If you are just joining our live coverage, welcome! Here are some of the key developments you may have missed so far:

• Russia says the first phase of the war is over and it will now focus on the "complete liberation" of the eastern Donbas region
• Western officials believe this implies that Moscow knows its pre-war strategy has failed
• The UK Ministry of defence says Russia is likely to continue to use heavy firepower on Ukrainian cities as it looks to limit its own considerable losses
• Ukraine's President Zelensky said "powerful blows" to Russia have slowed its pace, and claimed that more than 16,000 Russian troops had been killed so far.
• However, Russia's defence ministry has given an update on its military casualties, external for only the second time - it says 1,351 of its soldiers have been killed, a figure far lower than Ukrainian and Western estimates
• The Pentagon has said Ukrainian forces could re-take the southern city of Kherson, which was one of the first cities Russian forces took in the early days of the war
• French leader Emmanuel Macron says France, Greece and Turkey are trying to organise an evacuation of civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol. Macron says he will discuss this with Putin, as Zelensky warns the humanitarian situation there is worsening

• Putin has signed a law criminalising the spread of 'fake news' about the work of officials abroad - an offence that could carry a 15-year sentence

On that note, this is Ayeshea Perera in Singapore signing off with my colleague Zubaidah Abdul Jalil. We are handing over to our colleagues Ben Tobias and Jeremy Gahagan in London.

Image source, Getty Images

Russia has said it is conducting drills on islands that are contested by Japan, days after withdrawing from peace talks in response to Toky's decision to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories - are the subject of a more than 70-year-old dispute between the two nations.

Because of the dispute, Russia and Japan have not yet signed a peace treaty to end World War II.

Earlier this week, Russia said it was withdrawing from negotiations with Japan aimed at signing that treaty, because of Tokyo's tough stance against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

And now, Russia's Eastern Military District says it will conduct military drills on the islands with more than 3,000 troops and hundreds of pieces of army equipment.

Japan had earlier condemned Russia for withdrawing from the peace talks and for halting joint economic projects in relation to the islands.

An update from Ukraine's State Emergency Services (SES) in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city:

A statement from the SES notes that its personnel have made a total of 59 trips between 25 and 26 March, in attempts to clear rubble and wreckage from buildings destroyed in Russian strikes, as well as to put out fires.

It said shelling had destroyed or damaged a number of residential high-rise apartments, warehouses and other private buildings in a number of districts.

Personnel are also working to disarm unexploded bombs and artillery, the statement added.

The eastern city is only about 50km from the Russian border and has come under constant attack - many civilians have been killed and injured since the invasion began.

Image source, .

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

Moscow has announced that the main objectives of what it calls "its special military operation” in Ukraine have been accomplished. It says it's now going to focus on gaining control of the southeastern region of Donbas. Our chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, is in Kyiv. She reports on the response to Moscow's announcement in the Ukrainian capital:

It’s always been known that the primary objective, as we heard from Moscow, today, is the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, and the land corridor connecting the Donbas to the Crimean peninsula, both areas that Russian forces went into, in 2014.

The Donbas contains two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, that touch the Russian border and since 2014 have been partially controlled by Russian-backed rebels.

Some of the best Ukrainian fighting units are there, and the concern has been that Russia would try to cut them off either from resupplying them or allowing them to move to other fronts.”

Moscow today, said that this wasn’t their primary objective, but they didn’t rule it out.

And so while we see Russian forces consolidating their positions on the outskirts of Kyiv, digging in their artillery, it’s the Ukrainians who are going on the offensive, pushing them back in the east and attacking them in the north-west.

This is not a country that will be at rest as this invasion goes on.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, VOLODYMYR MATSOKIN

There have been more than 70 separate attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and doctors in Ukraine with the number increasing on a "daily basis", says the World Health Organization (WHO).

It says the targeting of healthcare facilities has become part of the strategy and tactics of modern warfare.

Since 24 February, the WHO has reviewed and verified 72 separate , externalattacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine causing at least 71 deaths and 37 injuries.

