Image source, Getty Images

Russia's defence ministry has offered to open humanitarian corridors on Monday morning from Mariupol, going east and west out of the besieged city.

In a statement, Gen Mikhail Mizintsev proposed opening the corridors from 10:00 Moscow time (07:00 GMT), initially for Ukrainian troops and "foreign mercenaries" to lay down their arms and leave.

Then from 12:00 humanitarian convoys with food, medicine and other supplies would be granted safe passage into the city from both directions, he said, after de-mining of the roads. He said up to 130,000 civilians were being "held hostage" there, and would be able to go east or west, if Kyiv responded positively by 05:00 Moscow time.

Previous efforts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol quickly broke down when Russia resumed shelling. Thousands of people are sheltering underground, short of food, water and medical supplies.

Image source, Getty Images

Former football star David Beckham has handed his social media accounts on Instagram , externaland Facebook, external to Iryna, head of the Regional Perinatal Centre in Kharkiv.

Image source, David Beckham

Iryna says that during peacetime she is a child anaesthesiologist, and on the first day of the war all the pregnant women and mothers had to be evacuated to the basement of the hospital.

She says "unfortunately, we can't take babies who are in intensive care to the basement, because they rely on life-saving equipment".

Iryna adds the first days were the most difficult, learning how to work with bombings and missile strikes, and says her workday is 24/7 now.

Image source, Epic Games

Epic Games has announced that, between 20 March and 3 April, it will give all proceeds from its popular Fortnite online game to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

In a statement, external, the gaming giant said Xbox-owner Microsoft would also be doing the same, and proceeds would be going to charity Direct Relief, as well as three UN agencies, including the World Food Programme.

The scheme includes all real-money Fortnite purchases, including V-Buck packs and gifted Battle Passes.

Ukraine has long been one of Europe's largest game development hubs, and many firms in the industry have announced their support of the country.

Activision Blizzard - best known for developing Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft - has halted its sales in Russia. Meanwhile Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has announced that it is donating, external nearly $848,000 (£643,000) to Save the Children, in support of Ukraine.

As Russian forces continue to threaten the Ukrainian capital Kyiv a local resident has turned his theatre into a bomb shelter for the community.

Alex Porovensky told the BBC around 25 people were being hosted in the underground venue.

“Now we’re like one big family… everybody knows everyone,” he says. “I know their personal stories, I know the stories of their children… everybody is tremendously united.”

Despite the chaos around them, he and his friends are delivering humanitarian supplies to nearby areas, and the theatre is continuing rehearsals for a play.

“Art cannot be stopped, no matter what,” says Mr Porovensky.

Coincidentally, the play is set in a German town bombed by Allied forces in 1942 during World War Two.

“I think it’s very ironic and scary in a way because history is repeating - just reversed, because Russia is doing pretty much what fascist Germany was doing in their time,” adds Mr Porovensky.

Crowds of refugees are heading to the humanitarian aid centre in Lviv, western Ukraine, driven from their homes by Russian shelling.

Steve McAndrew of the Red Cross tells the BBC his organisation has facilities in the city to help the fleeing Ukrainians, but is struggling to get help to those trapped in besieged cities like Mariupol.

Image source, EPA

The UN says over six million people are estimated to be internally displaced within Ukraine, and over three million have fled to neighbouring countries.

Most of those displaced are women and children, as men aged between 18 and 60 are eligible for military call-up and cannot leave.

Unicef warns that 1.5 million children have had to flee Ukraine, and they are at increased risk of human trafficking and exploitation.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Boris Johnson pledged to continue military support for Ukraine in a call with Volodymyr Zelensky this afternoon.

“The Prime Minister outlined the UK’s ongoing commitment to work alongside international partners to coordinate support to strengthen Ukraine’s self-defence," Downing Street said in a statement.

“Both leaders stressed the continued importance of sanctions in exerting pressure on Putin, and they condemned the abhorrent attacks on innocent civilians, following the appalling bombings in Mariupol," it said.

Image source, Reuters

The intense Russian bombardment of Mariupol is continuing, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko says.

