Image source, Salam Aldeen

The UN says more than three million Ukrainians have now fled since Russia launched its invasion just over three weeks ago.

But finding a safe route out of the country is not easy.

Heavy bombardment from Russian forces poses a major challenge to those looking to escape.

Now civilians are helping other civilians navigate their safe passage out of a war zone.

Dozens of volunteers in the US and elsewhere are arranging transport for refugees thousands of miles away.

Liaising with volunteers on the ground in Ukraine, they relay information in real-time about safe roads to drivers who can rescue busloads of people.

Read more: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Some 2,057,114 people have fled Ukraine to Poland since the war began, the Polish Border Guard agency says.

So far today, 23,200 have crossed the frontier, the agency wrote on Twitter, that’s up 2.1% from the same period yesterday.

Some of the people fleeing in the last three weeks have already left Poland.

Warsaw University migration research professor Maciej Duszczyk estimates at least 1.1 million people remain.

Most have gone to stay in large cities including Warsaw and Krakow, whose officials are complaining that they have reached their capacity to accommodate them.

In the three weeks since Russia attacked Ukraine, one business in Poland's capital, Warsaw, has been putting employees' sewing skills to a new use.

A group of seamstresses who fled the war are helping by making camouflage outfits for the men and women on the front line.

Image source, Getty Images

The UN children's agency has warned that children fleeing the war in Ukraine face a heightened risk of human trafficking and exploitation.

Unicef says that children make up 1.5 million of those who have fled the country since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, 500 of them being unaccompanied.

“The war in Ukraine is leading to massive displacement and refugee flows – conditions that could lead to a significant spike in human trafficking and an acute child protection crisis,” Unicef's Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia said.

“Displaced children are extremely vulnerable to being separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked," said Afshan Khan, urging governments to put measures in place to keep them safe.

Ben Wright
BBC political correspondent

Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin had been frightened of Ukraine’s free press and free elections.

But it was while Johnson was musing on freedom, that he made a link between Ukrainians fighting for their country and Brexit.

In his speech to the Tory spring conference in Blackpool, Johnson said “it is the instinct of the people in this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom”. He then said the Brexit vote was a “famous recent example”.

The remarks, intended to rally the Tory party faithful, riled many outside the hall.

Conservative peer lord Barwell, who was Theresa May’s chief of staff in Number 10, said voting in the 2016 referendum wasn’t “in any way comparable with risking your life” in a war.

Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said the comparison was an insult to every Ukrainian - while the SNP’s leader at Westminster Ian Blackford called the comments “crass and distasteful”.

European Twitter went tonto, too.

The former president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said the words “offended Ukrainians, the British and common sense”.

It certainly feels a clumsy comparison to have made while Ukraine fights for its survival.

Image source, Getty Images

Street fighting is continuing in the centre of the strategic southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, as Russian forces try to seize control of the city.

The situation is desperate, with as many as 300,000 civilians unable to evacuate.

Some of the few civilians who have been able to escape have described terrible conditions there, cut off from power and water with food supplies running out.

Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak's sister escaped from Mariupol a few days ago.

"After two weeks they had no food, and shops closed so she said that, I have a choice to go try to find, like steal, some food - or die without food," Zhelezniak told the BBC.

"People are always are always scared that some bomb, some weapon, some blast will kill them. There are a lot of dead bodies in the street, a lot of buildings are on fire, a lot of buildings have been destroyed, a lot of bomb shelters have been destroyed with people, once again, inside."

BBC Monitoring

There are no longer railway links between Ukraine and Belarus, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, chairman of Ukraine's railway network.

Kamyshin made the announcement after apparently having failed in his appeal to Belarusian railway workers not to carry Russian military trains towards Ukraine.

It's been confirmed that one of Ukraine's leading ballet dancers, Artem Datsishin, has died - the latest prominent artistic figure to be killed since the invasion began.

Datsishin, 43, a former principal dancer with the National Opera of Ukraine, died on Thursday after being wounded last month by Russian artillery fire.

"I can't express my heartache that is overwhelming me," his friend Tatiana Borovik wrote on Facebook.

Datsishin is among the latest Ukrainian celebrities and cultural figures to have been killed in the conflict.

Actress Oksana Shvets, 67, was killed in a rocket attack on the capital, according to the Kyiv Independent.

She was a veteran of stage and screen for decades in Ukraine, and the recipient of one of the country's highest artistic accolades.

Pasha Lee, an actor who performed voice dubbing for popular English-language films including The Hobbit, was killed on the outskirts of Kyiv on Sunday, according to reports.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Russian air raids on Mykolaiv have been taking place throughout the day, a regional official said.

It comes a day after a deadly strike on a military barracks in the southern Ukrainian city. About 200 soldiers are reported to have been sleeping in the barracks when three Russian missiles hit.

Vitaly Kim, head of the regional administration, said there wasn't even enough time to raise the alarm over the latest raids "because by the time we announce this tornado, it's already there".

"The (alert) message and the bombings arrive at the same time," he said on social media. He gave no details about the extent of the damage or on any possible victims.

Read more: Scores feared dead after Russia attack on Mykolaiv barracks

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Lviv

Image source, Getty Images

The mayor of Mariupol says several thousand residents from the besieged city have been sent to Russia.

In a message on Telegram, Vadym Boychenko, said that some were redirected to remote cities in Russia, while the fate of others remained unknown.

The BBC has not been able to verify the claim.

"What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people," Boychenko said.

"It is hard to imagine that in the 21st Century people will be forcibly deported to another country.

About 300,000 people are trapped inside the city, as food and medical supplies run out and Russia blocks the entry of humanitarian aid.

Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.

Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago.

The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.

Read more: 'Tanks in streets' as fighting hits Mariupol centre

Residents of the Ukrainian capital have come out into the sunshine in the city's central square to arrange some 1.5 million tulips into the shape of the country's coat of arms.

