Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

Officials say the number of casualties is still not clear after the Russian attack on the theatre in Mariupol.

Mariupol officials say a Russian plane dropped a bomb on the city's theatre, where up to 1,200 civilians were sheltering.

They say Russia deliberately and cynically hit the site, a huge Soviet-era building in the city centre.

Ukraine's foreign minister called it "another horrendous war crime", saying it was impossible that Russia didn't know the place was a civilian shelter.

The attack is one of a number on civilian buildings that were said to have been targeted by Russia in cities across Ukraine during the day. The Russian defence ministry has denied attacking the theatre.

Shayan Sardarizadeh
Disinformation specialist

Image source, None

A fake video of President Volodymyr Zelensky calling on Ukrainian troops to lay down their arms has been making the rounds on social media.

Although his lips move in sync with the audio, Zelensky's head looks out of place and the voice does not sounds like his either.

A still from the fake video appeared on the website of Ukrainian TV channel Ukrayina 24 earlier in the day and the text of the message was also briefly broadcast on TV.

Ukrayina 24 said in a statement that its website and ticker had been hacked. The website is currently inaccessible.

Zelensky dismissed the address as fake in a video posted on his Instagram, saying he "can only suggest that Russian servicemen lay down their arms and go home".

The video clip was likely made using deepfake technology to modify video footage - usually replacing one person's face with another - with realistic results.

If that is confirmed, the doctored Zelensky clip would be the first deepfake of this war.

We've been bringing you the latest on the attack on a theatre in Mariupol, where hundreds of people were sheltering.

The BBC has verified this picture showing the aftermath of the bombing.

It has been shared on Facebook by Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional administration. He writes that it is impossible to determine the number of victims in such attacks.

Image source, Other

View the original here, external

Image source, Getty Images

US President Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time.

Until now, the administration had avoided using the phrase, including when asked directly.

Speaking to reporters after an event at the White House on Wednesday, Biden said: "I think he is a war criminal".

Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said the US was "looking very hard" to determine if Russian forces are intentionally targeting civilians.

Ukraine has asked The Hague to investigate Russia for war crimes.

Asked to explain the comments from the president further, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden was "speaking from his heart and speaking from what we’ve seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country".

However, she added that "a legal process" to investigate war crime claims "continues to be underway at the State Department".

Image source, Reuters

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suspended an honorary role given to the lending body's longest-serving member because he is Russian.

Aleksei Mozhin, the executive director for Russia on the global lending body, held the honorary role of dean since 2015.

An IMF spokesman said it temporarily suspended Mozhin "given Russia's role in the ongoing war in Ukraine" and its potential impact out on carrying out the job.

It comes after pressure from other shareholder countries including the US, UK and Canada, the Financial Times reported.

The role involves filling in for the managing director who chairs the the IMF's executive board.

Jonah Fisher
BBC News, Lviv

“Normally I wouldn’t even point a gun but now it’s time to learn how to hold weapons and shoot them,” says Lesya Voloshchak, a 62-year-old Ukrainian grandmother.

We’ve just watched her being put through her paces at what was until a few weeks ago an English school in the western city of Lviv. It’s now a volunteer training centre and hundreds of people are turning up every day to learn how to handle assault weapons and be shown some basic first aid.

Russian ground troops are still a long way from Lviv, but after airstrikes over the weekend, Yuri, Lesya's husband, went out and bought two rifles.

“I’m normally a pacifist,” he says. "But we need to be prepared. Against missiles we can do nothing but against Russian Nazis, we can use guns or grenades”.

Lesya holds her gleaming new weapon as we sit on her sofa, but there are tears in her eyes.

“It’s just very sad,” she says. “Sometimes this seems like a bad dream.”

