The president of the European Parliament is set to travel to Ukraine.

"On my way to Kyiv," Roberta Metsola wrote in a post on Twitter on Thursday.

Details of Metsola's trip and who she will meet with have not been revealed "due to security concerns", according to a parliament official.

Earlier this week, the president said it was "important for the European Parliament to support Ukraine’s aspiration to be a candidate country for accession".

Image source, Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his country will send some armoured Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine, following an address by President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Australian Parliament.

In his address on Thursday night, President Zelensky had said Ukraine was in desperate need of military aid.

The number of vehicles to be transferred was not immediately known, although Defence Minister Peter Dutton earlier said only four could be transported at a time on Australian military planes.

Canberra has previously used the vehicles in warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, here is a look at some key developments over the past 24 hours:

• Nato says Russian forces are "trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce" to double down on their attacks in eastern Ukraine
• In an attempt to boost its flagging economy, Russia warned "unfriendly" foreign countries they must start paying for gas in roubles or it will cut supplies
• Ukraine's state nuclear company says Russian troops occupying the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl have left
• Efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the port city of Mariupol will be renewed on Friday after Russian forces reportedly blocked rescue buses headed to the city
• The head of France's military intelligence has been sacked after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine
• US President Joe Biden ordered a major release of oil from America's reserves - up to 180 million barrels over six months - in an effort to bring down high fuel costs
• The West is battling Russia for greater diplomatic engagement with India over the war in Ukraine at the same time

With that, this is Jude Sheerin signing off in Washington, and handing over to my colleagues Yvette Tan and Frances Mao in Singapore.

BBC Russian reports that the situation around Kyiv appears to be improving.

It cites Mykola Zhirnov, the head of the Kyiv military administration, as saying that companies and services in the city are operating normally.

"The day in Kyiv passed peacefully," Zhirnov said.

However, fighting is still going on in the outskirts of the capital.

Russian forces shelled the towns of Irpin and Makariv on Thursday, while battles were also reported around Hostomel and Brovary in the suburbs.

Local authorities say residents should remain cautious.

Image source, Getty Images

Russia is warning the European Union that its actions "will not remain unanswered".

The RIA news agency cited a senior foreign ministry official on Friday as saying that confrontation with Moscow would not be in the bloc's best interests.

"The irresponsible sanctions by Brussels are already negativelyaffecting the daily lives of ordinary Europeans," Nikolai Kobrinets told the outlet.

As we reported earlier, Ukraine is seeking to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the besieged south-eastern port city of Mariupol on Friday.

A convoy of 45 buses on its way to the city was held up by Russian forces on Thursday.

Some 100,000 people remain in the city, which has been under constant bombardment over the past five weeks.

Verified drone footage from inside Mariupol has captured the extent of its destruction.

In his video address, Zelensky also used some colourful imagery to depict the Russian forces as "evil".

He said "the invaders have been trying to break in and get a foothold in our house from different directions – from the ground, from the sky, from the sea.

"They crawl, fly, sail. They have so much evil, so much thirst for destruction that it reminds us not of people, but of something otherworldly.

"Monsters who burn and plunder, who attack and are bent on murder. Some hellish chimeras."

Image source, Getty Images

The UK's Ministry of Defence says some Russian forces currently deployed in Georgia will be sent to reinforce troops in Ukraine.

It's the latest sign that Moscow's game plan on the ground is changing, five weeks into a largely stalled invasion.

The move is "indicative of the unexpected losses it has sustained during the invasion", the ministry said.

It added that some of the redeployed forces are expected to be reorganised into three battalion tactical groups for combat.

Image source, EPA

There was a rare glimpse of internal dissent in President Zelensky's nightly video address.

He announced he had sacked two senior members of the Ukrainian national security service on the grounds they were “traitors”.

"Today another decision was made regarding anti-heroes” he said. “I do not have time to deal with all the traitors, but they will gradually all be punished.”

He named the two top officials, adding that those "who break the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people... will inevitably be deprived of high military ranks".

“Random generals are out of our way!” he added.

There are hopes that evacuation buses will finally reach the besieged port city of Mariupol on Friday, and rescue some of at least 100,000 residents stranded there.

Without water, power or heating, temperatures sometimes below zero, and food and medicine running out, those remaining have been largely living in basements and cooking what food they have on open fires.

Photos from the city tell a story of survival amidst the rubble, where even graves have had to be improvised.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says the situation in the south and the Donbas region remains extremely difficult.