"They keep attacking. [The] bombardment, air strikes, and shooting in the city are constant. Now there is fighting, shooting, going on right in the city," he tells the BBC. He heads the Donetsk region where the port city lies.

"Today we received information that some people - I won't give their names - who were involved in getting information and helping evacuate people, they found themselves under fire, there are casualties among them unfortunately. They were evacuating people.

"[They were] people who need to move around, volunteers... that the occupiers know well are civilians, unarmed people - but they look for whatever pretext they can find to shoot at peaceful people."

Ekaterina Sedlyarova & Ben Tobias
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Top musicians in Russia opposed to the invasion of Ukraine are coming under increasing pressure.

Soon after the invasion began one of Russia's largest media companies, Russian Media Group (RMG), explained why it would no longer be playing certain artists on its popular radio stations or music TV channel.

"The reason for this decision was the harsh statements these musicians made towards Russia in the context of the difficult situation between Russia and Ukraine," the statement read.

It said respect for its listeners was the company's top priority, and the "arrogant and contemptuous attitude of the musicians towards Russian listeners" left it no choice but to terminate its contract with the artists.

The list included several Ukrainian musicians and three Russian acts, including legendary rock group Aquarium, whose lead singer, Boris Grebenshchikov, had called the war "madness" in a post on Instagram. He is no stranger to political pressure.

"I've spent half my life under some sort of ban", Grebenshchikov told the BBC. "There were bans in the 70s, bans in the 80s - there's nothing unusual about it. Then the same people who ban you give you prizes."

Read the full story here.

Image source, Reuters

Thanks for joining us for our continuing live coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Here are the latest developments:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed the Israeli parliament (Knesset) and urged lawmakers to abandon Israel's neutrality following Russia's invasion
• He quoted the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, in his video message, with the words "we intend to live, but our neighbours want to see us dead"
• Zelensky says Israel has the best air defence in the world and says "you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians"

• Authorities in Mariupol in southern Ukraine say Russia has destroyed a school with 400 women, children and elderly people sheltering inside. There are no details about casualties. The BBC has not been able to verify the claim
• The United Nations estimates that the conflict has driven 10 million Ukrainians from their homes. The UN said they had either been displaced within the country, or fled abroad
• Turkey's foreign minister, who is mediating peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, has said the two sides are close to an agreement

Battles are raging throughout Ukraine as the Russian invasion continues.

Photographer Gleb Garanich has been on the frontline in the Kyiv region, taking photos of Ukrainian servicemen and women.

The top photo shows Tetiana Chornovol, a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament, who is now operating an anti-tank guided missile weapon system.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Russian defence ministry / Getty Images

After being effectively held hostage by Russian troops for more than three weeks, 64 workers at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have finally been able to leave.

They have been replaced by 46 employees who volunteered to travel to the plant.

Around 200 shift workers and members of the Ukrainian National Guard were stuck at the power plant since 24 February - the first day of the war - when Russian troops seized it.

With the Russian side unable to guarantee their safety if they tried to leave the plant, the workers were trapped with food and medicines in short supply. They were forced to sleep on whatever they could find - the floor, tables, and a few small camp beds.

During their ordeal, the plant lost its connection to the power grid after fighting in the region damaged an electricity cable.

There were fears that the loss of power could lead to a failure of the cooling system for the spent nuclear fuel which is stored at the site, although experts said that a major disaster was unlikely.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when one of its four reactors exploded leaking radioactive material into the environment.

The plant continued to function until 2000, when it was finally decommissioned.

Image source, .

BBC Monitoring

Image source, Kateryna Altabayeva

Russian officials have confirmed that the deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, Captain 1st Rank Andrei Paly, died in combat in Mariupol.

Earlier we reported that Ukraine claimed to have killed him. Heavy fighting continues in Mariupol, a port city battered by Russian shelling.

Paly's death was initially confirmed by the secretary of the Nakhimov naval college, Konstantin Tsarenko, on social network Vkontakte (VK).

