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US President Joe Biden has said he won’t “walk back” his controversial comment that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, although he said he wasn’t calling for regime change.

Biden’s original comment, made at the end of a trip to Poland on Saturday, quickly made headines around the world.

Speaking at the White House on Monday, Biden said that he isn’t “walking anything back”.

“I was expressing the moral outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing and the actions of this man,” Biden said, adding that he’d just come from a meeting with Ukrainian refugees.

“I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change,” Biden said.

Around 5,000 residents in the besieged port city of Mariupol, including 210 children, have been killed since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to data from the city's mayor.

As of Sunday, 170,000 residents remained in Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko said, according to a report by Interfax Ukraine, external.

Ninety percent of the city's multi-storey residential buildings have been damaged, with more than 40% of them destroyed, according to the data.

Seven hospitals have been damaged, of which three are completely destroyed, while 57 schools were damaged, of which 23 are destroyed, the report said.

Image source, Reuters

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Ukrainian forces have retaken the town of Trostyanets near Sumy in eastern Ukraine, and are working to push Russian forces out of Kherson in the south, a senior US defence official has said.

Speaking to reporters, the official added that Russian forces have made "no progress" moving toward Kyiv and are 9 to 12 miles (15-20km) from the city centre to the north and northwest, and 34 miles (55km) out of the city from the east.

Additionally, the official said it remains unclear why Russian forces are now prioritising operations in the eastern Donbas region.

The strategy could be an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations, or that the Russians are "reassessing" their goals, the official said.

The official also said that the embattled city of Mariupol is "getting slammed" by long-range fire from the Russians.

And they also said that US defence officials cannot independently confirm the Ukrainian claim that the country's forces have retaken the town of Irpin, north-west of Kyiv, from the Russians.

An unnamed US official has been quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that intelligence suggests the symptoms experienced by Roman Abramovich - and reportedly two Ukrainian peace negotiators - were due to "environmental" factors, not poisoning.

Our Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says that suggestion is odd.

He says nobody else was affected by these very serious medical afflictions which investigative journalism group Bellingcat's team concluded were the result of an intentional use of a chemical agent.

It would hardly be surprising that the US would want to dampen down suggestions that anyone - especially Russia - had used a chemical weapon in Ukraine, as this could push them into retaliatory action that they are extremely reluctant to take, our correspondent says.

Image source, PA Media

More now on claims Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning at talks in Kyiv earlier this month.

Two Ukrainian peace negotiators were also said to have been affected.

Max Colchester of the Wall Street Journal, which together with the Bellingcat investigative website broke the story, has been speaking to the BBC.

He said Bellingcat were contacted to try to determine what had happened to the three individuals.

Colchester adds, the website says it suspects "that poison may well have been administered", but "in effect the dosage was so mild that actually it was unable to fully discern what exactly had happened".

He said, "but what we hear is there was suspected poisoning of the individuals".

Image source, House of Commons

Negotiations to end the war in Ukraine must not end up "selling Ukraine out", UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.

Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, she said President Putin is "not serious about talks" and is still "wantonly bombing innocent citizens".

"We must not just stop Putin in Ukraine, we must also look to the long term," she said.

Sanctions placed on Russia by the G7 should not be removed "as long as Putin continues with his war and he still has troops in Ukraine", she said.

Any long-term settlement should include "a clear sanctions snap-back which would be triggered automatically by any Russian aggression," she added.

Truss said talks must not repeat mistakes of the past, including "the uneasy settlement of 2014 which failed to give the people of Ukraine lasting security".

After that, "Putin just came back for more," she said, "that is why we cannot allow him to win from this appalling aggression".

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian peace negotiators are said to have suffered symptoms of poisoning, following peace talks on the afternoon of 3 March on the Ukraine-Belarus border.

Later that evening - three of them, according to the investigative website Bellingcat, suffered symptoms of nerve agent poising.

They had inflamed skin, irritated eyes and severe pain behind the eyes - symptoms which lasted all night.

None of them had eaten anything more, according to Bellingcat, than chocolate and water.

