Image source, PA Media

A Ukrainian refugee who is now in Poland has said she feels "sad, confused and angry" about the Russian invasion.

Yana Syniavina and her mother Liubov Syniavina, 52, fled their homes in Kyiv when the war began on 24 February to Cherkasy, a city 119 miles south of the capital, to join other family.

But as Russian troops moved further into Ukraine they decided to leave the country on 15 March, via the Polish-Ukrainian border, and are now at Przemysl, a city in south-eastern Poland. .

They are now planning an 11-hour train journey to Vienna, Austria, where they will be reunited with Liubov's sister.

Speaking about their journey out of Ukraine, Yana told the PA news agency: "We were quite scared at times. But we're here now and we're so glad of the help that Poland gives us."

She said of the outbreak of the war: "We feel, sad, confused and angry because they came to our land. They came to our homes."

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

Image source, Getty Images

Vladimir Putin's speech to the Russian people on Wednesday night was quite extraordinary. Speaking from the Kremlin, we saw a Russian president who is fighting on all fronts.

Fighting in Ukraine, where he claimed his so-called special military operation is going according to plan. And we heard him again trying to justify Russia's military action, to frame it as an act of self-defence.

But he knows he also has a fight on at home. He knows by now that the wave of international sanctions will cause massive economic pain here, and potentially social unrest.

He talked about inflation rising, unemployment rising. So he's looking for scapegoats, for people to blame so the Russian people won't blame him when that economic pain starts to bite acutely.

And the scapegoats have been chosen. He denounced the traitors, the fifth columnists and the "pro-Western scum". In other words, it's us against them, good against evil. Vladimir Putin is trying to create division at home to absolve himself of responsibility for the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine.

Now we have to wait and see what the effect of this speech is on Russian society.

These before and after photographs show the devastation of the Mariupol theatre where residents were sheltering from shelling.

As we've just reported, Ukrainian authorities say the bomb shelter in the building withstood the bombing and they’re now working on getting people out.

Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin told the BBC's Today programme earlier that "more than 1,000 people" were sheltering in the theatre at the time.

Gurin said the building was targeted by Russia despite large messages on the ground - warning that children were present - being visible from the sky.

As we reported earlier, at least one person has died and three others were injured after the debris of a downed missile hit a residential apartment in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

Watch the above video of firefighters tackling fires at the block and helping evacuate residents.

Image source, Tina Wnukowska

A woman who arrived in the UK 10 years ago with only a suitcase has signed up to welcome Ukrainian refugees into her home.

Tina Wnukowska from Gloucester says she wants to return the help she and her family received after arriving from Poland.

"We worked hard to get what we've got and we want to share it," she tells the BBC.

Tina is originally from Lodz in Poland, and now lives in Quedgeley with her husband Gniewosz and two children.

"We came here over 10 years ago now with one suitcase and a little child and we had people who helped us to build our life here and I think it's really important to give back."

Tina, who works in the NHS and is a student nurse, says she doesn't know how long a refugee would stay with her family but is ready for the commitment.

"I wouldn't mind up to a year but it depends on how things are going in Ukraine."

Read more about the families coming forward to help Ukrainian refugees here.

Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Hungary border

Image source, Getty Images

460,000 refugees from Ukraine have now entered Romania, according to border police figures.

Of these, 130,000 have stayed in the country, while others have travelled on to other places in Europe, including Bulgaria, further round the Black Sea coast.

The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the strategic importance of the Black Sea region.

As Russian naval ships and land forces approach Odesa, many Ukrainians flee along the coast to the Danube river at Isaccea, first by train, then by bus. They then cross the Danube on river ferries.

It’s just one of the points through which Ukrainians are fleeing the Russian invasion, but also one of the most spectacular. It is the only place on Ukraine’s long western border where people arrive by boat.

Once on Romanian soil, fire brigade officers and volunteers help them the last few metres to a well-organised complex of tents where warm food and drinks are provided, out of the bitter wind off the river.

The latest arrivals included a 10-day-old baby.

Image source, EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has concluded his address to the German Bundestag in Berlin.

