Russian air activity is expected to increase in Ukraine's south and east, the UK's Ministry of Defence says in its latest defence intelligence update.

Moscow's forces are continuing to hit Ukrainian non-combatants, like those killed in Friday's rocket strike on Kramatorsk railway station, it says.

• What we know about the train station attack

Russian operations are focused on the eastern Donbas region, the MoD says, as well as the southern cities of Mariupol and Mykolaiv. But the ministry says Ukrainian resistance is still blocking Russia's goal of establishing a land link between Crimea and the Donbas region.

The governor of Luhansk, in the Donbas region, called for more evacuations on Saturday morning.

The former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine was taken over by Russian forces on the first day of the invasion. It's now back under Ukraine's control.

The BBC's Yogita Limaye, who was among the first journalists to look inside it since the Russians left, spoke to staff at the plant, who were allowed to continue working when the occupation began.

"We had to constantly negotiate with them, and try hard not to offend them, so that they allowed our personnel to manage the facility," said engineer Valeriy Semonov.

When power to the station was cut off for three days, Valeriy said he scrambled to find fuel to keep the generator running, even resorting to stealing some from the Russians.

Read Yogita Limaye's report in full here.

Ukrainian forces in Mariupol continue to hold the city centre, according to the latest assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, which has been documenting the shifting battle lines since the war began.

Here are the other developments from 8 April, according to the ISW:

• Russian assaults continue around Mariupol, but Ukraine still controls most of the strategic southern port city
• Ukrainian troops have made progress retaking territory in western Kherson, an occupied city near Crimea, and they now threaten Russian control of the city
• Russian troops withdrawing from the northern city of Kharkiv are laying minefields as they go, in anticipation of Ukrainian counterattacks
• Attacks on Izyum continue, but Russia took no additional territory there on Friday
• Russian combat troops returning from the front are increasingly refusing to redeploy because their morale is low
• In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russia is focusing efforts on taking the cities of Rubizhne, Popasna and Marinka
• A Russian Tochka-U missile struck a civilian evacuation point at the Kramatorsk rail station, killing at least 50 and wounding around 100
• "Pro-Russian Telegram channels and the Russian Ministry of Defence initially claimed Russian forces conducted precision strikes on railway stations in Donbas before deleting the claims once heavy civilian casualties emerged," the report says, external.

More than four million Ukrainian refugees have left the war-torn country since it was invaded by Russia.

A group of young musicians from Kharkiv and Odesa have found safety in Denmark, after receiving help from a local music school. They’ll now be able to continue to study and play music.

Image source, PA

A private jet owned by a Russian billionaire has been banned from flying in the UK. The plane, owned by Eugene Shvidler, had its permits to fly suspended following an investigation.

In March, the UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps blocked the plane from leaving Biggin Hill airport in south-east London. This was to allow an investigation into ownership of the aircraft.

The Cessna aircraft, with the tail registration G-LATO, is in London to undergo maintenance and repairs.

Shapps visited Biggin Hill to see the plane. He said Russian oligarchs who have benefited from Putin's regime will not be allowed to go about their business as they were before "this completely unprovoked war started". Shapps added that the plane will not be going anywhere "for the foreseeable future".

He also announced all Russian aircraft are now classified as "un-airworthy in UK eyes" because "they're now not being serviced properly" because of sanctions.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Kremlin

A Western official has confirmed Russia has reorganised the command of its operations in Ukraine, with the new general having had extensive experience in battle operations in Syria.

The source said the commander of Russia’s southern military district, Gen Alexander Dvornikov, now leads the invasion.

“That particular commander has a lot of experience of operations of Russian operations in Syria. So we would expect the overall command and control to improve,” the source said.

The new instatement was done in an attempt to improve coordination between various units, as Russian groups had previously been organised and commanded separately, the official said.

Russia has so far struggled to achieve its war aims 44 days into the invasion, failing to capture major cities such as Kyiv before eventually turning its sights to the Donbas region in the east.

The official said Russian tactics had seen them held back by smaller numbers of Ukrainian units acting more intelligently and with surprise - despite Russia being thought to have a "substantial" force of slightly fewer than 100 operational battalion tactical groups,

“Unless Russia is able to change its tactics, it's very difficult to see how they succeed in even these limited objectives that they've reset themselves," the official said.

The official added political imperatives might take precedence over military priorities, with Russia pushing forward to get some kind of success ahead of 9 May, when the country marks victory in World War Two.

Image source, Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a news conference on Friday in which he announced the expulsion of eight Russian diplomats and a total ban on Russian coal imports.

"Russia has repeatedly violated international humanitarian law by killing civilians and attacking nuclear power plants. These are unforgivable war crimes," Kishida told reporters.

Japan has been continuing to levy sanctions against Russia in co-ordination with the US and European countries.

"Japan stands together with Ukraine," Kishida said.

Japan is the world's third-largest importer of coal after India and China. Russia accounts for 11% of Japan's coal import.

Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News

Traditionally, it is the job of a spy to keep secrets - but as the invasion of Ukraine loomed, Western intelligence officials made the unusual decision to tell the world what they knew.

For nearly a dozen days in February, a small group of intelligence officers had been going to bed early.

They had seen the intelligence predicting a war and knew that if Russia was really going to invade Ukraine, it would begin in the early hours of the morning.

But when the news finally came on 24 February, it still felt unreal, one recalls: "It was hard to believe it was actually happening until I woke up early that morning and put the radio on."

For months they had been sounding the alarm.

"That day people went from 'Why are you being so hysterical?' to 'Why weren't you more hysterical?'" says the official.

There was no satisfaction in being proved right, another intelligence official adds.

But at least they felt they had tried to stop a war whose scale they had been warning of for months.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron has lashed out at Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, calling him "a far-right anti-Semite who bans LGBT people", after Morawiecki criticised Macron's talks with Vladimir Putin.

Morawiecki likened Macron's regular conversations with the Russian leader since the outset of the conflict in Ukraine to negotiating with Hitler.

It is not clear why Macron accused Morawiecki of anti-Semitism, although the Polish government has faced international criticism for laws making it harder for Jewish people to recover property lost during and after World War Two, as well as one making it an offence to link the Polish nation to Nazi crimes.

Macron is facing an election that will determine his political future and he told a French newspaper that Morawiecki's gibe was an effort to aid his rivals.

Read more:

Macron calls Polish PM 'a far-right anti-Semite'

If you're in need of a recap, here's the latest news from the war in Ukraine.

• 132 dead bodies have been found in Makariv, around 50km (30 miles) from Kyiv, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website. The website quoted the town's mayor, who said the majority of bodies had been excavated from mass graves
• Authorities have imposed a weekend curfew in the southern port city of Odesa because of threats of further missile strikes, according to the regional military

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station as "another war crime of Russia
• Ukraine says at least 50 people died and dozens were wounded

• The US accused Russia of carrying out the attack, describing it as a "horrific atrocity"

International efforts

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK will be sending an additional £100m worth of "high-grade military equipment" to Ukraine
• Slovakia sent its S-300 surface-to-air missile defence system to Ukraine
• The Czech Republic has also supplied Ukraine with tanks, rocket launchers and fighting vehicles
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on countries farther away from Ukraine to take in more refugees

• The European Union has adopted a new raft of sanctions against Russia and entities with ties to the Kremlin. Details were published on Friday. They include asset freezes and travel bans for 216 individuals, including Vladimir Putin's two daughters

Russia's reaction

• Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, said Western sanctions imposed on Russia were a declaration of economic war
• Russia is closing 15 human rights offices over "law violation", including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
• Russia's foreign ministry expelled 45 Polish embassy and consulate staff in retaliation for Warsaw expelling 45 Russian diplomats from Poland who were suspected of working for Russian intelligence

Image source, Reuters

The war in Ukraine led to a "giant leap" in food prices last month, says the United Nations.

Rising costs for basics such as cereal, vegetable oil and sugar have been revealed in the UN Food Prices Index that tracks commodities. They're at their highest since records began 60 years ago, jumping nearly 13% in March, following February's high.

Ukraine is the world's biggest exporter of sunflower oil, which means the costs of alternatives have also climbed. It's also a major producer of cereals such as maize and wheat.

The cost-of-living crisis is worrying politicians and has sparked warnings of social unrest across the world.

Read more on the sharp rise in cost of basic foodstuffs here.

Image source, Getty Images

UK councils are seeing a “concerning increase” in Ukrainian refugees becoming homeless after arriving in the UK because of relationship breakdowns with their sponsors and problems accessing accommodation, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

Ukrainian families who arrived under the family visa scheme are struggling to get money while they wait for benefits and some are being put in hotels because their relatives are unable or unwilling to house them, the Press Association reports.

A number of matches under the separate Homes for Ukraine scheme are understood to have broken down, with local authorities having to put families in emergency accommodation while they wait to find a new sponsor.

Councils are calling for a way to get refugees whose matches have broken down back on the database so that they can be matched quickly with sponsors in the local area who have homes ready for them.

In a survey published last week, the LGA said 57 councils had been approached by 144 Ukrainian households who had become homeless after arriving under both schemes.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs has said that efforts to estimate the number of dead civilians in formerly occupied areas have been complicated by Russian booby-traps.

In a briefing on Friday, Denis Monastyrsky said that many buildings were mined, and that the buildings where Russians allegedly tortured people were blown up as they departed.

"The cases are horrendous," he said, adding that sappers had found explosives under helmets, ammo boxes and cellar entrances.

He estimates that it would still be a number of weeks before authorities have a complete estimate of how many died in the battle for Kyiv.

Though the BBC cannot verify the specific claims by Monastyrsky, there is growing evidence to contradict Russian denials that they killed civilians in parts of Ukraine they occupied.