In a video address tonight, he reiterated that Russia was building up forces near the besieged city of Mariupol.

"There will be battles ahead. We still need to go down a very difficult path to get everything we want," he said.

Russia said earlier a humanitarian corridor would be opened on Friday to allow civilians out of the south eastern port city of Mariupol.

An ex-CIA intelligence expert says that US and UK intelligence officials "seem to have a good understanding of the plans and intentions of the Kremlin".

Speaking to BBC World News' Laura Trevelyan, John Sipher said the two countries were probably playing to Vladimir Putin's paranoia and creating friction in his inner circle.

Both countries have claimed in recent days that Putin is increasingly isolated and receiving poor information from military advisers.

Russia is now a "lesser country" as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, says UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Speaking to Sky News, he added: "President Putin is not the force he used to be. He is now a man in a cage he built himself.

"His army is exhausted, he has suffered significant losses.

"The reputation of this great army of Russia has been trashed.

"He has not only got to live with the consequences of what he is doing to Ukraine, but he has also got to live with the consequences of what he has done to his own army."

Wallace says Russian forces appear to be regrouping and shifting their focus towards the south and east of Ukraine.

"We have seen it before. It always gets worse. It goes for more civilian attacks, more civilian areas."

He adds that international allies have agreed to supply more military equipment and "lethal aid" to Ukraine, including armoured vehicles and long-range artillery and ammunition.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Russia's economy is set to shrink by 10% this year and Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 20% as the conflict results in "the greatest supply shock" for 50 years, according to a forecast by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Thursday.

Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the London-based bank had forecast Ukraine's GDP would expand by 3.5% this year and the Russian economy would grow by 3%.

The bank says its latest forecasts "assume that a ceasefire is brokered within a couple of months, followed soon after by the start of a major reconstruction effort in Ukraine."

Were this to play out, Ukraine's GDP should rebound by 23% next year, while sanctions-hit Russia would be set for zero growth.

Meanwhile, the lender says the global economy faces "the greatest supply shock since at least the early 1970s".

"Russia and Ukraine supply a disproportionately high share of commodities, including wheat, corn, fertiliser, titanium, and nickel."

The bank predicts higher prices for such commodities will have a "profound impact" on global economies, hitting lower-income nations particularly hard.

Image source, EPA

While the majority of refugees from the war in Ukraine have fled to Eastern Europe, many have travelled much farther, often to join family.

On the other side of the continent, Spain has officially registered almost 30,000 refugees who’ve fled the fighting.

That’s according to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who says the number could more than double in the coming days.

Latest UN figures show more than four million people have left Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on 24 February – the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

Image source, Getty Images

A former Russian foreign minister told the BBC that President Vladimir Putin "miscalculated everything" in his war on Ukraine.

Speaking to the Global Questions programme, Andrei Kozyrev criticised Putin’s track record in office, saying Russia has been “declining” because it is too dependent on exports of raw materials.

Asked about the possibility of a revolution in the country, Kozyrev - who served under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s - said there is “always a chance”.

He explained that there is a precedent for such turbulence.

“I lived for 40 years in the Soviet Union and all of a sudden, over just a year or two, it collapsed."

“Russia continues to be unpredictable, unfortunately.”

The Pentagon says it does not know if Russia's convoy of military vehicles, which once stretched some 40 miles outside Kyiv "still exists at this point".

"It's been now so long," said spokesman John Kirby. "They never really accomplished their mission."

The stalled convoy was never re-supplied, he noted, and was making little effort to advance on the capital even before Moscow announced its plans to reposition troops.

“We don't think that they properly planned for logistics and sustainment of a force that size in the field under combat conditions,” Kirby said.

“It's also a function of Ukrainian resistance and agility and frankly, just battlefield smarts,” he added.

Let's take a look at some of the major developments on Thursday:

• After weeks of threats to cut off Western nations from its natural gas supplies, Moscow warned "unfriendly" foreign countries to start paying for gas in roubles or it will halt their contracts
• Ukraine's state nuclear operatorsays many Russian troopsoccupying the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl have left
• Western officials claim Russia is not retreating as it has indicated, but is "trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce"
• The Red Cross says the evacuation of thousands of civilians from the besieged south-eastern city of Mariupol has been delayed until Friday
• The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, has reportedly lost his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine

Read more from our daily Ukraine roundup.

Image source, Getty Images