Most have damaged hospitals, medical transports and supply stores, but the WHO has also recorded the "probable" abduction or detention of healthcare staff and patients.

"We are concerned that this number is increasing daily," the WHO's Ukraine country representative Jarno Habicht told the BBC.

"Health facilities should be safe places for both doctors and nurses, but also patients to turn to for treatment. This should not happen."

Read more here

In its daily morning update, Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces says that its troops are continuing to repel attacks by Russian forces on the capital city Kyiv, external.

The Ukraine military said Russian forces have experienced difficulty replenishing quality personnel and shoring up losses suffered during the invasion, partly due to the impact of international sanctions.

It also claimed Russian equipment was in "poor technical condition" due to "negligent prior exploitation and prolonged storage".

These factors were affecting Russia's ability to "maintain the necessary pace of combat and achieve the war's ultimate goal", the statement said.

However this has not stopped Russia from continuing to lob assaults and air raids and inflict damage on Ukrainian forces, the update added.

It claims Moscow has deployed maximum units in the partly-Russian held territory of Crimea, alongside in areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol and Donetsk regions, in order to "suppress the resistance of the residents".

In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks and destroyed 8 tanks and 11 units of the enemy's vehicle equipment.

The update claimed Ukrainian air defense units shot down 3 planes and 3 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) belonging to Russia.

The BBC has not been able to verify this information.

Image source, .

Warning: Some images may be distressing to viewers.

Aerial footage captured by a reconnaissance drone shows what appears to be Russian forces firing on a column of cars carrying civilians as they attempted to flee an area near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Images, shot by a territorial defence group, showed the cars turning in the opposite direction to escape the gunfire.

"We heard shooting, [the Russian soldiers] started shooting at the column," a man in one of the cars told the BBC.

"I saw my father-in-law turning back. I also started turning back. We all turned back. Later we all stopped and saw one car was missing," he said.

One man and one woman were killed in the incident.

Air raid sirens have rung out across a number of cities across Ukraine, according to local media reports.

Some of the cities are the capital Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine, Zaporizhia and Dnipro in the southeast, Zhytomyr in the east, and Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast regions in Ukraine.

We will bring you more updates as we get them.

A shipment of 1,500 Strela anti-aircraft missiles and 100 MG3 machine guns have arrived in Ukraine from Germany, the German Press Agency cited Ukrainian government officials as saying.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday that further supplies of the Strela missiles were Ukraine-bound following delays in deliveries.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen Germany reverse its historical policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones.

"We are one of the biggest weapons suppliers in this situation, it doesn't make us proud but it's what we must do to help Ukraine," Reuters quoted Ms Baerbock as saying.

The Strela missiles had been in the inventories of the former Communist East German army.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

How could Japan ever contemplate getting nukes? It's a ridiculous idea. Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack. Twice.

Or so the story has gone for the last 77 years.

But Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving post-war prime minister, has begun saying loudly and publicly that Japan should, indeed, think seriously and urgently about nuclear weapons.

It's no coincidence this call-to-arms has come just as Russia has invaded Ukraine

What we are talking about here is a fundamental break with Japan's post-war commitment to pacifism - something enshrined in its post-war constitution.

But Mr Abe is an astute politician. He knows Ukraine has come as a huge shock, and he knows the Japanese public is worried about an unpredictable nuclear-armed North Korea and an increasingly aggressive China.

It all still feels very far-fetched. Japanese law has explicitly banned any nuclear weapons from its soil since 1971. But Mr Abe is not alone in calling for that ban to now be debated.

Read more on whether the Ukraine invasion is going to change Japan's nuclear policy

A high-ranking American official has said Russian troops are not preparing to storm the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

The official spoke to a group of reporters including from the BBC in Warsaw, on condition of anonymity.