They say the display is intended to honour the Ukrainian women of Kyiv.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

A total of 6,623 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors today, a senior official said.

This is far fewer than more than 9,000 that managed to escape on Friday.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, posted that 4,128 people had left the besieged city of Mariupol.

Artists have been among millions fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

In Warsaw, the Polish National Ballet has given shelter to about 30 Ukrainian dancers in its opera house - as well as the opportunity to join the company class. The BBC visited one of their rehearsals.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 3.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine through its western border, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Around 2 more million displaced inside the country, she said, according to Reuters.

Ukraine has evacuated 190,000 civilians from frontline areas through humanitarian corridors since the start of Russia’s invasion, Vereshchuk said.

Corridors in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions were functioning on Saturday, but a planned corridor to Mariupol was only partially operational, with Russian troops not allowing buses through, she added.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's President Zelensky has urged Switzerland to crack down on Russian elites and told the country's banks to freeze their funds.

Addressing an anti-war protest outside the Swiss parliament in Bern, Zelensky urged companies, including food giant Nestle, to stop doing business with Russia.

"Business works in Russia even though our children are dying and our cities are being destroyed," he told the rally by video link.

"Your banks are where the money of the people who unleashed this war lies. That is painful. That is also a fight against evil, that their accounts are frozen.

"Ukrainians feel what it is when cities are destroyed. They are being destroyed on the orders of people who live in European, in beautiful Swiss towns, who enjoy property in your cities. It would really be good to strip them of this privilege," The Ukrainian president said.

Image source, Getty Images

Despite not being an EU member, Switzerland has fully adopted EU sanctions against Russian individuals and businesses.

Zelensky said those behind the conflict had funds stashed in Swiss banks and urged them to join the "fight against evil".

"The money of the people who unleashed this war is in your banks. Help fight this. So that their funds are frozen," he said.

It's just gone 20:00 in Kyiv. As darkness closes in on the 24th day of the conflict, here are the latest developments:

• Fierce fighting for Mariupol: The mayor of the besieged southern city says there is intense street battles in the city centre, hampering efforts to rescue the hundreds of people still trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre. Russian forces have encircled the southern port, which has faced days of heavy bombardment
• Civilians killed: The UN's human rights office says at least 847 civilians, including 64 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, mostly by shelling and airstrikes. But it says the true total is likely to be much higher
• Poland calls for trade blockade: Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has urged the EU to impose a total trade ban on Russia "as soon as possible". He says a blockade on Russian ships and goods would force Moscow to "stop this cruel war"
• Hypersonic weapons: Russia says it's used hypersonic missiles for the first time ever in warfare, destroying a weapons storage site in western Ukraine. Hypersonic missiles travel much faster than the speed of sound, making them hard to intercept
• Space station suits: Russia's space agency has denied that three of its cosmonauts - who boarded the International Space Station wearing uniforms in the colours of the Ukrainian flag - were protesting against the invasion

Image source, Gett

More now from the BBC's Andrew Harding who's been reporting about a rescue operation under way at a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv, following a series of missile strikes.

About 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks when three Russian missiles hit the base on the northern edge of Mykolaiv, a source told the BBC. Some 57 injured people were being treated in hospitals, another source said.

The temperature in Mykolaiv last night was minus 6C and it's feared there may not be many more survivors.

And the rescue work at the site is being carried out amid fears of new Russian attacks.

With a crane pulling away chunks of concrete and twisted metal, suddenly soldiers guarding the base shouted at journalists to run for cover, as the sound of a plane, or possibly a missile, could be heard overhead.

Seconds later a dull explosion could be heard somewhere to the north-east.

There has been heavy shelling overnight in the south of Mykolaiv, a key city that has been blocking Russia's advance west along the Black Sea coast for weeks.

There are also reports that Russian reconnaissance teams, sent in to locate military targets for attack, have been found in the city.

Despite the frequent air raid sirens in Mykolaiv, the city remains relatively calm, with many vehicles and civilians still out on the streets.

Read in full: Scores feared dead after Russia attack on Mykolaiv barracks

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

A senior Chinese government official has said that sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia over Ukraine are increasingly "outrageous".

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng also said Nato should not further expand eastwards, forcing a nuclear power like Russia "into a corner".

China has not condemned Russia's invasion - refusing to call it an invasion - but it has expressed deep concern about the war. It has also opposed sanctions on Moscow.

"The sanctions against Russia are getting more and more outrageous," Le said at security forum in Beijing, Reuters reports.

He added that Russian citizens were being deprived of overseas assets "for no reason".

"History has proven time and again that sanctions cannot solve problems. Sanctions will only harm ordinary people, impact the economic and financial system... and worsen the global economy."

Image source, ROSCOSMOS

Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, has said that "Sometimes, yellow is just yellow", in response to speculation that their cosmonauts were dressing in the colours of Ukraine's flag.

Pictures of the Russian cosmonauts with their international counterparts showed them wearing yellow uniforms with blue trims, leading some to believe that they were displaying an anti-war demonstration.

The standard Russian uniform is plain blue, yet when the men were asked about their clothes, one responded "it was our turn to pick a colour... and we'd accumulated a lot of yellow fabric".

Read more here.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Russia's invasion of Ukraine had shaken "the foundation of international order" and required a clear response.

India and Japan are party to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), a security framework that also includes the US and Australia.

While Japan has imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian individuals and organisations and has accepted Ukrainian refugees, India has not condemned the invasion.

"We (Kishida and Modi) confirmed any unilateral change to the status quo by force cannot be forgiven in any region, and it is necessary to seek peaceful resolutions of disputes based on international law," Kishida told reporters after meeting Modi in New Delhi.