If you're just joining our live coverage, here is a quick recap of key developments over the past 24 hours:

• Russia has reportedly bombed a theatre in the southern port city of Mariupol where some 1,200 civilians were being sheltered. The Red Cross says the city is in the midst of a "waking nightmare"
• At least 10 people waiting in a queue for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv were reportedly killed by Russian shelling
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as he pushed for more Western support in a historic virtual address to the US Congress
• Leaders of Nato, the US and the UK all reaffirmed their objections to imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine
• The International Court of Justice has ordered Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine
• Russia has been thrown out of Europe's oldest political body, the Council of Europe
• The US is releasing $1bn (£764m) in weapons to Ukraine
• Ukraine is now connected to the main European grid for electricity

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent, in Kyiv

Even amid ceasefire talks, terrifying events like in Mariupol still continue

In wars, even as two sides talk, unless there is a ceasefire what happens on the ground can take terrifying turns.

And so it has been here in Ukraine, in the besieged southern city of Mariupol.

In the last few hours, city officials have told the BBC that a theatre in the city where more than 1,000 people had been sheltering - taking refuge against the incessant Russian shelling - came under bombardment.

And the continuing bombardment was making it impossible for rescue workers to reach the theatre.

We've just heard from the Russian defence ministry, they have denied that they struck this theatre. So again we're left with who caused what, who is to blame. And in a city which is suffering.

Humanitarian corridors have not been working, about 20,000 people alone have been able to leave the city, but always under sporadic gunfire.

We are getting reports today from Ukrainians and from Russians that they are making progress. But there's still many, many differences. The loudest words we're getting about this war is the words of war unfolding on the ground.

Image source, Getty Images

Healthcare facilities are becoming a target of war, the World Health Organization has warned, as it says Ukraine's health system is "teetering on the brink".

The WHO has verified 43 attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Ukraine and 46 elsewhere in the world in other conflicts - the highest ever rate of attacks on healthcare, which are illegal under international law.

Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies programme, says "unacceptable" attacks on healthcare are "becoming part of the strategy and tactics of war".

He says: "The health system in Ukraine is teetering on the brink, it is doing exceptionally well, but it needs to be supported, it needs to be shored up, it needs to be given the basic tools to save lives."

Dr Ryan says it was an attack on the "most basic of human rights" and it was about more than the destruction of buildings - "this is about the destruction of hope".

As well as the Ukrainian hospitals, the WHO has verified attacks in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Nigeria, Palestine, Sudan and Syria.

Image source, Getty Images

Turning to the US now, where President Biden has been outlining how the US intends to help Ukraine, as the war drags on.

The White House has confirmed it will commit $1bn (£764m) to the direct transfer of weapons to Ukrainian forces.

Biden says the continued support is about "making sure Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin".

He notes US security assistance to Ukraine over the past year - $650m in weapons and $350m in additional aid - amounts to "more than we had ever provided before".

The newly-announced support includes drones, 800 anti-aircraft systems and 9,000 anti-armour systems, as well as machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers and 20 million rounds of ammunition.

Allies too have stepped up their support to unprecedented levels, Biden adds.

"We're going to stay the course and do everything we can to push for an end to this tragic, unnecessary war," he says.

We've been brining you news about the reported bombing of a theatre in the southern city of Mariupol.

In a separate incident, according to Ukraine's armed forces, a convoy of civilians evacuated from the besieged city was hit by rockets fired by Russian forces.

In a Facebook post, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the civilians were fleeing to the city of Zaporizhzhya more than 200 km to the north-east of Mariupol.

At about 13:30 GMT they were fired on by a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system and initial reports suggest some civilians were killed, the Ukrainian military said.

The Zaporizhzhya local government, external said that at least five people were injured, including a child who is in a serious condition.

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, near Yavoriv military base

More now from the besieged port city of Mariupol – the city's deputy mayor has told the BBC that Russian forces have bombed a theatre where hundreds of civilians were sheltering.

Serhiy Orlov said between 1,000 and 1,200 people were in the building. The number of casualties was still unknown, he said. The BBC could not independently verify the information.

Mariupol has been encircled by Russian forces, and an estimated 300,000 are trapped with no running water, electricity or gas. Food and medical supplies are running low, and Russia has not allowed the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The city has been under constant Russian shelling since the start of the war, and entire neighbourhoods have been turned into wasteland. Last week, an attack on a hospital left five dead.

