At least 847 civilians, including 64 children, have been killed in Ukraine between the start of the invasion on 24 February and Friday 18 March, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) says.

This is an increase of 31 deaths compared to the previous daily update published on Friday.

A further 1,399 civilians, including 78 children, have been injured, mostly by shelling and airstrikes, the OHCHR says.

The actual toll is believed to be much higher, it adds.

"Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the OHCHR said.

A man has been rescued from the rubble of a building in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, after it was shelled by Russia on Friday.

"I fell and covered my head - I was lucky [the building] fell in a way that did not crush me," he says.

As we await news on the more than 1,000 people thought to be trapped inside the rubble of the bombed theatre in Mariupol, a new satellite image has emerged showing significant damage to the building:

Image source, Maxar Technologies

The image, from Maxar Technologies, shows the aftermath of Wednesday's strike on Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which Ukraine blames on Russia.

It also shows the Russian word for “children” (дети) written in large letters in front of the building.

The words were also visible before the strike, as this earlier image from Maxar shows:

Image source, Maxar

Rescue workers are still searching for survivors in the wreckage of the theatre, with at least 130 freed so far, according to authorities.

Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh has won an emotional gold at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

It had taken the 20-year-old three days to get from Ukraine to the Serbian capital.

The crowd cheered as she held her country's flag aloft in celebration.

"It's a very important thing for my country," Mahuchikh told BBC Sport. "For me, coming here was difficult - three days by car - and to jump here was so difficult psychologically because my heart remains in my country.

"It's so difficult but I think I've done very well for my country because I protect my country on the track."

Read more from BBC Sport here.

Image source, EPA

Ukraine has called on China to join the West in condemning the Russian invasion, after the country has sought to keep a diplomatic distance from the war.

"China can be an important element in the global security system, if it makes the right decision - to support the coalition of civilised countries and condemn the barbarism of Russia," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

China earlier chose to abstain in a UN vote condemning Russia's invasion, and US officials said recently that China had signalled a willingness to provide military assistance to Russia.

In a two-hour phone call with China's President Xi Jinping on Friday, US President Joe Biden said that any support provided to Russia by Beijing would be costly.

The US's leverage over China is limited, however, and readouts from both sides suggest the call didn't achieve much.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, or catching up on today's events, here are some of the latest developments from Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

• 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
• This is hampering efforts to rescue people trapped in a basement under the rubble of a theatre shelled on Wednesday
• The situation in the city is desperate - with as many as 300,000 civilians unable to evacuate - after Russian troops were able to work their way through armoured columns
• Mayor Vadym Boychenko says Ukrainian forces are doing their all to hold off a larger Russian force inside the southern port city
• In another southern city, Zaporizhzhia, a 38-hour curfew has begun. It follows a Russian rocket strike that killed at least nine people
• Ukraine President Zelensky has urged Russia's President Putin to join him for peace talks "without delay", saying it's "the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage of its own mistakes"

• Russia has said its forces used hypersonic missiles - cutting edge weapons able to travel at more than five times the speed of sound - to target an underground arms depot in western Ukraine

Russia continues to advance in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol with fighting taking place on the streets. This is preventing people trapped beneath a shelled theatre being rescued, according to the city's mayor.

Vadym Boichenko says there "isn't a small piece of land in the city that doesn't have signs of war" as Russia's defence ministry revealed its forces were "tightening a noose" around the area.

But gains by Russian troops have ground to a halt in many places as Ukrainian forces hold out and launch effective counterattacks.

In the north east, Russian forces have almost surrounded the city of Sumy, but attempts to cut it off from the south have failed.

Their attempts to take Kharkiv hasn't some to fruition as Ukrainian forces repel an advance to the south of the city. Also Russian troops advancing on the capital Kyiv have faced strong resistance.

Here are the full developments on day 24 of the invasion, which have been tracked using maps.

A convoy of donated fire engines and thousands of pieces of equipment has set off on a three-day journey bound for Ukraine.

22 vehicles, including fire engines and lorries full of kit, have been offered by fire services from across the UK. It follows an initial delivery sent on 11 March by Charity Fire Aid and the National Fire Chiefs Council.

Mike Pitney, who's leading the convoy, which left from Ashford in Kent earlier, says: "I've been going out to Ukraine for 10 years, so I have friends and family, as far as I'm concerned, out there."

The equipment that's being taken to Ukraine has reached the end of its life in the UK but is "perfectly usable", Claire Hoyland, project manager for Fire Aid, said.

Read the full story.

