A missile strike on a transmission tower in northern Ukraine has killed at least nine people and left nine more injured, a local official has said.

Vitaliy Koval, the governor of the Rivne region, said the tower and a nearby administrative building were hit by two separate missiles in the attack which took place in the village of Antopi.

"There are still people under the rubble," he added. Local media reported terrestrial TV and radio broadcasts were off air in Ukraine's northern Rivne region after the strike this morning.

Alice Evans
BBC News

Image source, Mandi Arnold

The government has now given details on how people in the UK can sign up to have Ukrainian refugees to live with them.

One person putting her name forward for the Homes for Ukraine, external scheme is Mandi Arnold, who lives in Telford, Shropshire with her partner and three children.

Mandi, 35, says life in her house is already hectic and so "it might as well be even busier" with an extra couple of people.

Mandi fled an abusive relationship when she was in her 20s and says she can empathise with refugees who just want a safe place to call home.

"I would love to welcome someone in my home to give them that security and love," she says.

"I've got a lot of love to give and it's the perfect opportunity to give it to someone's who's in need."

Mandi says her two sons are too young to understand what housing a refugee would involve but that she and her husband have chatted to her nine-year-old daughter. Amalia, about it.

"She would welcome anyone with open arms," Mandi says.

A 15-year-old boy was killed by "shell fragments" when a school in Chuhuiv, near the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, was struck by what Ukrainian officials say was Russian artillery.

"A number of private houses were also damaged" by the shelling, Kharkiv's Regional Prosecutor's Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Image source, Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office

The victim was not named.

Prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into possible "violations of the laws and customs of war... combined with premeditated murder," the post adds.

Michael Gove has been announcing a UK scheme for people to host Ukrainian refugees.

Someone who knows what that is like is Karina Litvack, who has hosted more than 30 refugees in spare rooms at her London home.

She first took in Syrian refugee Basel who still lives with her and she describes as like part of the family - "I've even learnt to say: 'I love you like my son in Arabic'," she says.

"I signed up thinking 'Ooh I’m going to help someone else, that’s going to make me a good person'. In actual fact I got so much out of it, I think I got more out of it than I gave really," she says.

She describes an "amazing feeling... when you see someone who’s really, really in a state of trauma who is finally starting to settle in and take joy in things".

She adds: "Bear in mind oftentimes these are people who have difficulty finding joy because they feel so guilty that they are here, and they are safe and lucky and their loved ones have been left under the bombs. So there is this huge survivor guilt that they live under 24/7.

"But in addition to that satisfaction that comes from helping someone else my gosh you learn so much about the world and it really gives you perspective."

She says that it is legitimate to have questions about the process and advises people to set out ground rules between themselves and their hostee.

You can hear the full interview on Ankur Desai's Asian Network show here and you can hear more from Karina and Basel in the video below.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, a new UK visa scheme will see Ukrainian refugees housed by UK host families - with the UK government planning to offer hosts £350 a month as a thank you.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has just given details of the Homes for Ukraine refugee scheme. But some famous faces and public figures have already expressed interest, including:

• Actor Benedict Cumberbatch - who wore a badge in solidarity with Ukraine at Sunday's Bafta Film Awards ceremony in London - told the BBC people had to help in whatever way they could, whether that was through donations or housing refugees, which he said he was "looking to do and have done"
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said after discussing the "devastating situation", external in Ukraine with his family, they intended to apply to offer their home to a Ukrainian refugee
• Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he was starting to have conversations with his wife about whether they could house a refugee. But he told ITV's Good Morning Britain that for him it would be "hard to offer the time" hosts might be expected to dedicate to helping families integrate in the UK
• Asked if he would take in a Ukrainian refugee, Gove said: "I'm exploring what I can do... Without going into my personal circumstances, there are a couple of things I need to sort out - but yes."

But Downing Street says Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be housing any Ukrainian refugees in No 10. Johnson's official spokesman says there are "specific challenges around security on housing people in No 10" and that it is down to individual ministers whether they choose to offer accommodation to a refugee.