He thanked Germany for its assistance, but told lawmakers their support "came too late to stop war".

"Why does 'never again' not apply," he asked. "What is Germany's historic responsibility towards Ukraine today?".

Zelensky also criticised German leaders over the country's business interests in Russia.

"We could see your willingness to continue to do business with Russia and now we're in the middle of the cold war," Zelesnky said.

"And again this is something you have failed to see. You're still protecting yourself behind a wall that does not make it possible for you to see what we are going through."

He concluded by calling for Germany to tackle Russian aggression and impose harsher sanctions on Moscow. "Peace is more important than income," he told MPs.

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

More than 1,000 women and children are in the bomb shelter in Mariupol theatre, an MP from Mariupol has said.

The Ukrainian authorities say the theatre was attacked by Russians and the number of casualties is unknown.

MP Dmytro Gurin, whose parents are trapped in the city, told the BBC: "The [theatre] building is destroyed, we have more than 1,000 women and children in the bomb shelter, in the basement.

"Minutes ago we had an information that the bomb shelter survived and people there survived.

"We don't know yet whether we have wounded people, or killed people. But it looks like most of them have survived and are ok."

Among the most vulnerable people in Ukraine following the outbreak of war are the estimated 200,000 children in Ukrainian orphanages and foster homes.

Jeremy Locke, a US military veteran who is helping organise safe passage for these children, says the war and the rush to evacuate children from conflict presents an opportunity for criminal gangs.

Locke, who is chief of operations at Aerial Recovery, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is so much confusion going on right now, especially initially when the invasion first happened.

"There was this desire of people coming in, wanting to do good, and rush these children and these orphans across international borders... Rushing these children across the borders, it creates that environment and the opportunity for trafficking to happen."

Locke says Ukraine's Ministry of Social Policy estimates 10,000 children from orphanages and foster homes remain unaccounted for.

He says: "There still are thousands of these orphans that are in danger. And as Russian troops move around, it makes more of them in danger. So it's a constantly shifting scene that we have to be very reactive to."

Locke says his group has so far helped transport and safeguard 403 orphans, though he expects this number to increase.

James Waterhouse
Kyiv correspondent, BBC News

Authorities in Ukraine say the bomb shelter in the Mariupol theatre withstood the bombing.

They say they’re now working on getting people out.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is currently addressing the German Bundestag in Berlin.

Having received a standing ovation at the beginning of his speech, Zelensky is repeating the themes of his addresses to the UK Parliament and the US Congress, urging leaders to take more action to tackle Russia's aggression.

He urges Germany to adopt "the leadership role it deserves" and calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to tear down a "wall" against freedom being erected by Russia in Europe.

Zelensky also criticizes the lack of action taken by EU nations before the invasion, telling MPs that sanctions came too late.

A Ukrainian MP says the theatre in Mariupol in which residents were sheltering from shelling was deliberately targeted by Russian bombers.

Dmytro Gurin tells the BBC's Today programme "more than 1,000 people" were sheltering in the theatre when it was targeted by Moscow's forces, despite a large message warning of the presence of children being visible from the sky.

"The pilot from the airplane saw these words, and he bombed the dramatic theatre anyway," Gurin says.

The MP says one survivor reported the theatre had been destroyed "by a bomb of around 1,000 kilos of explosives".

"There is no dramatic theatre anymore, as I remember it, just rest of the building. And we don't know yet the number of dead".

Gurin, whose parents are trapped in the port city, says it remains unclear whether anyone survived the attack as communication infrastructure in the city has been damaged in intense fighting.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Some 1.95 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland since the war began, the Polish Border Guard agency said this morning.

More than half a million people have already left the country for other destinations, according to Warsaw University migration researcher Prof Maciej Duszczyk.

On Wednesday alone, 60,000 people crossed the border, the border guard said, down 11% from Tuesday.

As of 06:00 GMT on Thursday, 12,000 people had crossed, down from 13,600 during the same period on Wednesday.

Most refugees have gone to large cities including Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw, which are experiencing difficulties coping with the numbers.