Paul Kirby
BBC News Online Europe editor

Image source, RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY

As was reported here earlier, Russia's military has said it fired a "Kinzhal" hypersonic ballistic missile and destroyed a big underground arms depot in western Ukraine.

If confirmed, it would be Russia's first use in this war of the Kinzhal - or Dagger - ballistic missile launched from the air, most likely by a MiG-31 warplane.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin unveiled the Kinzhal four years ago as one of a series of "invincible" weapons that he said would evade enemy defences.

The Kinzhal can carry a nuclear warhead as well as a conventional one, and recent reports said MiG-31 fighters had been sent to Kaliningrad, bringing numerous European capitals within reach. There is no indication from where the attack on the arms depot was launched.

"It's a sign of showmanship. Even if it's used we should consider it as an isolated moment because Russia doesn't have a large number of these missiles," says Dominika Kunertova of the Center for Security Studies in Zurich.

"It's a signal to the West, because Putin is annoyed that the West is daring to shift all these weapons [to Ukraine]," she told the BBC. "It's questionable that it's so accurate, so it's not a game changer.

Read more from Paul here

Evacuees from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol have been speaking of the devastation wrought on their hometown after weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.

"There is no Mariupol," Lyudmyla, a 54-year-old English teacher, tells Reuters news agency, as she arrives in Zaporizhzhia, about 250km (155 miles) away.

Image source, Reuters

"We sat in the cellar for 10 days and did not leave once. We neither had water nor electricity."

Lyudmyla says she "really misses" the children she used to teach. "I can’t imagine what to do now."

Another evacuee, Sergiy, 44, says he travelled from Mariupol with his family, dog and parrot. People were "fighting for fuel" to escape the city, he tells Reuters.

Image source, Reuters

Sergiy says people had died trying to leave Mariupol.

"There were lots of people dying on the streets, dead bodies were lying in the streets."

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier we heard 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.

Emergency teams say they have pulled dozens of bodies from the rubble at the site.

"At least 50 bodies have been recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble," a 22-year-old emergency official named only as Maxim told AFP news agency.

He said that "no fewer than 200" soldiers were sleeping at the base when the missiles hit on Friday.

A source has told the BBC that at least 57 people were being treated at three separate hospitals.

Our correspondent earlier pointed out that the temperature recorded in Mykolaiv overnight was -6C.

The city is key to Russia's advance west and Ukrainian forces there have been blocking troops from moving further along the Black Sea coast.

BBC Monitoring

Ten civilians, including two children, have been killed from shelling in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions in the past two days, officials say.

Seven civilians were killed and five wounded as a result of a mortar strike on the Kyiv region town of Makariv on 18 March, the Kyiv Region police force reported on Facebook the following day.

A woman and two children were found dead under the rubble of a house that collapsed as a result of shelling in the city of Rubizhne in the Luhansk region on 19 March, the State Emergencies Service reported on Telegram.

A third child also retrieved from the rubble was said to be in a satisfactory condition.

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

As improbable as it might seem, peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials started within days of Russia’s invasion on 24 February.

They’ve carried on ever since, with foreign ministers meeting in Turkey more than a week ago.

This week has seen multiple reports of possible peace plans and lists of Russian demands.

But how real is this “peace process”, which continues despite Russia’s relentless bombardment of cities like Mariupol?

Image source, Reuters

Interviewed in The Times today, external, the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss expressed the scepticism of many in the west.

“What we’ve seen is an attempt to create space for the Russians to regroup,” she said. “I fear the negotiation is yet another attempt to create a diversion and create a smokescreen from the appalling [atrocities].”

The chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on integration into the European Union, Ivana Klympush Tsintsadze, says the talks have "no real ground for a serious conversation".

“They are not ready for any serious conversation besides having their ultimatums being fulfilled by Ukrainians," she tells the BBC.

In his latest late night address, Volodymyr Zelensky said the time had come for a meeting. He clearly meant with Vladimir Putin.

But that’s something Putin has refused to do since the two men met in Paris more than two years ago.

Recent Turkish efforts to bring the two leaders together have yet to result in any plan. It won’t happen until peace talks are much more advanced than they are now.

Image source, PA Media

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Vladimir Putin decided to launch his invasion of Ukraine over the fear of having a free, democratic nation as his neighbour.

Speaking at the Conservative Party spring conference in Blackpool, the PM said "it is clear that Putin has made a catastrophic mistake" by invading.

Johnson said that Putin did not really believe Ukraine was going to join the Nato military alliance, or in the "semi-mystical guff" about "the origins of the Russian people" spouted by the Russian president.