The SNP's Stuart McDonald has asked about an offer from Scotland and Wales to act as "super sponsors" in the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Over the weekend, the first ministers of Scotland and Wales wrote a joint letter to the Levelling Up secretary, suggesting the goverments there acted as "super sponsors" of the scheme, in order to speed up the process of bringing refugees over - allowing for a local match to be found once they have arrived.

Gove said the government was "doing everything we can to facilitate that... in a way that allows everyone to live up to their responsibilities."

Gove responds to criticism from Labour MP Lisa Nandy who questioned why the scheme is initially only open to people in the UK who have already made contact - or matched themselves - with a Ukrainian.

The government minister says the reason the government's scheme is working this way is because the government has been working with NGOs who have welcomed its approach.

Image source, HoC

Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government Lisa Nandy asks Gove to clarify the government's role in matching Ukrainian families to their sponsors.

She says she was relieved when the scheme was announced, but that "a press release is not a plan".

"[Gove] went on TV to say Ukrainians could be here by Sunday, but he's just told us they'll still need a visa under the application process."

She says these are 50-page forms asking people who have fled to upload documents they don't have.

Nandy says the UK's response has been "incredibly slow", adding that only 4,000 visas have been issued so far, and asks for the process to be simplified.

"We are lagging way behind," she adds.

Image source, HoC

Labour's Lisa Nandy asks Gove for more clarity and accused the government of setting up "a DIY asylum scheme" - suggesting the haphazard nature of matching hosts with named Ukrainians was not fit for purpose.

She said she was "ashamed" by the government which had "closed its door to people that need help".

Nandy praised the British people who had come forward, but said the government "needed a plan, not just a press release".

Gove said the scheme had been developed in partnership with NGOs "in order to help those most in need".

He urged Labour "to get behind the scheme" and rise above "partisan politics... to put humanity first".

Image source, HoC

UK Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove says from today, anyone who wants to record their interest can do so on the gov.uk website - and he says the page has gone live. You can find the website here., external

Anyone who registers will be sent extra information setting out the next step - including detail of what is required of a sponsor, and how sponsors can identify a named Ukrainian individual or family.

The scheme will initially only facilitate sponsorship "between people with known connections" - but it will be rapidly expanded with charities, churches and community groups so more sponsors can be matched with Ukrainians.

Gove ends by saying the UK has a long and proud history of taking in refugees - for example those who fled Nazi Germany and Afghanistan. The British people have already opened their hearts and now they can open their homes, he says.

Image source, HoC

Michael Gove says the Homes For Ukraine scheme will allow Ukrainians with no family ties to the UK to be sponsored by individuals or organisations who can offer them a home.

"There will be no limit to the number of Ukrainians who can benefit from this scheme," he says.

It will be "open to all Ukrainian nationals and residents, who will have full and unrestricted access to benefits, healthcare, employment and other support", he says.

Gove adds that he wants to "stand up this scheme as quickly as possible".

We're now hearing from UK Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove who is outlining details of support for Ukrainian refugees.

Everyone is in awe of the bravery of the people in Ukraine, Gove begins his statement by saying.

The UK stands with Ukrainian people, he says - adding his colleagues have been providing military help, diplomatic support and sanctions. But more can and must be done.

Gove says the UK public is "compassionate" and wants to help more - so the government is announcing a Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Image source, EPA

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has announced the UN will allocate a further $40m to ramp up humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Speaking in New York, he says the funds will help get critical supplies of food, water, medicines and other vital supplies into the country, as well as providing cash assistance to those in need.

He warns a further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine - whether accidental or deliberate - threatens "all of humanity".

Describing Russia's recent raising of the alert level for its nuclear forces as a "bone-chilling development", he adds the prospect of nuclear conflict - once "unthinkable" was back within realm of possibility.

Guterres also calls for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" and "serious negotiations based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law".

This video shows all that remains of the town of Volnovakha, in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.

Once home to 22,000 people, the town is now strewn with the mangled remains of burnt-out buildings after days of heavy bombardment by air and artillery fire.

As a drive through the town reveals, entire schools, hospitals and housing blocks have been completely destroyed.

Volnovakha's mayor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has said his town has been destroyed. “In general, Volnovakha with its infrastructure as such no longer exists."