Chemical weapons specialists have examined this case and concluded that they believe it was intentional.

But we have no idea who did it. There is no claim of responsibility.

Inevitably people will be wondering if this was the work of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, who Britain concluded did the Novichok Salisbury poisoning.

There is no word from Russia and no proof as to who was behind it.

Somebody, it seems, wanted to send a warning to those taking part in the peace talks. This was not a lethal dose, it was a warning.

Image source, Getty Images

He became an orphan aged three but went on to become one of the world's richest men.

Recently, Roman Abramovich's links to Vladimir Putin have stripped him of his businesses and reputation - and now sources close to Abramovich say he suffered suspected poisoning at peace talks in Ukraine.

So who is he?

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich was born in Saratov in south-western Russia, a few hundred miles from the border with Ukraine, in 1966.

His mother, Irina, died of blood poisoning when he was one - and his father died two years later after an accident with a construction crane.

After that Mr Abramovich was raised by relatives, spending time in Komi, in north-west Russia, where money was tight and winter temperatures low.

He left school at 16, worked as a mechanic and served in the Red Army before selling plastic toys in Moscow.

He moved on to perfumes and deodorants, building up his wealth as greater openness under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev allowed more scope for entrepreneurs.

Read our full profile of Roman Abramovich

Image source, Reuters

Sources close to Roman Abramovich have confirmed the Russian oligarch suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after meeting to discuss peace talks with Ukrainian negotiators.

They would not confirm who else was targeted or what the source of the attack was.

Earlier, a report from the Wall Street Journal claimed three people who attended negotiations in Kyiv had experienced red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands.

Abramovich is said to be ok now as the incident happened several weeks ago, and he will continue with negotiations alongside those from Ukraine in an attempt to end the war.

Those close to Abramovich say he has been involved in several meetings, and is only working on behalf of himself after it was claimed he was asked to help.

Image source, AP

Just weeks ago, Marianna Vyshemirska was excited about her pregnancy and posting on her popular Instagram account.

But after surviving the bombing of a hospital in Mariupol, the beauty blogger found herself the subject of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Senior Russian officials and the Twitter account of Russia’s embassy in London accused Marianna of pretending to be two different women at the hospital, which was bombed on 9 March.

They also claimed the hospital had been taken over by far-right Azov battalion forces. Some pro-Kremlin accounts even alleged that Marianna wasn’t pregnant.

But the claims are false. The two women pictured in the aftermath of the hospital bombing look different and are wearing different clothes. Marianna – as you can see from the post below – was very clearly pregnant. She has since given birth to a daughter named Veronika.

Russian officials also claimed the health facility allegedly overrun by neo-Nazis was Mariupol’s maternity hospital number one. That detail is crucial as Marianna was actually photographed at maternity hospital number three.

Hear Marianna’s story in the latest episode of War on Truth – a podcast series about the people caught up in the information war over Ukraine, presented by BBC disinformation reporter Marianna Spring.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has said more than 100 people have died in the Ukrainian capital since Russia invaded Ukraine.

He added that 82 multi-storey buildings have been destroyed in Kyiv since the war broke out.

Four children in the city have died during the war and 16 injured children are in hospital, Klitschko said on Monday.

He added that the government has been unable to identify more than 20 bodies in Kyiv.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.

Image source, Getty Images

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after meeting to discuss peace negotiations earlier this month, several news sources report.

Abramovich, along with another Russian entrepreneur, had taken part in the negotiations alongside Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov.

Three people who attended the meeting in Kyiv from 3 to 4 March felt initial symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons, it has been reported., external

The Wall Street Journal reported that they had experienced red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands - however, they were said to have since improved, with their lives not in danger.

People familiar with the matter blamed the suspected attack on hardliners in Moscow who they said wanted to sabotage talks to end the war.

A person close to Abramovich said it wasn't clear who had targeted the group and western experts who looked into the incident said it was hard to determine whether the symptoms were caused by a chemical or biological agent or by some sort of electromagnetic-radiation attack.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has met with Abramovich, wasn't affected.

