Image source, EPA

More details have emerged about what was said during a call for allied Western leaders hosted by President Biden.

During the conversation, which reportedly lasted around 90 minutes, the leaders agreed on the need to put more pressure on Russia over its invasion.

Afterwards, Japan said it was planning to increase its loan offer to Ukraine from $100m (£77m) to $300m (£231m).

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says his country would give Ukraine money to continue buying weapons. He said Germany had reached its limit of what arms it could send from its army stocks.

Scholz said he'd asked the German arms industry to say what they can deliver quickly, Reuters reports.

This could include anti-tank and air defence weapons that Ukraine has asked for. Germany would also work with partners to help secure long-range artillery for the country, he said.

Ukraine has been calling for more heavy weaponry, as Russia steps up its offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

Image source, Getty Images

US President Joe Biden has been holding a video call with US allies as the long-awaited Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine got under way.

The purpose of the call was to discuss "continued support for Ukraine and efforts to hold Russia accountable", the White House said.

Washington sees the Moscow offensive as a "prelude" to larger, expected operations in the east, a senior US official told the Reuters news agency.

Those on the call included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and UK PM Boris Johnson, as well as the leaders of Poland, Japan and Italy.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here's a summary of what's happening in the war today.

• Russian-backed forces are reportedly storming the Azovstal iron and steel works plant in besieged Mariupol, where the last of the Ukrainian troops in the city have been holding out
• A pro-Russian official has denied reports that many civilians, including children, are also hiding in the complex
• This comes as Russia's renewed offensive in the east begins, with Moscow's forces attacking Ukrainian positions along the entire 300-mile (480km) front line in the eastern Donbas region, according to Ukraine
• Street battles have been reported in Kreminna - a city of 8,000 people in the eastern Luhansk region. Local officials say Ukrainian troops have retreated to regroup after Russian forces seized control of the city on Monday
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemns the Russian offensive in the east, calling for a humanitarian pause for four days over the upcoming Orthodox Christian Easter holidays
• Meanwhile, a Zelensky adviser tells the BBC that with the right heavy weaponry - such as tanks and artillery - Ukrainian forces can beat back the renewed Russian push

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Image source, Reuters

The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine and called for a four-day truce to mark the Orthodox church's Holy Week.

"Instead of a celebration of new life, this Easter coincides with a Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine," Guterres said.

"The intense concentration of forces and firepower makes this battle inevitably more violent, bloody and destructive."

He called for a "humanitarian pause" from the upcoming Holy Thursday until Easter Sunday, on 24 April, to allow for the opening of a series of humanitarian corridors.

He says the United Nations is ready to send humanitarian aid convoys to people in the hardest hit areas such as Mariupol, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk from Thursday to Sunday.

As fighting rages in Ukraine, Johnson tells MPs in Westminster the government's priorities in the UK must be long term as "we face the economic aftershocks of Russian aggression".

He says he is looking at tackling the impact of British energy prices and family bills.

He says government support for struggling families will help to "end the dependence on Putin's oil and gas and ensure energy is cheaper in the long term".

He pledges to make British energy greener, more affordable more secure by expanding off-shore wind, building new nuclear reactors and joining with allies to "face down Putin's aggression".

Boris Johnson has also been talking about his recent visit to Kyiv, when he met President Zelensky.

He calls his counterpart an "indomitable leader of a nation fighting for survival who gives the roar of a lion-hearted people".

Johnson says he assured Zelensky that Britain and its allies had resolved to give Ukraine the weapons it needed to counter the Russian assault.

The PM adds that the "urgency" is even greater now that Russia has launched a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

He says his goal is to "strengthen and fortify Ukraine to the point where Russia will never dare to invade again".

Image source, Ukraine Government/PA Wire

Image source, House of Commons

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been on his feet in the House of Commons, apologising to MPs over his breaking of lockdown rules. But he also talks about the war, saying Ukrainians have "achieved the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century" by repelling the Russian assault on Kyiv.

"Our Ukrainian friends are fighting for the life of their nation," Johnson says as he talks about admiration for their heroism and courage.

He says Putin arrogantly assumed he would capture Kyiv but the "blackened carcasses of tanks and heavy armour litter the approaches to the capital".

He says Britain and its allies supplied some weapons but "Ukrainian valour and sacrifice saved their capital".

Jonathan Beale
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, Getty Images

There’s been an intensification of artillery fire in the Donbas region. Today, there have been rocket attacks on the city of Kramatorsk in the east.

The attacks stretch all the way across a 300-mile (480km) line from the region’s southern tip right up to the northern end, towards Kharkiv - another city that's being targeted.