A few more details from his speech:

• Russia has carried out 1,250 rocket launches since it began its invasion of Ukraine
• Russian military aircraft have begun to fly more frequently, making up to 300 sorties a day
• The fighting for the village of Makariv near Kyiv continues;
• Russian troops did not advance in the attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city;
• Russian troops stopped 15km from Mykolaiv in an attempt to cut the southern city off from Ukrainian support;
• The Russian military was able to break through the defenses of Izyum and advance to the south of the Donbas in south-eastern Ukraine.

Earlier, a Pentagon source reported that the Ukrainian military could regain control of Kherson.

Russia claimed control over the southern Ukrainian city in early March.

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

Image source, Getty Images

The White House is billing President Biden’s upcoming speech on Saturday evening as a major address that will “speak to the stakes of this moment”.

He is expected to outline what the war in Ukraine means for the world and where he sees the conflict going from here - explaining why he thinks it is so important that the west remains united in the face of Russian aggression.

Private talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda will include discussion of his offer to hand over nearly 30 soviet-era MIG fighter jets to Ukraine.

These are planes that President Zelensky says he desperately needs. But American is blocking the plan to transfer them via a US airbase, saying it could provoke an escalation from Russia and drag Nato into the conflict.

President Biden will also meet some of the more than two million Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Poland in the last few weeks.

The US is promising one billion dollars in humanitarian aid to help with the escalating refugee crisis that Poland is facing.

One of President Putin’s justifications for his invasion of Ukraine is that he wants to "denazify" the country.

The BBC's Ros Atkins looks at the distortions and untruths that Russia is spreading about Nazis in Ukraine - including on the role of the Azov regiment, who are based in Mariupol and are part of Ukraine's national guard.

If you're just joining us or need a catch up, here are some of the latest developments:

• Russia has said the first phase of the war is over and it will now focus on the "complete liberation" of the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region - an announcement that is being seen as a possible change of strategy after the invasion faltered
• Ukraine's President Zelensky says "powerful blows" to Russia have slowed its momentum, claiming that 16,000 Russian troops have been killed so far

• The Russian defence ministry has given an update on its military casualties, external, for only the second time since it began its military assault, claiming that 1,351 of its soldiers have been killed and 3,825 wounded
• Poland's President Andrzej Duda has arrived to meet Joe Biden in Rzeszow, eastern Poland, after his plane turned back en route and had to make an emergency landing in Warsaw
• Biden is due to give a policy speech on Saturday in Warsaw, where he will "speak to the stakes of this moment," the White House says. He will also meet with fleeing Ukrainian refugees
• Russia is growing increasingly reliant on unmanned drones, according to the UK MoD, which says that "robust" Ukrainian air defences are forcing Russia not to risk its pilots
• Putin has signed a new law against "fake news" that hands a 15-year jail sentence to anyone who spreads falsities about officials abroad
• A top Ukrainian official claims that the nearly two-week absence of Russia's defence minister is due to a heart attack "after a tough accusation by Putin"

• The UN rights office says it has confirmed that at least 1,081 civilians have died and 1,707 have been injured since Russia invaded Ukraine, adding that the true death toll was likely to be considerably higher
• British author JK Rowling has hit back at Vladimir Putin, after the Russian president cited her in a wide-ranging speech that saw him criticise "cancel culture"

With that, this is Jude Sheerin in Washington signing off along with my colleague Max Matza in Seattle. We are handing over to our colleagues Ayeshea Perera and Zubaidah Abduljalil in Singapore.

Paul Adams
BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Reuters

It's probably too early to say whether Moscow has changed plans or reduced its ambitions in Ukraine - but there's definitely a shift in emphasis.

The end of what Russia has called the "first stage" of its attack likely means a more concerted effort to push beyond the "line of contact" that separates Ukrainian government-held territory in the east from the Russian-backed separatist "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The pace of Russia's advance in other areas of Ukraine remains glacial. It's probably way too early to conclude that Russia has given up on capturing Kyiv, but Western officials say that Russia continues to experience setback after setback.

A renewed push now could see Russian troops pushing out into so-far unconquered areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, possibly aiming to link up with forces moving south from Kharkiv and Izyum.

And if Russia can succeed in finally pacifying the port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, then other forces could move north and complete the encirclement of Ukraine's frontline Joint Forces Operation troops.

