Image source, EPA

Tracking how many people have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine is difficult, as information is patchy and difficult to verify.

Ukrainian military sources say that so far as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, though this figure may include injured as well as dead. Russia has not given a figure for its losses since 2 March, when it said 498 had been killed. The most recent US military intelligence estimate, quoted by the New York Times, puts the figure at around 7,000.

The BBC's Russian Service has put together a list of 557 confirmed Russian fatalities, sourced from reports containing specific information about the individuals' deaths.

And on the Ukrainian side, more than a week ago, President Zelensky said 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, but Ukraine has given no figures since then.

On Monday, Ukrainian officials said 115 children had been killed in the conflict and 140 wounded, while the UN’s human rights office said 925 civilians had been killed and 1,496 injured.

However, authorities in the besieged southern city of Mariupol estimate that 2,500 people have died in that city alone.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

This was an unusual interfaith line-up in the heart of Jerusalem: Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze leaders in their traditional dress.

But their prayer for peace in Ukraine took place in a symbolic location: Moscow Square, outside a compound of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“We are here to express first of all our solidarity to the people of Ukraine who are suffering this terrible war that we cannot understand and justify at all,” says the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

A letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow signed by 150 faith leaders from around the world is taped to the compound gate, urging him to use his influence with the Kremlin.

“In light of your close connection with President Vladimir Putin, we call on you to request that he take immediate steps to de-escalate the conflict,” it reads.

“Religion should be a force for peace, do not let it play into the war of nations,” comments Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein.

He says when a request was made to meet the Russian Orthodox Church leaders, the interfaith group had been told they were praying. “May God hear their prayers, and may they pray for the right thing,” he adds.

Image source, Getty Images

The Russian government insists there is no need to panic over the availability of basic foods.

"We are fully covering our needs in sugar and buckwheat," said deputy PM Viktoria Abramchenko.

"There is no need to panic, no need to stockpile those goods. There's enough for everyone," she said at a government meeting, reported by Interfax news agency.

She did say however that Russia would increase the area of land used to sow sugar beet and buckwheat this year.

Abramchenko also said that so far the sanctions imposed on Russia did not give grounds to expect any food shortages. She said Russia was expanding imports from "friendly countries" to guarantee stocks of dairy produce, fruit and veg, meat and animal feed. She mentioned ex-Soviet neighbours in that group as well as Turkey, India and China.

The sanctions have depressed the value of the rouble, making imported food more expensive. They have also made it harder for Russia to use international financial services.

Oksana Torop, BBC News Ukraine and Abdujalil Abdurasulov, BBC News

After 26 days of war there are some changes in the peace negotiations, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak tells the BBC.

Ukraine's resilient performance has forced Russia "to more adequately assess the reality" of the situation, as he puts it, which has helped in encouraging "some sort of a dialogue".

But any decision on a peace agreement will be made between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Podolyak says there is no agreed date when their meeting might happen.

Although he refuses to give details of the negotiations, Podolyak makes it clear Kyiv is not going to make any compromise on territorial integrity or Ukraine's sovereignty.

He once again expresses Kyiv's frustration about Nato's refusal to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine.

"[They] are not closing our sky, [they] are standing aside at the time when 10 million people are in search of places to live and three million have already left the country. This is a humanitarian catastrophe in Europe."

Buses evacuating civilians from front line areas have been hit by shelling, says the governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, according to Reuters.

Oleksandr Starukh says "four children were taken to hospital" and has blamed Russian forces.

The BBC has not been able to verify these claims.

James Reynolds
BBC News, Lviv

Image source, Reuters

We see the footage which has come out of Kherson - Russian forces carrying on the offensive even if people are protesting.

It's perhaps an important point to see how the Ukrainian population under Russian occupation is now treated.

The authorities of the besieged city of Mariupol talked about thousands of people being taken across the border.

Russia is not addressing those allegations directly, but it says it has helped people who want to go to Russia to cross the border.

Ukrainians would ask why anyone would want to go to Russia, when Russia is the country that has bombarded their homes.

It's difficult to know what is going on inside in Mariupol. The last known journalists left for their own safety, and one can imagine anyone in Mariupol is facing a situation the likes of which we are only beginning to understand in pieces, as people are evacuated in trickles and end up in nearby places such as Zaporizhzhia.

In Mariupol, colleagues have been speaking to officials there who say they are unable to count the dead.

Just a few weeks ago if we had been reading these accounts from Mariupol, we would have thought we were reading something from World War Two.

BBC Panorama has traced some footage of a missile strike in the southern city of Mykolaiv, which was posted on social media earlier this month.

At the site of the blast, the team found Mikhail, 64, who lost his wife in the attack. They had been trying to flee when she was hit.

Mikhail believed it was a Russian cluster bomb.

“How could they do this?” he said in floods of tears, walking around his damaged home.

Mikhail and Lyudmila, 60, were together for 42 years.

Mikhail has now moved 130km (80 miles) west, with his son, to Odesa, to escape the continuing bombardment of his city. However, residents of Odesa are also preparing for a possible attack.