These Russian artillery strikes have been pretty incessant. Clearly, these operations are designed to weaken not just Ukraine’s defences but also weaken the population there too. Because whatever Russia says, it’s not just hitting military targets – it’s hitting civilians too. We saw that at the railway station in Kramatorsk earlier this month.

As well as these artillery strikes, the Russians have been doing probing attacks to find out the weak spots in Ukraine’s defences. Remember, the Ukrainians are dug in around that area. They’ve been fighting Russian-backed separatists there for the last eight years. They’ve dug in trenches and have well-defended positions.

But Russia has made one significant gain over the last 24 hours: the town of Kreminna. Ukrainian forces say they’ve pushed back Russian advances elsewhere.

I think this is probably going to be quite a long, attritional battle.

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Image source, Mariupol city council via Reuters

Russian-backed fighters are storming the area where Mariupol's last Ukrainian defenders are holed up – the Azovstal plant, a massive iron and steel works - according to a pro-Moscow official.

Eduard Basurin, who represents the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, says assault troops are being helped by Russian aircraft and artillery.

The strategic southern port city has been besieged by Russian troops since early March.

Russian forces are bombing the area heavily, and also shelling residential areas in another part of the city, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol says.

A thousand civilians are also in the Azovstal plant, local officials say, having taken refuge in bunkers and tunnels at the site. Basurin has denied these reports.

Moscow says most of the city is under Russian control. If the whole city falls, it would be a major strategic prize for Russia, leaving it in control of a vast swathe of southern and eastern Ukraine.

Russia has called on Ukrainian soldiers defending the city to surrender, and earlier today issued a fresh ultimatum for them to do so.

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Ilya Barabanov
BBC News Russian

A commander of one of the pro-Russian separatists' battalions in the east of Ukraine, Mikhail Kishchik, has been killed. Better known under the nickname Misha the Chechen, Kishchik died as Russian troops and separatists' forces began an assault against the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's republic (LNR) Sergei Kozlov writes on his social media account: "Sad news from the front line. A patriot of the LNR, Lt Col Mikhail Kishchik has died."

Kozlov adds Kishchik and his comrades were surrounded by Ukrainians close to the town of Kreminna and "fought to the last".

"We are establishing the number of those killed and wounded," he adds.

Kreminna is one of the points on the front line where Russian forces are trying to advance towards the bigger towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, held by the Ukrainian troops.

Kishchik and his battalion have been fighting against the Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the early stages of the conflict, he and his fighters were accused of looting residential areas in the Luhansk region.

In 2016, during a lull in the hostilities in the east of Ukraine, a Russian independent newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" published an investigation, naming Kishchik one of the chiefs of a smuggling ring in the east of Ukraine. He never commented on the allegations.

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Image source, EPA

Clashes have been reported across a vast swathe of eastern Ukraine, after Russia began its renewed assault.

Ukrainian positions are said to have come under attack along the entire 300-mile (480km) front line. Russia says it struck more than 1,000 targets overnight in the Donbas - an eastern area of the country.

Defending troops are fighting back, however. The mayor of Kharkiv has told the BBC Ukrainian forces are "rebuffing the enemy well".

Street battles have been reported in Kreminna, a city in the Luhansk region now occupied by Russian soldiers.

Last night, President Zelensky said a long-awaited "battle for the Donbas" was finally under way.

Image source, Getty Images

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says the country cannot leave its "neighbours standing alone" and has called on other nations to support Ukraine's "fighting spirit".

Morawiecki says Ukrainian troops are fighting for Europe's safety.

He's been speaking in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv at the inauguration of new temporary accommodation for displaced people.

"We have to support this fighting spirit, also through caring for the weakest," he says. "Today we saw women and children, because the men are fighting at the front for a free Ukraine and also for our safety."

The Polish government says that - in partnership with Ukraine - up to 5,000 Ukrainians displaced from other parts of the country will be housed in temporary shipping container towns in Lviv, like this one.

Image source, Getty Images

The western Ukrainian city of Lviv is becoming a "humanitarian hub", and a valuable place to seek refuge for those forced from their homes elsewhere, according to the city's deputy mayor, Serhiy Kiral.

"We have opened up more than 500 facilities and premises... to have enough space, the beds, the warm clothing, hygiene products, and food so that we are ready.

"We also are providing necessary transportation for free" to take people from the train or bus station to those facilities, he said.

Kiral added, local people are contributing to the war effort by "investing their time, their money and volunteering - I think everyone is [making] some sort of contribution to our ultimate victory".

He said the services available for internally displaced people in Lviv were growing.

Earlier, Poland's PM Mateusz Morawiecki opened a new temporary accommodation site composed of shipping containers in Lviv.

Image source, EPA

Farming efforts in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region are being hindered by the high number of landmines left behind by Russian forces, local authorities say.

