Image source, PA Media

Prank calls by Russians to UK ministers have been labelled a distraction from the country's illegal activities in Ukraine, Downing Street has said.

It comes after two prominent Russian hoaxers published footage from a call they made to the UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace last week, where an imposter posed as the Ukrainian PM.

Home Secretary Priti Patel says she was targeted too and Downing Street has also revealed an unsuccessful attempt to contact Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

The prime minister's official spokesman said he did not want "to give this sort of attempted disinformation oxygen".

He said: "It's standard practice for Russian information operations to try and use these tactics. It seeks to be a distraction from their illegal activities in Ukraine, their human rights abuses, and so we will not be distracted from our purpose in ensuring Putin must fail in Ukraine."

Asked whether a request had been made for YouTube to take down a video of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, posted by those apparently behind the hoax call, the spokesman said: "Obviously we've had a number of discussions with social media firms about not spreading Russian disinformation."

Image source, Reuters

A Russian billionaire sanctioned by the UK says he no longer owns many of his former properties, potentially putting them beyond the reach of the law.

Ex-Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov's £82m London home and Surrey mansion were put into trusts linked to the oligarch.

This raises questions over how effective the sanctions imposed on him since the invasion of Ukraine can be.

The UK government says Mr Usmanov "cannot access his assets".

Read our full story here.

A van filled with furniture and other items donated to help Ukrainian war victims has been stolen in the UK.

The charity International Aid Trust said its white Mercedes van, which it had paid more than £20,000 ($26,000) for, was taken on Sunday from a warehouse in Chorley, Lancashire.

Founder Rev Bernard Cocker said CCTV footage showed two people in a small white van pulling up "and within three minutes our vehicle had gone".

"But we're not going to be defeated," he said, adding that "hundreds and hundreds" of volunteers had been helping to load trucks that were heading for Ukraine.

"And then you get two individuals that steal one of our vehicles, that's what really hurts," he said.

• Read more on this story here

Image source, Manchester United

Manchester United has paid tribute to a leading member of its Kyiv fan club who has been killed in the Ukraine war.

Aleksander Kukin was one of the founders of the Kyiv Reds supporters' club 20 years ago.

The Kyiv Reds said Mr Kukin died after his car was shot at by Russian forces. His wife and daughter have had surgery and are in hospital.

Manchester United said it was "deeply saddened" to learn of the news and would seek to support the family.

"We send our heartfelt condolences for their loss and best wishes for their recovery, as they attempt to deal with these awful events," United posted on its club website.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

A superyacht owned by a sanctioned Russian billionaire has been impounded by Gibraltar authorities, the UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says.

The Axioma belongs to oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky, whose steel pipe manufacturing company supplies Russian gas giant Gazprom.

The UK announced sanctions on Pumpyansky last week, external, estimating his net worth at £1.84bn ($2.44bn). The sanctions also apply in the UK's overseas territories, including Gibraltar.

"As transport secretary, I'm doing all I can to cripple Russia's aviation and shipping industries, and my message to Putin and his cronies is loud and clear - there is nowhere to hide," Shapps said.

Alistair Coleman
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Komsomolskaya Pravda/Web Archive

A Russian newspaper claimed its website was hacked after it published casualty figures running into thousands.

The story on tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda’s website, citing a Russian Defence Ministry briefing, initially reported 9,861 Russian soldiers had been killed and 16,153 were wounded.

No other Russian media carried these figures.

The story was later removed, and the paper issued a statement saying that the “website admin interface was hacked and a fake was added to a publication”.

Russian casualty figures are contested. The last official figures from the Russian government claim that 498 soldiers have died.

But a BBC Russian investigation has identified 557 named Russian soldiers who have died during the conflict. That figure doesn’t include reports where casualties could not be identified.

The Ukrainian government claims more than 14,000 Russian soldiers have died, while a US intelligence report last week put the toll at more than 7,000, calling it a “conservative estimate”.

Despite the hacking claim, Kevin Rothrock, editor of the independent Latvia-based Meduza news outlet, speculated that publication of the figures might have been a legitimate error, or there might be “another Ovsyannikova” at large, external - a reference to Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian TV editor who gate-crashed a news bulletin to protest against the war.

Reality Check

A superyacht linked to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has been greeted by protests as it attempted to dock in Turkey.

My Solaris, which cost an estimated $600m (£450m) to build, was met at the port of Bodrum by young protesters in a small dinghy waving Ukrainian flags. They were part of a junior sailing team which was in Turkey to compete in an annual competition, having left Ukraine before the Russian invasion.

Coach Paulo Donstov told the BBC: “We had to do something. We want the world to know that Ukraine wants freedom and peace.”

The dinghy was eventually escorted away by Turkish police.

Mr Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner, is currently under both UK and EU sanctions as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs.

Tracking data shows that My Solaris reached Turkey - where there are no sanctions against Russian billionaires - without entering the territorial waters of EU member Greece. Another yacht linked to Mr Abramovich - Eclipse - has also made its way to Turkey.