Panorama Ukraine's Resistance: Standing Up to Putin is on BBC One at 20:00 GMT

Image source, EPA

Ukraine will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol or Kharkiv will not accept Russian occupation, President Voldymyr Zelensky has told Ukrainian media.

"We have an ultimatum with points in it - 'follow it and then we will end the war'. Ukraine cannot fulfil the ultimatum," Zelensky says in an interview published by Ukrainian public broadcasting company Suspilne, quoted by Reuters.

Russia had set Ukraine a deadline of this morning to surrender in the besieged port city of Mariupol, saying civilians and fighters would be given safe passage out of the city as long as they gave up their weapons.

But Ukraine ignored that ultimatum, saying surrender was not an option.

Image source, Russian Ministry of Defence

The Russian invasion remains largely stalled across all their lines of advance, with troops not having moved any further towards Kyiv since last week, a US senior defence official has said.

The Russians have launched more than 1,100 missiles, but may be facing some “inventory issues”, the official said. Some missiles have failed to launch, some have failed to explode, the official added.

The US is unable to confirm or refute Russia’s claim that it used a hypersonic missile, the official said, adding it wasn’t clear why the missile would have been needed, but that the Russians may have been running low on precision guided missiles, or have wanted to send a message.

The official said there had been an increase in naval activity in the Black Sea, which was believed to include some shelling around the port of Odesa. But this did not mean an assault on the city was imminent, the official said.

Nick Thorpe
BBC News, at the Romania-Ukraine border

'I want to come back. Ukraine, it's my life'

Iryna is going back to Ukraine - but only for half an hour.

The 34-year-old lawyer, from Kyiv, has already delivered her twins, 11, to safety in Dortmund, Germany. Then she drove all the way back to Isaccea, in the bottom right corner of Romania, where the dark green Danube, a kilometre wide, forms the border with her homeland.

She's crossing the river to Orlivka to fetch her 74-year-old mother, Natalia.

"We had a happy life in Ukraine. Everyone was safe, my children went to school…" says Iryna wistfully.

"My native language is Russian, but I don't want Putin to protect me.

"Ukraine was a great country. Now everything is ruined.

"I don't know when I can come back to Ukraine, but I want to come back. Ukraine, it's my life."

The ferry is almost empty on the outward journey from Romania - only a handful of people, travelling 'the wrong way', each with their own reasons for returning: a woman who was on holiday in Israel when the war began; a young man who says he was studying in Somalia, going back to fight for his homeland; and two Spanish journalists, on their way to Odesa to cover the war.

On the return journey, several hundred women and children troop down the gangway.

Natalia is wrapped in a blanket: 'Are you glad to be going home?' we ask her. "I'm leaving home, Ukraine is my home," she says defiantly.

Back on the Romanian side, volunteers ply astonished children with cuddly toys and chocolates, the adults with cups of tea.

Some of the new arrivals will stay in Romania, but most will travel on. A row of buses is waiting, bound for Bulgaria further round the Black Sea coast - already a temporary home to more than 80,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Image source, Reuters

The UK's ambassador to Ukraine has backed a potential visit to capital Kyiv by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, if security issues can be managed.

Melinda Simmons told Radio 4's Woman's Hour, the PM had done a "brilliant job" in showing solidarity with Ukraine, particularly in his conversations with President Zelensky.

"Any engagement is important to help bolster that extraordinary morale that the president has been showing by rallying the country and staying, himself, in the capital," said Simmons.

She refused to comment on the PM comparing the struggle of Ukrainians fighting Russia's invasion to people in Britain voting for Brexit, which received widespread criticism over the weekend.

She praised the UK's role in supporting Ukraine "on every level", citing the UK's military and humanitarian support, diplomatic engagement and the Homes for Ukraine scheme, external.

But she said the challenge was ongoing, and allies needed "to be ready at every stage" should the invasion move westwards, or Russia use "bigger and bolder" weapons, in what is an "exponential crisis".

Simmons, who is currently based in Poland - after moving from a temporary base in Lviv earlier this month - said she had no plans to return to London: "We must be as close as we can be to Ukraine."

Image source, Reuters

Russia is conducting state terrorism in Ukraine and will go on to attack other countries, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.

Speaking alongside UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace during a visit to London, Reznikov said 150 Ukrainian children had been killed since Russia invaded. He said more than 400 schools and kindergartens and more than 110 hospitals had been destroyed.

"Thousands and thousands of civilians" had also been killed, he added, saying it was not known exactly how many as many were still trapped under the rubble of destroyed houses.

"This is a state terrorism. That is why [the] Kremlin must be stopped, because it will go further. It will attack other countries," Reznikov said.

He did not cite any evidence to support his assertion. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Since the Russian invasion began, Ukrainian soldiers have destroyed almost 500 Russian tanks, and more than 1,500 armoured combat vehicles, he said. Weapons provided by Britain were used in some of these cases, he said.

"We greatly appreciate that this year, Britain was the first to provide us with serious weapons that have increased our defence capabilities. Your role is special, and your courage and your spirit are in stark contrast with the passivity of some other countries."