He said that Putin "will not stop in Ukraine" if the invasion goes his way, and that "the end of freedom in Ukraine will mean the extinction of any hope of freedom in Georgia and then Moldova - it will mean the beginning of a new age of intimidation across eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea."

Johnson added that the UK must now take the "bold steps necessary" to "end our dependence" on Russia's oil and gas.

He accused the Russian president of being "a backstreet pusher, feeding addiction, creating dependence" on Russian energy.

"It is time to take back control of our energy supplies," Johnson said, while admitting there was a "cost" to this, but "the cost of doing nothing would be far, far higher".

More now from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, this time on the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

He said the US is restraining Kyiv from agreeing to Russia's demands.

"It is constantly felt that the Ukrainian delegation is being held by the hand, most likely by the Americans, not allowing them to agree to the demands that I think are absolutely minimal," he said, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

Mr Lavrov did not appear to provide any evidence for the idea that the US is influencing Kyiv's position, and neither the US nor Ukraine have suggested this could be the case.

In his most recent video address, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called for meaningful negotiations on peace.

"It's time to meet. Time to talk," he said, apparently calling for direct talks with Vladimir Putin.

Image source, Foreign Ministry of Belarus / Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Reviving a landmark nuclear deal with Iran could help tackle the recent surge in oil prices fuelled by sanctions against Russia, Ireland's foreign minister says.

Simon Coveney said a new agreement, which he hoped could be reached as early as this weekend, would provide an opportunity for Iran to re-enter the supply market.

"We look as if we're almost there," Coveney, who is the UN Security Council facilitator of the nuclear deal, told the BBC. "That's a good news story when we need one."

Sanctions were placed on Tehran after it was said to have breached a 2015 nuclear deal - formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - reached between Iran and six other nations.

A new deal would ease those sanctions in exchange for Iran giving up ambitions to build a nuclear weapon.

The UK and EU are looking to break away from their dependence on Russian oil in response to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

BBC Monitoring

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Ukrainian forces in Kyiv have detained 127 saboteurs, including 14 infiltration groups, since the Russian invasion began, says the capital's military administration head Mykola Zhyrnov.

Zhyrnov says roadblocks have been key in capturing the pro-Russian agents, who Ukraine accuses of sabotage and infiltration.

"They are the basis of fortifications, engineering barriers, checkpoints for vehicles and people, and of the construction of other systems, including those for live fire," Zhyrnov says, according to the Unian news agency.

With 35 markets and 635 shops open, Kyiv has enough food stocks, he says, even for a long-term defence.

Image source, Getty Images

More now on the situation in the besieged southern city of Mariupol.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says it cannot reach the thousands of people trapped there because it is completely encircled by Russian forces.

WFP's emergency coordinator, Jakob Kern, tells the AFP news agency the tactic of preventing emergency food supplies to Mariupol is "unacceptable in the 21st century".

The situation in Ukraine's encircled cities is "dire", he says, and his organisation is unable to reach Mariupol because lorry drivers are unwilling to risk their safety getting there.

"The closer you go to these cities, the more worried they are about their safety," Kern says. "And that means we're not able to reach these people in Mariupol, Sumy, Kharkiv, in the cities that are almost encircled by now - or completely in the case of Mariupol."

Russia's relationship with China will get stronger as a result of the current political situation, according to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"At a time when the West is blatantly undermining all the foundations on which the international system is based, of course we - as two great powers - need to think how to carry on in this world," Mr Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Interfax.

In a phone call on Friday, US President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping of the "implications and consequences" to China if Beijing provides support to Russia for the war, the White House said.

Chinese state media reported that Xi described the war as being "in no one's interest", but there was no mention of any direct criticism of President Putin.

According to several recent media reports, Russia has asked China for military equipment to support its invasion of Ukraine.

Read more here on the kind of assistance China could provide to Russia.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Harding
BBC News, Mykolaiv

Rescue workers were still crawling over giant piles of rubble at a Ukrainian military barracks on the northern edge of Mykolaiv this morning, while a crane pulled away chunks of concrete and twisted metal.

30 hours after three missiles hit the base, the rescue teams discovered a survivor buried in the wreckage. He was carried down the steep mountain of rubble in a stretcher and taken away by ambulance towards the city centre. The temperature in Mykolaiv last night was -6C.

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 was heard somewhere to the north-east.

Although there are no official casualty figures yet, the BBC has been told by a reliable source that 57 people are being treated for their injuries in three local hospitals. Another source said there were 200 soldiers in the barracks at the time of the attack. It’s thought many of them died.

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.

Image source, Getty Images