Abramovich was among seven oligarchs sanctioned by the UK government earlier in March in response to the Ukraine war.

Leaders of the world's seven richest nations have rejected Moscow's demand to pay for energy imports from Russia in roubles, according to Germany's energy minister.

The G7 nations are France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, US and Canada.

Robert Habeck told reporters it was a "clear breach of the existing contracts".

Habeck said that "payment in rouble is not acceptable and we will urge the companies affected not to follow Putin's demand".

The Russian president announced last week that Russia wanted "unfriendly" countries pay for natural gas only in Russian currency from now on.

Economists said the move appeared designed to try to support the rouble.

It has collapsed against other currencies since Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 24 and Western countries responded with far-reaching sanctions against Moscow.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he has directed the body's humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths "to explore with the parties involved" the possibility of a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine.

In appealing for its immediate introduction, he says it should be implimented "to allow for progress in serious political negotiations, aimed at reaching a peace agreement".

Image source, EPA

Moscow is developing measures to restrict entry into Russia for nationals of "unfriendly" countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"A draft presidential decree is being developed on retaliatory visa measures in response to the unfriendly actions of a number of foreign states," he said in televised remarks.

The state news agency Tass quoted him as saying the measures would "respond to unfriendly actions by the United States and its satellites", including "illegitimate sanctions" and "decisions that infringe on the rights of Russian citizens and legal entities".

It did not specify which countries the measures would apply to, but the government has previously approved a list of states and territories "that commit unfriendly actions against Russia, its companies, and citizens".

The list , externalincludes the United States and Canada, the EU states, the UK, Ukraine, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and several others.

Image source, Getty Images

The mayor of Irpin, a town north-west of Kyiv, said Ukrainian forces had seized back full control of the town on Monday.

The town, which sits just 20km (12 miles) outside the capital, has seen some of the most important fighting for the future of Kyiv.

"We have good news today - Irpin has been liberated," Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said in a video post on social media., external

"We understand that there will be more attacks on our town and we will defend it courageously," he added.

This information could not immediately be verified by the BBC.

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More now on Ukraine’s claims that Russia has forcibly relocated thousands of civilians from Mariupol, the strategic port city devastated by Russian shelling.

While many people have managed to escape from the besieged city, Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun says another 160,000 are still trapped there.

She also says 20,000 people are reported to have been taken to Russia against their will.

"They were basically just abducted by the Russian state," she says.

Sovsun says the situation in Mariupol is "very tense" and adds she understands the major progress being made by Russian forces right now is in the Donbas region.

BBC Monitoring

Russian vessels are preparing missile strikes against Ukrainian targets, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry has said.

"The vessels of the Russian Federation's Black Sea fleet are carrying out tasks in designated areas of the Black and Azov sea operational zones," the ministry said.

"Some vessels have entered a closed area, probably in order to carry out missile strikes against facilities in Ukraine."

Russian troops are focusing on keeping their positions and are trying to regroup in order to enhance their offensive capabilities, according to the report.

It said Russia was regrouping in order to advance towards the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

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Image source, State Emergency Services of Ukraine

The Ukrainian emergency services have shared footage of firefighters working to put out a fire at a fuel depot which was hit in an attack overnight in the western city of Lutsk.

The regional governor said he believed a Russian missile fired from Belarus had struck the site and that preliminary information suggested there were no casualties.

Image source, State Emergency Services of Ukraine

Image source, State Emergency Services of Ukraine

Image source, Getty Images

Russian officials have reportedly confiscated millions of dollars' worth of luxury Audemars Piguet watches.

The Swiss timepieces were seized from a shop by security service agents on Tuesday for allegedly violating customs rules, Swiss media report.

It happened just days after Switzerland abandoned its traditional neutrality to join Western countries in imposing sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

There is no Swiss confirmation.

However, the government has said Switzerland's new luxury export ban has been causing "uncertainties" for some businesses.

Watches from Audemars Piguet can cost more than £700,000 ($921,000) a piece. The company has not responded to a BBC request for comment.

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