Later, a Russian senator from Sevastopol - the Black Sea Fleet's base in Russian-annexed Crimea - said in a VK post that "Sevastopol has suffered a heavy, irreparable loss... Paly died in the battles for the liberation of Mariupol from the Nazis". President Vladimir Putin has spoken of Russia's campaign to rid Ukraine of "Nazis".

Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a Telegram post that "Andrei Nikolaevich chose to defend the Motherland as his life's work and died for our peaceful future".

Ukrainian sources have reported the deaths of five Russian generals in the fighting which erupted with Russia's invasion on 24 February. Russia has only officially confirmed one of these casualties - Gen Andrei Sukhovetsky.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

Volodymyr Zelensky has pointedly questioned why some countries officially appear to be indifferent to Russia’s invasion of his country or sitting on the fence, in an address to members of the Israeli parliament.

Israel - which has ties to both countries - has taken a somewhat neutral position during the war.

In his virtual international tour, President Zelensky has proven skilful at adapting his message to different groups of lawmakers.

Speaking to Israel’s parliament on a Zoom video conference, he began by echoing the words of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv: "We intend to live but our neighbours want to see us dead."

Zelensky - who is Jewish - also compared the actions and words of Russia to those of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. And then he asked why Israel was not sending ammunition and hadn’t posed sanctions on Moscow in line with many Western countries.

Israel’s prime minister has positioned himself as a mediator in the conflict but has also appeared reluctant to antagonise Russia, an important military player in the Middle East.

Shelling has badly damaged a 10-storey housing block in northwestern Kyiv, injuring five residents, the capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says.

Russian forces in Irpin, a few kilometres away, have previously fired rockets and shells at housing in the city.

Reporters in the Svyatoshyn district saw that the block’s windows had been blown out, there was fire damage, several cars were incinerated and the blast had left a crater nearby.

In a video clip Mayor Klitschko said there was also a kindergarten nearby, and “thank God there are no fatalities”.

President Zelensky calls on Israel to give weapons to Ukraine and asks why it hasn't imposed sanctions on Russia.

He adds that Israel has the best air defence in the world and says "you can definitely help our people, save the lives of Ukrainians".

"The choice is yours to make, brothers and sisters, and you must then live with your answer, the people of Israel."

President Zelensky also quoted the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, in his video message, with the words "we want to live, but our neighbours want to see us dead".

"We remain, we are prepared for compromise," he added. He was drawing a direct parallel between Ukraine now and Israel's history, facing Arab hostility.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told Israeli MPs that the Nazi Party, known as the NSDAP, had been launched in Germany 102 years ago on 24 February - the date this year that Russia invaded Ukraine.

"They are saying these words again – 'the final solution' – in relation to us, the Ukrainian nation... it was said at a meeting in Moscow," said Mr Zelensky, who is Jewish. Some of his relatives died in the Holocaust.

He urged Israel to help the Ukrainian people's resistance against the Russian military.

President Zelensky draws parallels between Russia's invasion of Ukraine and World War Two.

He says the invasion is "not a military operation".

"It's a full scale war aimed at the destruction of our people, the destruction of our children, families, statehood, cities, cultures and everything that makes them Ukrainian."

"That's why I have the right to draw this parallel in history. Our wars for survival and the Second World War."

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is addressing Israel's parliament.

He has already spoken to other lawmakers around the world - including in the UK and the US - asking for support.

Stay with us for full coverage of what he says.

Image source, Getty Images

The speed of refugees fleeing Ukraine is "unprecedented" in recent history, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says.

"My colleagues I speak to, who have worked in crises for decades, say they have never seen this number of people moving so fast," Matt Saltmarsh, head of news and media for the UNHCR, tells the BBC.

Numbers are not yet on the levels of conflicts such as Syria yet, but "Syria has been at war for many years now", he adds.

The UNHCR doesn't have a presence in the besieged city of Mariupol, but the UN and other groups are trying to negotiate a safe passage from the city to ensure that civilians can leave safely, he says.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, earlier said that 10 million people have now fled their homes in Ukraine.

Asked how much aid this could look like, Saltmarsh says it is "hard to quantify".

"I think the primary need now is for shelter. Making sure people have somewhere to stay, ensuring they have a blanket, food and water," he says.