Paul Kirby
BBC News Online Europe editor

Image source, Getty Images

The goals Russian President Vladimir Putin set at the start of Russia's invasion appear to have been watered down during the course of a war he assumed would be swiftly won.

But what is clear is that he sees this as a pivotal moment in Russian history.

The Russian leader's initial aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, ending for good its desire to join the Western defensive alliance Nato.

He told the Russian people his goal was to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine", to protect people subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by Ukraine's government. "It is not our plan to occupy the Ukrainian territory. We do not intend to impose anything on anyone by force," he insisted.

But there were no Nazis and no genocide, and Russia has imposed brutal force on dozens of towns and cities and united Ukrainians in opposition to its occupation.

The bombardment continues - but latest reports from peace talks suggest Russia is no longer seeking to overthrow the government and is instead aiming for a neutral Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

Image source, Office of Iryna Vereshchuk

Ukrainian officials say they hope to open nine "humanitarian corridors" from several cities across the country, including from the besieged city of Mariupol in the south-east.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says the government is also hoping to open routes over the course of today.

The move comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had deliberately targeted a theatre in Mariupol in which hundreds of people were sheltering from shelling.

Image source, Reuters

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific is no longer sending flights through Russian airspace following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It joins a growing number of Asian airlines that are avoiding the area, despite longer journey times.

In a statement to the Reuters news agency, Cathay Pacific said: "We regularly review our flight routings internally and also with information provided by external parties.

"We are currently not flying through Russian airspace."

Image source, Getty Images

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that he expects to see a "bigger wave of refugees" arriving in the country next week from Ukraine.

Speaking in a video posted to Facebook during a visit to a crossing point near Hungary's border with Ukraine and Romania, Orban said more border guards would be posted there next week to handle the increased influx.

As of 14 March, some 263,888 Ukrainians had crossed the border into Hungary, according to the UN's human rights watchdog.

On Wednesday, an advisor to Orban told Hungarian media that that officials expected to receive over 900,000 refugees by the end of the war.

However, the number of refugees arriving in Hungary has fallen considerably over the past week.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

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.

On Wednesday evening, city officials 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 made it impossible for rescue workers to reach the theatre for hours.

The Russian defence ministry 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 30,000 people have now been able to leave the city, but always under sporadic gunfire.

We are getting reports from Ukrainians and from Russians that they are making progress in talks. 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, Reuters

The UK should arrange an emergency airlift of some Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Ed Davey, who recently visited the Polish-Ukrainian border, says he saw a "huge number" of Ukrainian women who were "exhausted" and "traumatised" after making the journey.

Davey says he saw 19 other countries at a humanitarian aid centre nearby with their refugee agencies, welcoming refugees and helping them move on, but there was no UK representation.

"I spoke to British aid workers who were there handing out food and nappies and chocolate and things like that and they were in despair," he says.

There has been criticism of the scale and speed of the UK's response to the refugee crisis. Some 5,500 visas had been granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme and 20,000 applications had been submitted as of 16:00 on Tuesday.

The government says its visa schemes for refugees are generous and that it is important to carry out security and safeguarding checks on people coming into the country.

Davey adds: "We're not going to be able to play our part and get the Ukraine refugees who want to come to the UK here quickly and safely unless we have British presence on the ground, supported by the government, providing coaches from the border to the airport and then an emergency airlift back to the UK, no visas."

Image source, Getty Images

The Polish deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, has told the BBC the theatre bombing in Mariupol is another sign that Vladimir Putin's forces are resorting to more brutal tactics.

Przydacz says he agrees with US President Joe Biden's characterisation of the Russian leader as a "war criminal".

"In my opinion the initial plan was to destroy the military infrastructure," Przydacz says.

"The Kremlin believed the government of Ukraine will evaporate somehow. That was not the case. Ukrainians are very brave defending their land and their values, their democracy, the country they built, they've been building for the last 30 years. So now Mr Putin decided to hit civilian infrastructure.

"And what's worse, I've seen a photo that's around this theatre, it was written on the pavement that there are kids inside. It didn't stop Mr Putin from bombing this and it's really, as President Biden called him, this is the war criminal."