Hints of progress at talks but Ukrainians won't be getting excitedpublished at 15:28 Greenwich Mean Time 14 March 2022

15:28 GMT 14 March 2022

James Waterhouse
Kyiv correspondent, BBC News

When it’s come to peace talks in this war, expectations haven’t exactly been lofty. In fact, they’ve been near rock-bottom.

There’s been no movement on Russia’s demand that Ukraine effectively surrenders its weapons and becomes neutral, and Ukraine’s that Russia agrees to a ceasefire and pulls back its troops.

The exact opposite has, of course, happened.

The highest-level meeting so far has been with both countries’ foreign ministers last Thursday in Turkey, where there was no breakthrough to put it mildly.

There’ve also been four rounds of negotiations between respective representatives, with the latest being today.

After a slow start, the language has turned more positive. We’ve seen temporary ceasefires finally agreed and used, and today hints of progress.

Kyiv claims Moscow has “stopped using ultimatums”, and there could “be results in the coming days”.

Not that many Ukrainians will be getting excited. 19 days of this brutal war has done nothing for optimism.

Reports on the Telegram messaging service , externalare claiming Russian troops have blown up ammunition in front of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

A subsequent message, external from Ukraine’s nuclear energy company, Energoatom, say it is not yet clear whether radiation levels have been affected since the explosion.

Russia took control of Europe's largest nuclear power station on 4 March, after it was hit by shelling.

The plant, located around 550km (342 miles) south-east of the capital Kyiv, on the banks of the river Dnieper, generates around 20% of all electricity in Ukraine.

Image source, Getty Images

The chief of Russia's National Guard has said Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine is not going to plan, Reuters is reporting.

It would be the strongest acknowledgment so far from a Kremlin official that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been slower than expected.

"I would like to say that yes, not everything is going as fast as we would like," said Viktor Zolotov, who is a close ally - and former bodyguard - of President Vladimir Putin.

He blamed Russia's poor progress on far-right elements hiding among the Ukrainian population, playing on an accusation repeatedly used by Moscow to justify its invasion that neo-Nazis have infiltrated Ukraine.

The comments, which Reuters reports as having been published on the official website of Russia's National Guard, have not been independently confirmed by the BBC as the Kremlin site is currently down.

The UK's justice secretary has been at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to offer help for a case to prosecute possible war crimes in Ukraine.

Dominic Raab said the Russian president Vladimir Putin "responds in ever more barbaric ways" in Ukraine.

Raab said anyone who has committed war crimes in Ukraine "needs to be held to account" and Britain was offering financial and technical help.

Heavy Russian bombardments have forced residents of some Ukrainian towns and cities to bury dead civilians in makeshift mass graves - and many victims have not been identified.

"We can't bury [the victims] in private graves, as those are outside the city and the perimeter is controlled by Russian troops," Mariupol's deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov told the BBC.

For nearly two weeks Mariupol, a strategic port city, has been battered daily by Russian rockets and shells. The thousands of residents, short of food and water, are hiding in cellars.

In Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv captured by the Russians, 67 bodies were buried in a trench, a local MP told the BBC. A doctor posted video of the burial on Facebook.

And besieged Chernihiv in the north is also using a temporary cemetery, as the fighting has made the main one inaccessible.

The unceremonious burials are shocking for Ukrainians who expect Christian rites, and who have bitter memories of World War Two massacres.

Read further details on this story in full here.

Image source, Reuters

Here's what has been happening on the 19th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

• Russian and Ukrainian representatives held talks in a bid to end the fighting, with Ukraine's negotiator saying the dialogue will focus on establishing a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and security guarantees for Ukraine
• Talks are set to resume on Tuesday after a "technical pause", Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said
• But fighting has continued with a bombardment in Kyiv killing at least one person after a block of flats was hit
• A pregnant woman pictured being stretchered from a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol has died, along with her baby, it has been reported

• Russian bombardment of some towns has been so intense dead civilians are being buried in mass graves, including in Mariupol

• China says a claim by US officials that Russia asked Beijing to provide it with military assistance in Ukraine is "disinformation", while the Kremlin has also denied it - saying it had the resources to meet its goals independently
• In the UK, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove is due to set out details of a scheme for people to host Ukrainian refugees in their homes
• And riot police have begun evicting squatters from the London home of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.