Orlov also said Russia attacked a convoy of civilians that had left from Mariupol on their way to the city of Zaporizhzhia, wounding five civilians including a child.

Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent

Image source, EPA

The UK's defence secretary has once again rejected President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Ben Wallace told the BBC it would be a "step too far".

He said "we've been consistent all along, we're not going to take that step".

But Wallace confirmed that Britain is supplying high velocity anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.

Last week he told MPs that he was examining the supply of Starstreak missiles.

Today at a defence ministers meeting in Brussels, Wallace said "we are supplying them. They will go into theatre".

The MoD has not specified how many anti-aircraft missiles are being sent or said how Ukrainian forces will be trained in how to use them.

Wallace said that the UK had delivered 4,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

Serhiy Orlov, Mariupol's deputy mayor, tells the BBC that Russian bombing hit the city's drama theatre where civilians were being sheltered.

He estimates that between 1,000 and 1,200 people were there. The number of casualties is still unknown.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges have ordered Russia to suspend military operations in Ukraine.

They say Russia must immediately suspend military operations in Ukraine and ensure any military units or people supported or controlled by it take no steps to further the military operation.

Both parties must refrain from any actions that might aggravate dispute or make it harder to resolve.

Judges declined to order Russia to report back on progress but international legal obligations oblige Russia to comply.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed it as "a complete victory", external and said if Russia ignored the order it would be further isolated.

As we've been reporting, Ukraine's president earlier delivered a historic address to the US Congress - during which he again pleaded for the creation of a no-fly zone to curtail the Russian aerial assault on his country.

Volodymyr Zelensky invoked the attacks at Pearl Harbour in 1941 and at the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001.

"Our country is experiencing the same thing every day, every night, for three weeks now," he told lawmakers.

Image source, Nato

The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, has been speaking to journalists in Brussels after a meeting of the alliance's defence ministers.

The BBC asks him: Are there any allies at all who have been asking for a no-fly zone, even if Nato as a whole decided not to enforce one?

Stoltenberg responds that allies are united in the decision not to deploy forces on the ground or in the airspace "because we have a responsibility to ensure that this war doesn't escalate beyond Ukraine".

The BBC also asked whether he thinks Ukraine has cooled on joining Nato as a negotiating tool with Russia.

To this, Stoltenberg - whose birthday is today - says Ukraine is a sovereign, independent nation and "has its own right to choose its own path". "It's up to them to decide whether they aspire for Nato membership or not," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

The Russian Federation has been thrown out of the Council of Europe.

The council is Europe's oldest political body and aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law across the continent.

A statement, external from the council's committee of ministers said after an "extraordinary" meeting, Russia's membership had been suspended.

The procedure to end Russia's membership first began on 25 February - a day after President Putin's forces invaded Ukraine, and almost exactly 26 years since Russia first joined the council.

Ukrainian officials have confirmed that 10 people have been killed by Russian forces in the northern city of Chernihiv.

In a statement issued by the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general, officials said that the attack took place around 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT) this morning when "servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces fired at people standing in line for bread near a grocery store".

It remains unclear how the 10 people were killed, but local media reporters have told the BBC that it is likely that the victims were fired upon by Russian artillery positioned outside the city.

Nomia Iqbal
BBC News, Washington

The last time Volodymyr Zelensky was the focus of Congress was during Donald Trump's first impeachment trial - where the former President was accused of trying to withhold military aid from him in exchange for information on President Biden’s son.

But today he had hero status in the eyes of both parties, receiving a standing ovation before and after his short sombre speech.

As senators drove in their black cars to the Capitol, they were greeted by a small group of protesters outside holding signs and speaking through tannoys. They shouted "no to escalation and yes to negotiation".

After President Zelensky's impassioned speech finished a few of the US networks offered an apology on air for giving no warning of the graphic and heart wrenching video he showed of Ukraine before and after.

But this is his blunt way of letting lawmakers as well the American public know without any filters: our country was once thriving and peaceful, just like yours, and now it's destroyed.