Some of these objectives still seem out of reach. Mariupol's defenders are putting up a ferocious fight, preventing Russia from fully achieving another of its pre-war ambitions - a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula to the Donbas.

But if Moscow has concluded that it makes more sense to concentrate, for the time being, on achieving one objective at a time, it's likely to concentrate its firepower, especially from the air.

If the coming days do see a shift of focus to the Donbas, that doesn't yet mean that Moscow has abandoned its wider ambitions.

"We don't see a re-evaluation of the invasion as a whole," a senior US defence official said.

Read more:

Change of emphasis or admission of failure by Moscow?

Image source, Getty Images

Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has confirmed he is preparing for a rematch with Britain's Anthony Joshua.

Usyk is set to face Joshua in July after his victory last year saw him crowned unified heavyweight champion.

The 35-year-old left his native Ukraine, where he had been helping to defend the country from the Russian invasion, on Wednesday.

"I decided to start preparing for a rematch with Anthony Joshua," Usyk posted on Instagram on Friday.

Usyk enlisted in Ukraine's military in March following the Russian invasion.

A banner reading "Hands off Ukraine, Putin!" could be seen behind Usyk in his Instagram video.

"A large number of my friends support me, all the rest of the good and peace, thank God for everything," he wrote.

Read more:

Heavyweight champion confirms rematch preparations

Image source, Reuters

Russia is most likely growing increasingly reliant on its stockpile of unmanned drones, according to the latest UK intelligence update.

"Robust Ukrainian air defences has almost certainly limited manned flights beyond their front lines," the Ministry of Defence says, external, adding that drones have probably replaced piloted sorties.

The UK has sanctioned a further 65 individuals with ties to the Russian invasion, including most recently Kronshtadt - a Russian defence company that produces the Orion drone and others.

US defence officials said on Friday that Russia had increased its aerial sorties in the past week, flying some 300 per day.

Katty Kay
US special correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

We've come out of a dark period of ugly political division and tragic medical crisis and we are longing for something good to believe in.

Forty-four million brave Ukrainians seem to have risen to the challenge and given us cause for hope in the power of the underdog.

We root for them. We are amazed by their resilience. We long for them to survive and stay free. So it's understandable that we may fall victim to what one analyst eloquently described as Western wishful thinking.

After the invasion one US senator told me confidently that whatever happened, the Ukrainian people would be free. It was the optimism I've come to expect, and appreciate, from US politicians. And we hope it will be true.

History reminds us, however, that good doesn't always prevail. Not against Russia anyway.

Ask the Syrians, still stuck under the boot of the Assad regime, their cities destroyed by Russian bombs. Ask the Chechens, who saw their capital flattened on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

Image source, Getty Images

The Ukrainians' success depends on two things, their own phenomenal courage, and, just as critical, the steady supply of military hardware that it's getting from Western countries.

If those countries, or the public in those countries, start for a moment to think David has beaten Goliath then the flow of weapons could slow or stop. That would be catastrophic for the Ukrainian resistance.

Read more:

The danger of wishful Western thinking

Image source, EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has formally approved a law which says people found guilty of spreading "fake news" about the work of officials abroad can be handed a 15-year jail sentence.

The law bears several similarities to one passed after the invasion began that calls for jail time for people who spread false information about Russia's armed forces.

The news about the latest law was reported by Interfax in Russia on Friday.

The Interfax report cites a senior lawmaker who argued the legislation was necessary to stop people from spreading falsehoods about Russian embassies and organisations abroad.

Image source, Getty Images

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, has claimed that Russia's defence minister suffered a heart attack.

Sergei Shoigu had not been seen publicly since 11 March, until he appeared briefly in a video released by Putin on Thursday 24 March.

"Shoigu's heart attack happened after a tough accusation by Putin for a complete failure of the invasion of Ukraine," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook, adding that he is currently "undergoing rehabilitation" in hospital.

There has been no confirmation from Russia of Shoigu's alleged health problems.