Image source, Getty Images

Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, says Western sanctions imposed on Russia are a declaration of economic war.

The former Russian president slammed the measures as illegal. He says it is an act of international aggression against the Russian Federation "on the part of individual states or their unions".

Medvedev made the statement on his Telegram channel, external, where he warned no-one should doubt Russia's right to defend itself within international law and within the boundaries of what it "considers appropriate".

He says the sanctions will not destabilise Russia and that the effect will be the opposite. He said his country will have "negative emotions" towards states that have imposed sanctions.

Medvedev is a prominent name on the UK's latest list of sanctioned individuals. He is currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, and served as president from 2008-12 and as prime minister from 2012-20.

Image source, Ukraine's government

President Zelensky began his nightly Facebook address by describing the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station as "another war crime of Russia".

According to Zelensky, 38 people were killed immediately in the attack on the refugee shelter. Another 12 people died in hospital, and dozens more remain in medical care. Five children were among the victims.

The BBC has not independently verified the president's casualty figure.

He went on to pledge that Russia will be held to account in a future trial.

"Like the massacre in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile strike on Kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal, which is bound to happen," he said.

"Responsibility is inevitable," he added.

He went on the praise the visit to Kyiv earlier on Friday by the president of the European Commission and head of European diplomacy.

He thanked the delegation and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen "for her personal involvement and assistance in setting up a joint investigation team to establish the full truth about the actions of the Russian occupiers and bring all those responsible to justice".

Image source, Reuters

A total of 132 dead bodies have been found in the Ukrainian town of Makariv, the Ukrainska Pravda website has reported, quoting the town's mayor.

Speaking in a televised address on Friday, Vadym Tokar said: "As of yesterday, we excavated 132 bodies of civilians who were executed by the Russian orcs."

He said the majority of the bodies were excavated from mass graves, but that some were found in the streets.

Makariv is around 50km (30 miles) west of Kyiv and before the war had a population of around 15,000 people.

Tokar said that fighting in recent weeks had seen the figure fall as low as 1,000, and that around 40% of Makariv had been damaged, with many buildings beyond repair.

"The occupiers destroyed almost all infrastructure, bombed [homes] and apartment buildings, completely destroyed hospitals and kindergartens," he said.

Authorities have imposed a weekend curfew in the southern port city of Odesa on the Black Sea because of threats of further missile strikes, according to the regional military.

In a Facebook post, external, the regional military administration said the curfew would be in place from 21:00 (18:00 GMT) Saturday until 06:00 Monday local time.

People are prohibited from leaving their houses without special permission, it said.

The announcement comes after missile strikes in the region last night, resulting in an unknown number of casualties, according to regional spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk.

Despite the attacks, Ukrainian authorities say that they have so far seen no signs that Russian forces are preparing a landing operation from the Black Sea.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Russia's foreign ministry has expelled 45 Polish embassy and consulate staff in retaliation for Warsaw last month expelling 45 Russian diplomats from Poland who were suspected of working for Russian intelligence.

Earlier today, Russia also said it would expel two Bulgarian diplomats in a retaliatory step after the Bulgarian foreign ministry declared one Russian diplomat persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave the country.

Finland has announced it is expelling two Russian diplomats and discontinuing the visa of one other due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, its government said.

Several other European Union countries have already taken similar measures this week.

Russia is closing the offices of 15 Western NGOs, including the two leading rights organisations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The Russian Ministry of Justice said the decision was taken due to Russian laws being violated, without providing details.

Amnesty International's director, Agnes Callamard, said it was the latest in a long list of organisations being punished for speaking the truth to the Russian authorities.

She said Amnesty would redouble efforts to expose what she described as Russia's "egregious human rights violations at home and abroad".

“The authorities are deeply mistaken if they believe that by closing down our office in Moscow they will stop our work documenting and exposing human rights violations," she said.

Russia tightened its already restrictive media law after invading Ukraine by introducing a new law which threatens to jail anyone Russia deems to have spread "fake" news about the armed forces.

The European Union has adopted a new raft of sanctions against Russia and entities with ties to the Kremlin. Details were published on Friday.

They include:

• Asset freezes and travel bans for 216 individuals, including Vladimir Putin's two daughters, Ekhaterina Tikhonova, 37, and Maria Vorontsova, 37

• Also affected are German Gref, head of Sberbank, Russia's largest bank; arms manufacturer and billionaire Oleg Deripaska; and defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov
• Sanctions on 18 more firms, including five of Russia's biggest banks
• A ban on coal imports, the first action the EU has so far taken against Russia's energy sector

• An import ban on others goods - including wood, vodka and chemical products - estimated to make up at least 10% of all imports from Russia
• A ban on the export of goods including jet fuel and transportation equipment
• An export ban on technologies including quantum computers, advanced semiconductors and high-end electronics
• A ban on Russian ships using EU ports
• A ban on Russian and Belarusian trucks entering the EU's territory unless they are carrying medical products, food or humanitarian assistance