Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden has said, for the first time, that "dictator" Vladimir Putin is carrying out genocide in Ukraine.

Speaking on domestic energy needs at an ethanol plant in Iowa, Biden said "your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank - none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away".

Speaking to reporters in Iowa, as he prepared to board Air Force One, Biden stood by his remarks., external

"Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being — being able to be Ukrainian," Biden said.

"The — more evidence is coming out of the — literally, the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine."

"And we'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me."

The White House later sent out a transcript of his comments.

Adam Durbin
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

The Ukrainian military said a short while ago that Russia is planning to strike the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Control of this steel factory has become a focal point in the battle for control of Mariupol, with fierce fighting and even reports of hand-to-hand combat in the warrens of the massive industrial complex used by Ukrainian defenders.

The Azovstal iron and steel works is one of the key operating bases left for the several thousand Ukrainian fighters remaining in the besieged city - but the exact numbers using it are unclear because of a lack of reliable information, experts say.

Rumours it had been attacked by chemical weapons have been circulating, but the BBC has not been able to verify these allegations.

Dr Aglaya Snetkov, an expert in Russian foreign and security policy from University College London, explains the factory has been a key objective through the weeks-long siege of the sea of Azov port city.

However, she explains the reason the Soviet-era facility has so far resisted capture is that it was built to withstand significant damage, and it is so large that it has proven difficult to flush out fighters - which include elements from the far-right, nationalist Azov battalion - based there.

Snetkov says the plant, as well as Mariupol more broadly, has demonstrated the challenges of urban warfare and capturing areas with a "lot of fighters that keep going and can essentially have hideouts".

Image source, .

The heavily defended area is one of Mariupol's last remaining pockets of resistance, intelligence expert Justin Crump explains.

Describing the nature of the fighting, the former British Army officer describes it as complex battles in amongst dense industrial buildings.

Crump says the focus of the Russian assault has primarily been bombing the area as part of a painstaking and slow tactic of "wearing down the defenders" occupying the vast site.

He explains this means they have been using heavy artillery to destroy buildings which could be used by defenders, advancing afterwards to reduce the deaths of their own soldiers.

Crump adds the Ukrainian troops are in surprisingly "good order" given the brutal bombardment for many weeks, but are in an increasingly difficult situation after their supplies of ammunition and food have been cut off for over a week. Many are increasingly being forced to surrender, he says.

In its latest update, the Ukrainian military has said that Russian forces continue to bomb the key southern port city of Mariupol, and are planning to launch an offensive near the Azovstal steel factory where Ukrainian troops are said to be entrenched.

Here are some of the other points highlighted by the Ukrainian military:

• Russian forces continue to carry out strikes on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions in northeast Ukraine. There is active aerial reconnaissance by the Russians too
• Russian forces have declared a so-called "yellow level of terrorist threat" in regions bordering Ukraine and in Crimea
• The update speculates that this threat level is probably to organise the movement of military equipment, weapons and personnel in Ukraine
• Russian forces have sent 400 personnel comprising servicemen with combat experience to Ukraine as reinforcements.
• The Ukrainian military has shot down a Su-25 Russian jet
• It has also destroyed two vehicles and three Russian artillery systems in Donetsk and Luhansk.

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

Image source, Ukrainian military

Image source, Ukrainian Armed Forces

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russian forces have faced "irreparable losses" since their invasion began 48 days ago.

"Do you remember how Russia boasted that they would capture Kyiv in 48 hours? In 48 hours, which stretched for 48 days, the Russian army reached a level of irreparable losses higher than the Soviet Union during the ten years of war in Afghanistan," Zelensky said in a video address.

Russia's initial plan of storming the Ukrainian capital Kyiv when the war first started on 24 February, was stalled after its troops suffered heavy losses. Analysts say Moscow underestimated the strength of resistance and the capabilities of Ukraine's own smaller armed forces.