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Earlier we reported that, according to officials in Odesa, Russian naval forces have shelled residential buildings on the outskirts of the port city.

Ukraine's emergency services have released footage of what they say is some of the damage.

The city has so far not faced the bombardment and fighting that other areas have experienced. But it's a key port, not far from the border with Moldova, and is considered a strategic target if Moscow is attempting to expand its control along the Black Sea coast.

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Olga Ivshina and Olga Prosvirova
BBC News Russian

Image source, Family archive for BBC

Reports of Russian troop deaths in the invasion vary wildly.

Ukrainian military sources say that so far as many as 15,000 have been killed, though this figure may include injured as well as dead. US intelligence suggests half that number may have died.

Russia's defence ministry has released casualty figures only once. On 2 March it said 498 servicemen had died, and has reported nothing since then.

But now our colleagues at BBC Russian have created a list of 557 confirmed Russian fatalities.

It has been compiled only from reports containing specific information about an individual's death, including name and rank.

These names have generally come from announcements by officials or media from each serviceman's local area, or by educational establishments where they previously studied.

The list includes one major-general, seven colonels, one naval captain first rank, nine lieutenant-colonels, 20 majors and 70 junior officers. The rest are non-commissioned officers or privates.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has denied having any contact with Marina Ovsyannikova, the editor who staged an anti-war protest during a live news bulletin on Russian state TV.

"We have not been in touch with Ovsyannikova. This is yet another lie being peddled by the disinformation machine," the FCO said.

It was commenting on the claim by Kirill Kleymenov, head of news at Russia's Channel One, that the journalist had spoken to the British embassy before her protest - a claim we reported on earlier.

Ovsyannikova told the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that throughout her interrogation over the incident she had been continuously questioned about her alleged connections with foreign secret services.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

A survivor who escaped the besieged city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine has told BBC Radio 4's World at One about his experiences sheltering from Russian shelling.

Artur Shevchenko had been in Mariupol with his family since the start of the war until finally escaping three days ago.

"It was terrible. A lot of bombing, a lot of shelling all over the place," he says of his time in a shelter with around 60 other people.

"I heard the rockets. It was maybe 15 metres from our hiding spot."

He describes how people in the shelter were forced to live off polluted river water and a diet of buckwheat and rice.

"Our city is not ecologically safe because of the plants and factories. We were boiling [the water] on the fireplaces.

"We were afraid to leave the shelter but we had no choice."

He continues: "It was devastating because we had no mobile connection and no internet. We were sitting five days under this siege and we didn't know what's happening."

Artur also says he knew several people killed by the shelling, including his friend's father and some neighbours.

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

In its coverage of Ukraine, Russian state TV continues to broadcast an alternative reality.Reports regularly allege that Russian forces are battling "Nazis", "neo-Nazis" and "ultra-nationalists", as if the Ukrainian government has been overrun by fascists, which is simply not true.

TV news here portrays Russian soldiers as heroes defending the "Motherland" and protecting Russian citizens and Russian-speakers in Ukraine.

The news bulletins continue to avoid calling this a "war" or a Russian "invasion". They stick to the Kremlin line, that what’s happening is a "special military operation".

And there is much finger-pointing at America and Europe.

Following calls in the West for an international tribunal to investigate Vladimir Putin over his actions in Ukraine, Russian state TV has now suggested that Western leaders - from George W Bush to Boris Johnson - be tried for war crimes.

Does the public believe what it’s being told?

Many Russians do. In Russia, television is the most powerful tool for shaping public opinion.

And since almost all independent Russian news sources have either been blocked or shut down, accessing an alternative view is increasingly difficult.

Image source, Getty Images

A court in Moscow has ruled the activities of Instagram and Facebook are "extremist" and has banned their operations in Russia, reports say.

"We are granting the prosecution's request to ban the activities of [Instagram and Facebook's parent company] Meta," Judge Olga Solopova said, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said that extremist materials had been posted on the social networks, citing alleged calls for violence against Russian citizens, including military personnel stationed in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, prosecutors called for a criminal investigation into Meta, citing Russian propaganda and extremism laws.

Access to Facebook and Instagram had already been restricted in the country over what Moscow had described as "fake news" about its invasion of Ukraine.

Meta had said it would let users in some countries call for violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian soldiers, temporarily allowing posts such as "death to the Russian invaders" that usually break its rules.

The judge said the court ruling does not apply to the messaging service WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta.

The authorities in Ukraine's biggest port, Odesa, say Russian naval forces in the Black Sea have shelled some residential buildings on the outskirts of the city.

It's the first time buildings have been hit there.

A spokesman for the regional military administration said there had been no casualties.

The Russian navy has been blockading Odesa, which is seen as a major strategic and symbolic target for Russia.

The administration of the Buchenwald memorial centre in Germany has said a man who survived a number of concentration camps during World War Two was killed in the bombing on his home in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Friday, according to his relatives.

Boris Romantschenko, who was 96, "actively campaigned for the memory of the crimes of Nazism and was vice president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee", they said in a series of tweets.