"The region is very big and the enemy was deployed in many areas," explained regional military head Vyacheslav Chaus, in remarks picked up by BBC Monitoring.

He said the security issue was preventing farmers from sowing fields, but that the emergency services were dealing with it.

Ukraine and Russia have a key role in global food markets.

Together, they export about 30% of the world's wheat, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).

Ukraine is also the WFP’s biggest supplier of sunflower oil.

Image source, Getty Images

The mayor of Kharkiv tells the BBC he's confident Ukrainian forces will defend the city.

At least three people were killed and 16 wounded today in shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city, the regional governor said.

"I believe that we will defend Kharkiv. We will not give the Russian aggressor a chance to take it, and that's very important for us," Mayor Ihor Terekhov says.

He says the Russian offensive is advancing from the north.

"As far as I know, there is fierce fighting there and the Ukrainian forces are rebuffing the enemy well," he says.

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Jonathan Beale
BBC News, Sviatohirsk, Donbas

Image source, RONALDO SCHEMIDT

In the picturesque resort town of Sviatohirsk, on the northern edge of Ukraine's Donbas region, people can hear the shelling coming closer. The Russians are just five miles to the north.

The town was once a staple of the tourist trail but now it is just another place in the Donbas where people flee the fighting. Most of its permanent residents have themselves fled, fearing the war will not stop its ruthless advance here.

"Everyone is worried," the town's mayor, Vladimir, tells me.

"I will not talk about it," one woman tells me, "because we still have to go home."

Read more here.

It's been nearly a week since Russia's Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva sank - however, the Kremlin has been tight-lipped about the fate of the vessel's crew.

Russia says a fire on board caused ammunitions to explode and the guided missile cruiser sank as it was being towed in a storm. Ukraine says it hit it with missiles.

Shortly after the incident on 14 April, the Russian defence ministry said the sailors were evacuated - without saying how many people were on board the vessel at the time.

The Moskva warship had a 500-strong crew, according to Russia's Ria Novosti news agency. Meanwhile, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine's president, said 510 sailors could have been on board.

Over the weekend, the Russian defence ministry published images showing what it said were some of the Moskva crew members on parade in Crimea, met by Navy Commander-in-Chief Adm Nikolay Yevmenov. About 100 sailors were seen, according to Reuters.

Image source, Mike Right/Twitter

Reports then also began to emerge in the media and on social networks that sailors were dead, wounded and missing after the incident.

On 16 April, Radio Liberty said it was able to identify one of the killed sailors, naming him as midshipman Ivan Vakhrushev. It said the death was confirmed by his wife Varvara. She also said another 27 crew were missing.

Separately, the BBC managed to talk a woman who said she was the mother of one of the conscripts serving on the Moskva. Yulia Tsyvova said Andrei Tsyvov, 19, was missing after the incident. He had only two-and-a-half months of service remaining.

The Russian defence ministry has made no public comments on the reported dead and missing sailors.

Dramatic images appear to show sinking Russian warship Moskva

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine will struggle to fight off the renewed Russian assault - unless Western countries send more weapons, according to British MP Bob Seely.

The Conservative politician and former British serviceman has just returned from the southern cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv.

“I do think we underestimate the amount of kit you need to wage a war,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

“At the moment one can be pretty confident that everything we are sending through will go to the east, and just about keep the Ukrainians in the game,” he said.

“What it probably won’t do is allow them to open up a second front to the south, nor indeed to outmatch the Russians.”

Seely said he’d been told Ukrainian “manpower” was strong – but that higher-grade weaponry was needed to actively overturn the Russian offensive.

Image source, Getty Images

Russia has handed back 76 Ukrainians in an exchange of prisoners of war, says Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Vereshchuk says Russia has returned 60 soldiers, including 10 Ukrainian officers, and 16 civilians, Reuters reports.

She says it is the fifth time the countries have swapped prisoners of war.

It's a race against timepublished at 13:55 British Summer Time 19 April 2022

13:55 BST 19 April 2022

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

Some of Ukraine's best forces are fighting in the east but they are heavily outnumbered.

Russia has up to 76 so-called battalion tactical groups in Ukraine. These have up to 1,000 personnel in each and focused very much on the east. They've got massive artillery and air strike capability.

Ukraine is saying: "Look, if we're going to have any chance of fending off this big assault, we need heavy kit, weapons, Starstreak missiles, anti-tank missiles, air defence units."

Moscow is well aware of this and has started targeting supply routes where some of this comes in, from Poland, Slovakia and other Nato countries.

It's really a race against time to resupply the beleaguered Ukrainian military in time for them to fend off this assault.

This could go either way, and even if they beat Russia in this, we're not out of the woods yet. I'm afraid this war has got some time to run.