Russia has also struggled with the basics. Armoured columns have run out of fuel, food, and ammunition. Vehicles have broken down and been left abandoned, then towed away by Ukrainian tractors.

Russian forces have now fully withdrawn from around the capital Kyiv and are building up their military forces in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

David Brown
BBC News

Reports and satellite images suggest Russia is building up troops and equipment in at least three places on Ukraine’s border: Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and around the town of Matveev Kurgan to the south.

Inside Ukraine, Russia is reinforcing its operations around Izyum and preparing to thrust south to take Slovyansk, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

From there, Russian troops may be able to advance east or south east to encircle a contingent of Ukrainian ground forces.

Should Mariupol fall, Russian forces may start to push north to complete the encirclement of a larger group of Ukrainian troops.

Some of Ukraine’s most experienced and best-equipped units are thought to be in the east.

They are heavily dug in to key positions, and analysts say Russian troops may struggle to force them out.

Image source, .

Jack Burgess
BBC News

Image source, .

With an expected renewed Russian offensive in the eastern region of Donbas, we've been speaking to Russian security policy expert Dr Aglaya Snetkov about how the conflict could unfold there.

What will Russia's strategy be?

"We are looking at a slow war of attrition," says Snetkov.

"The Russians will be focused on grinding down Ukrainian positions and infrastructure."

She says Putin will attack from the north and from Mariupol, in the south - piling on pressure to extract concessions.

What will the fighting look like?

Snetkov believes Russia may target more railway infrastructure but fears there will be more civilian casualties too.

"Whether they're planning to take over areas in the east by bombing them out of existence, at this stage we don't know."

She says it will take a while longer for heavy military equipment to arrive in Donbas, especially if it's travelling from Belarus or Russia.

How else could things change?

Meanwhile, she says Russia's appointment of General Alexander Dvornikov to oversee the invasion could make the Russian operational strategy more coordinated - with fewer generals sent to the front line.

"What's been surprising until now is that the Russians have had no chief of command, or at least we haven't known who it was."

Image source, Maxar Technologies

Image source, Getty Images

The Ukrainian military is trapped in Mariupol as Russian forces advance on the key southern port city, Mykhaylo Podolya, an official from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, has tweeted, external.

"Our soldiers remain trapped in the city and have problems with supplies," Mr Podolya said, adding that they are monitoring the situation in real-time.

Mariupol has come under intense bombardment from Russian forces since early March.

Image source, Gett

The city lies between the pro-Russia breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and annexed Crimea in the south. Seizing the city has been a major goal of the Russian offensive.

Zelensky has said that tens of thousands of people had likely been killed in Mariupol.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC has not verified the figure, but reports from the region and the refugees fleeing the city spoke of bodies lying in the streets and most buildings damaged or destroyed.

Image source, Getty Images

Manisha Ganguly and Joe Inwood
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

The BBC has found evidence that a cluster bomb, banned by many countries under international law, was used in an attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in Ukraine.

Cluster bombs deliver a payload of bomblets that spread out and explode over a wide area.

More than 50 people died in the attack on the station, which was crowded with people.

What is the evidence?

BBC journalists who visited the station after the attack found patterns consistent with the use of a cluster-munitions warhead.

The resulting multiple explosions typically scatter fragments around the site of the main impact of the missile, leaving tell-tale pockmark indentations.

Remains of a Soviet-era Tochka-U missile were found in the aftermath of the attack. It is a short-range single warhead ballistic missile that can be fitted with a cluster warhead that carries 50 bomblets.

Experts say impact marks are consistent with cluster munitions.

"The impact mark is pretty consistent with a sub-munition like the 9N24, a Soviet-era cluster munition that can be carried by the Tochka missile," Sidharth Kaushal, a missile expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said.

Read more on evidence of cluster munitions used in Ukraine, and why these weapons are banned.

"I feel guilty about sitting here in silence and doing nothing."