If you're just joining us, here are some of today's main developments for the war in Ukraine:

• "We are on the brink of surviving war", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Italian MPs as he addresses them via video link
• He has also spoken to Pope Francis and suggested the Vatican could play a mediating role in ending the war
• The mayor of Boryspil city near Kyiv has told residents to "leave town ASAP" as fighting against Russian forces draws closer
• More than 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since the start of the war, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has claimed - the BBC cannot verify this figure
• US President Joe Biden has warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin may be preparing to use chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine
• Russian forces appear to be 'stalled in place', according to the UK's Ministry of Defence, as Ukrainian forces 'continue to repulse' attempts to occupy the besieged southern city of Mariupol

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February, at least 117 children have been killed and more than 155 others injured in the country, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reports.

It says most of the fatalities and injuries have been reported in or around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv (58) and in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv (40).

It adds that in Kharkiv, a Russian tank reportedly struck a car belonging to a family travelling with two children.

While in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, it says, evacuation buses carrying children were hit by Russian shelling.

Prosecutors also say they have recorded 548 instances where schools and other educational facilities were hit, 72 of which they say were "completely destroyed".

They add that the figures they report are not conclusive due to difficulties accessing or inspecting sites in some parts of the country.

Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

Image source, Getty Images

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has verified 62 separate attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began almost four weeks ago.

The organisation said 15 people had died in the attacks, and at least 37 others had been injured.

Meanwhile, WHO officials in Poland say a rapid assessment suggests that about half a million refugees who have arrived there are suffering from mental health problems, primarily due to trauma.

In addition, health workers at the borders report children and mothers arriving who are suffering exhaustion and dehydration, while many older people arrive after travelling for days without medicines for underlying conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) now reports 3.557 million people have fled Ukraine. This figure is getting close to its original planning for four million, and the agency acknowledged today that it could be exceeded soon.

So far the UNHCR has not revised its planning figure, but both it and the WHO say they are preparing - if the conflict continues - for "massive" numbers of people arriving very quickly.

Mykola Trofymenko, the head of Mariupol State University who is also on the city council, has told the BBC about his dramatic escape from Mariupol last week with his wife and five-year-old son. They're now living in the western city of Lviv, where he is trying to re-establish Mariupol university.

Before they left, they had spent a couple of weeks hiding with some 80 neighbours in a basement shelter while the city was under attack before deciding to escape.

He said they joined a huge column of cars led by the International Red Cross which was attacked by the Russians:

"The citizens of Mariupol formed a huge column of cars... for kilometres, it was thousands of cars. We were able to flee from the city. We reached Vasylivka, not far from Zaporizhzhia, [after going through] 15 checkpoints of the Russians," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"There, the national police of Ukraine helped the big column of cars to cross the minefields.

"At the entrance to one of the Ukrainian checkpoints, the Russians started to shoot the cars with white ribbons on the doors [and] the inscription 'children' on the windows, and they hit one car seven or eight cars [away] from of me; my car jumped; they hit this car with two children inside.

"I don't know what people could do this. Of course, we are blaming Putin, that he's doing this to Ukraine, but regular soldiers are shooting these civilians."

Image source, Reuters

More on what has been said in the Italian parliament following Ukrainian President Zelensky's address.

Ukraine has offered "heroic" resistance to the Russian invasion, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said after the Ukrainian leader's speech.

"The arrogance of the Russian government has collided with the dignity of the Ukrainian people, who have managed to curb Moscow's expansionist aims and impose a huge cost on the invading army," he told parliament.

Zelensky is due to address the French national assembly on Wednesday, after speaking to the US Congress last week, as well as the German Bundestag, the British, Canadian and Israeli parliaments, as well as the European Parliament.

Image source, EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been addressing the Italian parliament by video link, in his latest address to national assemblies around the world.

He told Italian MPs his country was on the brink of surviving its war with Russia and warned Moscow wanted to break through to the rest of Europe, Reuters news agency reports.

"For Russian troops, Ukraine is the gates of Europe, where they want to break in, but barbarism must not be allowed to pass," he said.

He repeated his appeal made in prior addresses for more sanctions to be imposed on Russia.

Italian PM Mario Draghi said his country wanted to see Ukraine in the EU, and that it must offer military aid to the country to halt massacres.

Image source, EPA

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken to Pope Francis and suggested the Vatican could play a mediating role in ending the war with Russia.

In a post on Twitter, external, Zelensky said he told the Pope of the "difficult humanitarian situation" and how rescue corridors were being blocked by Russian troops.

Zelensky added: "The mediating role of the Holy See [the jurisdiction of the Pope] in ending human suffering would be appreciated."

It comes after Zelensky said on Monday that Jerusalem could potentially be a location for future top-level peace talks between Ukraine and Moscow.

Image source, EPA

Residents of the Ukrainian city of Boryspil, near Kyiv, have been asked to leave the area if they can as fighting against Russian forces draws closer.

"I call on the civilian population to be smart, reach out to our call centre and leave town as soon as an opportunity arises," Mayor Volodymyr Borysenko said in a video address.

He said people should evacuate the city unless they were unable, as "there is already fighting going on in the area around it".

Some residents are located close to Kyiv's Boryspil international airport - Ukraine's largest airport, which is among a number of airfields bombed by Russia last month.

Boryspil is about 40km (25 miles) to the east of central Kyiv.

Image source, Getty Images

About 15,300 Russian troops have now been killed since the start of the war, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has claimed in its latest update, external.

The ministry also lists 509 tanks, 1,556 armored combat vehicles and 252 artillery systems among Russia's military losses since it invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

The BBC cannot verify any of these figures.

Russia has only once provided a figure on the loss of its troops - 498 deaths as of 2 March - while the US recently estimated that about 7,000 Russian troops had been killed in the conflict.

The rest of the list from Ukraine's defence ministry is:

• multiple rocket launcher: 80 units
• air defence: 45 units
• aircraft: 99 units
• helicopters: 123 units
• automotive equipment: 1,000 units
• ships/boats: three units
• fuel tanks: 70
• unmanned aerial vehicle (drone): 35
• special equipment: 15

Image source, Getty Images

Authorities in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa have said residential areas were hit on Monday for the first time since the start of the war.

A Ukrainian member of parliament in Odesa, Oleksiy Honcharenko, tells the BBC he believes Russia is resorting to shelling in areas where its forces are unable to make progress on land.

"We understand that clearly Odesa is a strategic aim of this war, but the Russian army can't go on land there, our army is holding ground, so [Putin] started - everywhere in Ukraine - bombardments, he's just hitting residential areas," he says.

"There are hundreds of international journalists in Kyiv, and some in Odesa, who saw that these attacks are in residential areas with no military targets."

Honcharenko says Odesa was bombed from the sea by the Russian Navy.

"They are planning a land operation against Odesa, we see their ships full of marines. I think the idea is to attack Odesa from several destinations."

He says, however, that Russian forces will suffer "heavy losses" if they attempt a land invasion there.

"I think it will be suicide for them – they will not succeed."

You can see where Russian forces have, and have not, made advances, in our piece here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Reuters

A lecturer at the University of Oxford who has family in the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has told the BBC he hasn't been able to speak to them since 28 February.

"I have five members of my family in Mariupol," Dr Vlad Mykhnenko says. "They were already sitting in basements and I can't imagine what has happened since. It is very difficult to hear stories. It is difficult to stay optimistic."

He says he believes Mariupol is putting up a strong resistance to Russian forces because the "military has been planning to defend the city for eight years".

Mariupol has long-been a strategically important port on the Sea of Azov, part of the Black Sea.

Since Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the city has been sandwiched uncomfortably between Russian forces on that peninsula and the pro-Kremlin separatists in the breakaway self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk to the east.

Dr Mykhnenko says he doesn't think Ukraine will surrender the city.

"It is up to [the people of Mariupol] to have their own agency. I am convinced the Ukraine military won't give up."

Is a diplomatic solution possible with Zelensky-Putin talks?published at 09:35 Greenwich Mean Time 22 March 2022

09:35 GMT 22 March 2022

James Waterhouse
Kyiv correspondent, BBC News

As Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky reaches out once again to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, saying direct talks are needed to end this war, it's difficult to know where this might lead.

While Zelensky says he's willing to discuss with the Russian leader the territorial integrity of his country - including the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine - one of his officials is saying that those very issues will not be compromised on.

In addition, Zelensky has said he would like any compromises - on sovereignty and security, such as potential alliances with other nations - to be put to a referendum, allowing the Ukrainian people to choose.

Over the years and over the decades, the more aggressive Russia has become towards Ukraine, the more it appears to have politically strengthened Ukrainians' sense of national identity - and the more they have leaned towards the West.

Will the brutality of this war, the hunger for peace, change public opinion?

In order for there to be some kind of diplomatic outcome, Zelensky, I believe, may be relying on Putin to look to minimise further losses in his invasion, especially if he finds himself in the position of bringing in reinforcements of lesser-trained soldiers.

We have more from what US spymaster Gen James Clapper told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on the situation in Ukraine.

On the West coming up with a possible plan to defeat Vladimir Putin, instead of simply providing weapons to Ukraine, Clapper says: "I think we're already into a war of attrition. The first assault by the Russians has actually failed, and now we're very much into a stalemate situation... Who is going to blink first? I don't know how that will play out."

He's asked if there's more that could be done in Ukraine.

"The argument about should we have a no-fly zone, and the issue is of course of provoking the bear, and I think there is a sensitivity, the fact that the Russians have a lower threshold on the use of tactical nuclear weapons than we do - and there is understandable concern about how far do we push before the Russians first use chemical weapons or even consider the use of nuclear weapons.

"There's all kinds of things we can do - but Ukraine is not a Nato member - that's at play.

"Having said all that, if the humanitarian crisis deepens, and we continue to see these images of these mindless, brutal attacks against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure, the calculus could change.