attack on the country, as well as 99 aircraft, 1,194 tanks and armoured combat vehicles, and 443 field artillery guns, Russian news agency Interfax reports.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military says it has killed more than 12,000 Russian troops as well as 374 tanks, 1,226 armoured combat machines and 140 artillery systems.

The BBC has not been able to verify either of the sides' claims.

As we've been reporting, Russian forces launched an attack on a military facility in the Lviv region of western Ukraine this morning.

Local officials said missiles struck the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security in the city of Yavoriv, around 10km (6.2miles) from the Polish border and 60km (37.2 miles) from Lviv city centre.

The base covers an area of around 390 sq km (151 sq miles) and can accommodate up to 1,790 people, although it is not known how many people were onsite at the time of the strike.

It is normally used for training and exercises by the Ukrainan military and its Nato partners, chiefly as part of the Partnership for Peace, a programme intended to enhance co-operation between Nato members and non-members.

Photos from early February show US army instructors taking part in drills with at the base with Ukrainian service members.

Lviv’s position in the west of Ukraine has made the city a key hub for the supply of both humanitarian and military aid by Nato.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Nato

Image source, Getty Images

Nine people have been killed and 57 injured in the attack on a military base in western Ukraine, Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky says.

Authorities are now working to extinguish a fire at the base, he told a press conference.

Kozytsky said Russia fired more than 30 rockets at the Yavoriv military facility.

A number of ambulances have been seen going to and from the base.

Foreign military instructors work at the military base in western Ukraine that has been attacked by Russia, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov says.

Local officials say eight missiles struck the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, 10km (6 miles) from the Polish border.

"Information about the victims is being clarified," Reznikov says.

A witness told Reuters news agency they saw 19 ambulances with their sirens on driving from the direction of the military base.

"This is new terrorist attack on peace and security near the EU-Nato border," Reznikov writes on Twitter.

In its latest daily intelligence update, the UK's Ministry of Defence says Russian forces are "attempting to envelop" Ukrainian forces in the east of the country as they advance from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south.

"Russian forces advancing from Crimea are attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa," it adds.

It's nearly 09:30 in Kyiv. If you're just joining us, here's an update of what's been happening.

Strikes close to Nato border: In what seems the latest escalation of the conflict, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have fired missiles at a military base in western Ukraine - just six miles from the border with Poland, a Nato member. There are no reports of any casualties at the base in Yavoriv, to the west of the city of Lviv. The mayor of another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, says its airport has also been attacked.

Kyiv braces: Residents in the capital have been woken again the sound of air raid sirens. BBC correspondents there say the sound of artillery fire is now constant. More fighting has been reported in the city's northern outskirts, as Russian forces close in.

'Abducted' mayor replaced: The Russian military has reportedly installed a new mayor in the southern port city of Melitopol - after the alleged abduction of its previous mayor on Friday. Galina Danilchenko appeared on local TV to urge residents not to take part in "extremist actions".

Evacuations continue: Humanitarian corridors to help people evacuate from Ukraine's besieged cities are working, President Zelensky says - with daily evacuations nearly doubling to around 13,000 people. Humanitarian supplies for the port city of Mariupol - are due to arrive later today.

Meanwhile, in Washington: President Biden says the US is sending up to $200m (£153m) in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine. Russia has warned it may hit supplies.

Image source, Getty Images

Hugo Bachega
BBC News in Lviv

In Lviv, the air raid sirens went off at around 03:30. They have been sounding regularly in this city in the west of the country that, so far, had been spared of any attack, 18 days into this war.

Officials have now confirmed that eight Russian missiles hit the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security at the Yavoriv military facility near the border with Poland, a Nato member.

Lviv, with a population of about 700,000, has become a hub for people fleeing the conflict as well as for much needed aid and weapons coming in.

On Saturday, the streets were bustling with people, with live music in one of the main squares and outdoor markets.

But preparations for an attack were well under way with many statues in the city centre, a Unesco World Heritage site, being wrapped in protective sheets. This morning’s attack will certainly raise concerns, but will not come as a surprise.

We reported earlier on explosions in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk - now the mayor says the city's airport has been targeted in a strike.

"According to preliminary information, this morning's explosions were from an attack on the airport," Ruslan Martsinkiv said on Facebook.

"I remind you that the goal of the enemy is to sow panic and fear," he says.

The city is about 114km (70 miles) south of Lviv, where a base used for military training was hit.

Lviv's regional military administration say that the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre (IPSC), in the Yavoriv district, was targeted earlier this morning by Russian forces.

Located 30km (19 miles) from Lviv, the IPSC was formed in 2007 to train Ukraine's armed forces, particularly for peacekeeping missions.

It also regularly hosts international troops. A Nato document on the centre says that the centre aims to provide de-mining and mine safety training for Ukrainian and other nations' troops.

BBC Ukrainian's Myroslava Petsa says that the IPSC is one of two sites in Ukraine where international military exercises take place.

She also noted that the centre is just kilometres away from the border of Poland - and therefore the European Union and Nato.

As reported earlier, Ukrainian officials say that Russian forces have conducted a missile strike on a military training centre outside the city of Lviv.

BBC journalists in Lviv say that no blasts were heard in the city centre.

Lviv is only 80km (50 miles) away from the Polish border and a destination for many Ukrainians fleeing from from other parts of the country.

In the initial days of the invasion, Russian forces targeted regions in the north, east and south, including the capital Kyiv. But in recent days Russian forces have been targeting regions in the centre, such as Dnipro, and the west such as Ivano-Frankivsk, as well.

Lviv, a historical and picturesque city known for its cultural heritage, has so far been left untouched.

But it has been bracing for war and carrying out preparations to protect its historical landmarks.

Air raid sirens have been sounded in several parts of Ukraine, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reports.

Alarms were sounded in Zhytomyr, west of the capital Kyiv, as well as in the Ternopil, Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in the west.

Sirens have also gone off in the Volyn region in the northwest and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

We now have more information on the explosions reported in the Lviv area.

Lviv military officials have said Russian forces carried out an air strike and fired eight missiles on the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, according to BBC Ukrainian.

The centre is located in Yavoriv district, about 30km northwest of Lviv, and is a military training ground.

Large columns of smoke were reportedly seen rising from the area.

Buzzfeed's correspondent Christopher Miller also reported that the mayor of Lviv has confirmed the attack.