Twenty-seven-year-old Ludmyla Chyrkova struggled with her decision to leave the Ukrainian capital with her family, on the second day of the war.

In this video diary for the BBC she explains why she has to return to her home city.

Image source, Getty Images

The White House is preparing to send Ukraine another $750m (£575m) in weapons, according to US media.

The shipment will be authorised this week, NBC reports, with Reuters saying it could come as soon as Wednesday.

The funds will come from existing US stockpiles of weapons, allowing President Biden to send them directly without authorisation from lawmakers in Washington.

A US official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters the shipment is still being finalised, and would probably include heavy ground artillery systems, including howitzers.

Unnamed officials told NBC the package could include unmanned surface vehicles - sometimes called sea drones or drone ships - and Mi-17 helicopters.

Another former official told the network the shipment would be “a package that’s built around the idea of larger scale combat” and could potentially include short-range anti-ship missiles.

“We want Russia to lose,” added a current senior administration official also unnamed in the report.

The US has provided $1.7bn in security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion began.

On Wednesday, Pentagon officials will hold a classified meeting with US weapons manufacturers amid a sharp rise in demand for weapons due to the war in Ukraine.

According to Reuters, eight of America's largest arms companies will attend, including Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, which produce Stinger and Javelin missiles.

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

Image source, Getty Images

A controversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI, announced last month it had given its technology to the Ukrainian government.

The BBC has been given evidence of how it is being used - in more than a thousand cases - to identify both the living and the dead.

Clearview is perhaps the most famous, and controversial, facial recognition system in the world.

The company has scraped billions of photos from social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, to create an enormous database of what its CEO and founder Hoan Ton-That calls "a search engine for faces".

"It kind of works like Google. But instead of putting in a string of words or text, the user puts in a photo of a face," explains Ton-That.

The company has faced a string of legal challenges. Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitter have sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview - to ask them to stop using pictures from the sites. The UK Information Commissioner's Office even fined the company for failing to inform people it was collecting photos of them.

Now, its use by the Ukrainian government has raised questions over the implications of infusing this powerful technology into an active war.

Read more:

The technology identifying dead soldiers

BBC Monitoring

At least 20 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine has reported on its Telegram channel.

It published a list of their names and said that these were only deaths confirmed by the prosecutor-general's office.

Some of them were foreigners, the union added.

Image source, Handout

In his nightly address on the 48th day of war, President Volodymr Zelensky boasted of having captured the country's most senior pro-Russian politician, Viktor Medvedchuk, who was on the run suspected of treason.

He denounced Medvedchuk for his "cynical" wearing of military camouflage in his alleged attempt to escape prosecution.

"Well, if Medvedchuk chose a military uniform for himself, he falls under the rules of wartime," said Zelensky, going on to offer to exchange him with Russia for Ukrainians they are holding in captivity.

"Let Medvedchuk be an example for you," he continued.

"Even the former oligarch did not escape, not to mention much more ordinary criminals from the Russian boondocks. We will get everyone," he said, adding that "it is necessary to punish collaborators".

Image source, Reuters

In Ukraine

Ukraine's security service says it has arrested the country's most senior pro-Russian politician, Viktor Medvedchuk. The opposition party leader had been under house arrest suspected of treason but fled shortly after the Russian invasion.

President Zelensky offered Russia to trade him for captured Ukrainians. Earlier on Tuesday, he said that new mass graves are being discovered in formerly occupied areas "almost daily".

Russia and Ukraine are building up forces in the eastern region of Donbas. Satellite images show Russian troops and equipment in at least three places on Ukraine's border.

Meanwhile in Donbas there are signs that Ukraine is bringing in more military equipment, although on a smaller scale.

The US says it cannot confirm unverified information that Russia has used chemical weapons in its siege of Mariupol.

In Russia

President Putin has made a rare public appearance alongside the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. He said peace talks had reached a dead end after Ukraine made "fake claims" about war crimes.

Putin described Russia's military goals in Ukraine as noble. He said Russia would continue its "special operation" to defend Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.

Lukashenko said allegations of atrocities in northern Ukraine were "a psychological operation carried out by the English".

The two leaders vowed to "deepen integration" between their countries.

Diplomacy

US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have spoken by phone, discussing how to increase economic pressure on Russia and end Western reliance on its oil and gas.

The call came hours before Biden charged that Putin was a "dictator" carrying out a genocide in Ukraine. His speech marked the first time Biden or a member of his team referred to Russian actions as "genocide," earlier only going so far as to describe them as war crimes.

A multi-confessional delegation of religious leaders is visiting the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsy, on a mission to provide comfort to victims of the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a speech to the Lithuanian parliament that the European Union was still too hesitant in imposing sanctions on Moscow.

He also called for all governments to boycott Russian oil, saying that failing to do so would allow Russia to continue to seek a military solution to the conflict with Ukraine.

This is Jude Sheerin in Washington DC and Max Matza in Seattle signing off and handing over to our colleagues, Ayeshea Perera in Singapore and Andrew Clarance in Delhi.

Lesia and Galya are sisters from Bucha.

In mid-March, Lesia came to the Romanian border as her hometown was under siege.

The last she heard her parents were hiding in a basement - the same place where Galya and her daughters hid before fleeing to the Romanian border.

"They wanted to protect their land and everything they own," said Galya.

"We left the town two days after the shelling began," she said. "But my parents stayed."

Since then, she hasn't been able to contact them.

Any attempts to reach them went unanswered and Lesia and Galya feared the worst, until one day the two sisters received a call.

The White House has sent out a transcript of Biden's follow-up remarks about his earlier comments on genocide.

At an event in Menlo, Iowa, the US president suggested Putin was carrying out genocide against Ukraine.

Biden was asked about this comment shortly afterwards as he boarded Air Force One for take off from Des Moines International Airport.

Here's what he said:

"Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being - being able to be Ukrainian.

"And the amount - the evidence is mounting. It’s different than it was last week.

"The - more evidence is coming out of the - literally, the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine. And we're going to only learn more and more about the devastation.

"And we'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me."

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Dr Aled Jones

A doctor has driven to Ukraine with medical supplies and spare parts to fix an ex-NHS ambulance hit by shelling.

Dr Aled Jones had driven the ambulance hit by a bomb from Merthyr Tydfil to London, before it was taken to Ukraine.

But he has now driven an additional ambulance all the way to a town near Lviv, in western Ukraine.

"Thankfully, the damage sustained after that bombing is remarkably little, it only needs some wheels and a new window, and I have brought those along with me and so the ambulance will be fixed," Dr Jones told the BBC's Newyddion S4C programme.

"I have also got some medical equipment and supplies that are needed on the front line. This ambulance will now hopefully arrive in Mykolaiv tomorrow [Wednesday].

"The people have been very welcoming, offering food and vodka, but I don't want to be eating their food and drink, we just want to help"

Read more here

Image source, AFP

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday he was ready to travel to Kyiv with colleagues from Poland and the Baltic states, but was told his presence in Ukraine would be undesirable.

The plan, Steinmeier said during a trip to Warsaw, was to “undertake a trip to Kyiv to send a strong signal of common European solidarity with Ukraine".

"I was ready to do this, but apparently - and I have to take note of this - this was not wanted in Kyiv."

The German newspaper Bild cited Ukrainian sources as saying that Steinmeier was refused admission to Kyiv "due to close ties with Russia in recent years".

According to Bild, the office of the German president has received a clear signal from Kyiv that he is not yet welcome there, but a future meeting may still take place.

Last week Steinmeier conceded it had been a "mistake" to stick for long with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Berlin scrapped the project just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has tweeted praise for his US counterpart after Joe Biden called Russia's actions in the war "genocide".

"True words," he said, adding: "Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil."