Earlier, we brought you the news that the UK is sending Challenger 2 tanks to Poland to backfill for Soviet-era T-72 tanks that Warsaw will send to Ukraine.

The UK's Ministry of Defence has now rowed back slightly on the plans - confirming it was "looking at" sending tanks to Poland.

These are exactly the same words Prime Minister Boris Johnson used when he mentioned the plan during a press conference in New Delhi this morning.

Johnson added the UK was "also looking more at what we can do to backfill in countries such as Poland who may want to send heavier weaponry to defend the Ukrainians".

We are expecting more information later from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Image source, EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told European Council President Charles Michel that he would only hold direct talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky if discussions produced concrete results.

Putin said Kyiv was not ready to seek mutually acceptable solutions and Ukraine was being inconsistent in negotiations.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia had handed key documents to Ukraine to take forward peace talks, and the ball was in Ukraine's court.

But Zelensky later said Ukraine had not received any documents from Russia.

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Irpin

The fighting in Ukraine has moved to the east and south, and with it, the conversations around the capital Kyiv have turned to the situation in southern Mariupol and its remaining defenders' fate.

But in the suburbs west of Kyiv, people are still haunted by the massacres that took place under Russian occupation. There are more than a thousand bodies backed up in the few morgues that are still functioning. They are stacked up outside on the ground and piled high in refrigerator trucks.

Some are still being dug up. At a cemetery near the suburb of Irpin on Thursday, a mother and her young child were exhumed by police, a month after they were killed and burned in their car by Russian soldiers and hastily buried by the child’s father on a small empty plot.

A few feet away from their shallow grave, tank tracks were still visible where the Russians had driven through the middle of the cemetery, smashing graves and headstones as they went.

All across the region, people are trying to piece their lives back together with dignity. But they face tasks unimaginable to those who have not experienced them: helping to exhume the bodies of their closest loved ones; searching libraries of gruesome images for a face they recognise; cleaning the rubbish left behind by the Russian soldiers who lived in their homes.

At some point, the destruction here will be less visible, but the trauma of carrying out these tasks will remain.

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, MIKE RIGHT/TWITTER

The sinking of the Moskva is one of the defining events of the war in Ukraine so far.

It was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a missile cruiser with more than 500 crew, sunk by a nation with a vastly smaller navy.

And now, the wreckage of the pride of Russia’s fleet has been declared an item of Ukrainian underwater cultural heritage. Number #2064 to be precise, falling under the category of rare scientific or technical equipment.

In a post on their official Facebook page, the Ministry of Defence wrote "80 miles from Odesa, the famous cruiser and the largest sunken object of the Black Sea floor can be admired without much diving!"

According to Ukrainian Military TV, the wreckage is at a depth of around 45-50 metres, with its last known location revealed by the British.

The sinking of the Moskva was not just a military, but also psychological victory for Ukraine.

It was the boat famously told to go away in explicit terms by the border guards of Snake Island at the start of the conflict.

Special commemorative stamps were produced to celebrate that event.

After the sinking of the Moskva, people queued for hours to get their hands on a set.

It may be, that once the war is over, the boat’s wreckage will prove just as popular.

Nick Beake
Reporting from Brussels

The European Council President Charles Michel highlighted Russia's "miscalculations and losses" during the invasion in a telephone call with Vladimir Putin.

Michel said on Twitter, external he had asked the Russian president to grant Ukrainians immediate humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities.

He stressed it was even more appropriate to do so in light of the Orthodox Easter.

A source told the BBC Michel had presented the EU’s position to Putin in “a blunt and direct manner”, adding he was aiming to "penetrate the information vacuum" that may exist around him.

Michel this week joined the list of other European leaders to have visited Kyiv for talks with President Zelensky.

Image source, EPA

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the UK is sending Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Poland to backfill for T-72 tanks that Poland will send to Ukraine.

This is in addition to the armoured fighting vehicles that the UK is sending directly to Ukraine, a move which was already announced.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is expected to make a statement later.

Boris Johnson told a news conference in New Dehli earlier that this represented a intensification of military support for Ukraine.

Russia is prepared to stop firing and allow fighters at the Azovstal steelworks in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol to leave the plant, along with any civilians that are still there, AFP reports, citing Russia's defence ministry.

Russia's defence ministry says it is ready for a humanitarian ceasefire at the steel plant - if Ukrainian soldiers surrender.

"We once again declare that Russia is ready at any moment to introduce a regime of silence and announce a humanitarian pause for the evacuation of civilians," the defence ministry is quoted as saying, adding that the ceasefire would start with the "raising of white flags" by Ukraine's forces.

Ukraine has so far not responded to the proposal.

On Thursday, Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to seal off a last group of fighters holed up there.

We have spoken to one of the last Ukrainian defenders at the Azovstal plant - read the interview here.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

A planned meeting next month between Pope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox church has been suspended, the pope has said.

Speaking to an Argentine newspaper, the pope said Vatican diplomats had advised that such a meeting "could lend itself to much confusion at this moment".

The Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill has given his backing to Moscow's actions in Ukraine - a stance that has splintered the Orthodox Church abroad - while Francis has been critical of the war.

The meeting was reportedly being lined up for 14 June in Jerusalem, a day after the pope finished a trip to Lebanon.

The pair have only met on one previous occasion, in Havana in 2016.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here's a quick recap of the latest developments in Ukraine:

• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested there "is a realistic possibility" the war in Ukraine could continue to the end of next year. Speaking in India, he also said Britain would reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv next week

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia's recent gains in the east of the country are only temporary and Moscow's forces will be pushed back across the border
• A senior Russian military commander has been quoted as saying that Moscow aims to take full control of southern Ukraine, as well as the eastern Donbas region. It's not yet clear whether the comments were officially sanctioned

• The United Nations says it's documented the deaths of 50 civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha - including summary executions. The UN's human rights body also described the war as a "horror story" and said it had received allegations of more than 300 unlawful killings, which may amount to war crimes
• Satellite images produced by a private US company appear to show mass graves outside the Ukrainian city of Mariupol
• President Vladimir Putin says the city is now controlled by Russian forces, but Ukraine says its fighters continue to hold on in the vast Azovstal steel plant. The mayor there has appealed on Friday for a "full evacuation"
• Elsewhere, the mayor of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv says there are a million civilians facing an intensified Russian bombardment

Johnson also tells the conference in Delhi that it is a "realistic possibility" when asked if he agreed with intelligence which suggested the Russian bombardment of Ukraine could continue to the end of next year.

"Putin has a huge army," he says. "He has a very difficult political position because he's made a catastrophic blunder.

"The only option he now has, really, is to continue to try to use his appalling, grinding approach driven by artillery, trying to grind the Ukrainians down."

The UK prime minister adds that "no matter" the military superiority Vladimir Putin may be able to bring to bear over the next few months "he will not be able to conquer the spirit of the Ukrainian people".

More now from the UK PM's news conference in India - where he's been speaking about the war in Ukraine.

Boris Johnson is questioned about his discussions with India's Prime Minister Modi, and whether he's asked Modi to use his influence in Moscow to put pressure on Russia.

Johnson says Modi has been “very strong” in his language about what’s happened in Bucha - where Russian forces are accused of having carried out atrocities on civilians.

He says it's clear “he has already intervened several times… really to ask [Vladimir Putin] what on earth he thinks he’s doing and where he thinks this is going”.

He says India wants peace “and they want the Russians out”, adding “I totally agree with that”.

Johnson tells the news conference in New Delhi that the "extraordinary fortitude and success" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country's people in resisting Russia's forces means that the UK is able to make the move.

He pays tribute to the UK diplomats who remained elsewhere in the region.

"The UK and our allies will not watch passively as Vladimir Putin continues this onslaught," he says.

The UK's embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is to reopen next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tells a news conference in Dehli.

Image source, Getty Images

A court in Moscow has fined Google's parent company Alphabet Inc for failing to remove contentious videos.

The US tech giant was handed two fines totalling 11m roubles ($135,000; £155,000) for "administrative violations". The Tagansky District Court in Moscow said the company had distributed inaccurate data about Russian troop losses and civilian casualties in Ukraine, according to TASS news agency.

One of the videos was said to show a phone conversation between Russian soldiers and their relatives back home. The troops were said to be complaining of casualties in their ranks.

Some foreign social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have been blocked in Russia. YouTube, however, remains available.

Russia's communications watchdog has previously said it would take steps to punish Google for "spreading fakes" on YouTube, and had warned the US company it would be fined if it failed to comply.

Google has faced action from Russia before. It was fined 7.2bn roubles ($90m; £70m) roubles in December 2021for failure to delete content deemed illegal in Russia.

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

There had been hope for an Easter truce – a ceasefire to mark the Orthodox holiday that unites many Ukrainians and Russians.

It seems those hopes were in vain.

Speaking in his nightly address on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia, saying they "rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce".

"This shows very well how the leaders of this state actually treat the Christian faith, one of the most joyful and important holidays."

It will be seen as particularly bad news for civilians still trapped in the southern city of Mariupol.

Despite Russia's declaration of victory on Thursday, it's thought tens of thousands of civilians are still trying to get out of the city, with humanitarian corridors considered essential for their safe passage.

But, it seems those two will not take place, today at least. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk wrote on her Telegram channel: "Because of the danger on the routes, today, on 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors."

And so, even as Ukrainians go to their Easter services this weekend, they will find no respite from the continuing war.

Russia is planning to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of its military operation in the country, a senior Russian military commander has reportedly said.

Russian news agencies quoted Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district, as saying Moscow also plans to forge a land corridor between Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

He was quoted as saying: "Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which has already begun just two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea, as well as affect the vital facilities of the Ukrainian economy."

Minnekayev added that controlling southern Ukraine would also give access to Transnistria - a breakaway part of Moldova where Russian troops are already based.

The comments were reportedly made at a regional event, the annual meeting of the Union of Defence Industry Plants of Sverdlovsk Region.

The Russian Defence Ministry has been contacted by the BBC for a comment. It said it was "looking into this".

Imogen Foulkes
Reporting from Geneva

Image source, Reuters

The UN Human Rights Office has described the war in Ukraine as a "horror story of violations against civilians", in which respect for international law has been "tossed aside".

The UN monitoring mission in Ukraine has documented the unlawful killing of 50 people in Bucha, and such wilful killings amount to war crimes, the office said in a statement, adding that UN investigations show Bucha is not an isolated incident.

The monitoring mission has received allegations of more than 300 unlawful killings in Ukraine.

Other clear violations documented by the monitoring mission include evidence of sexual violence, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and infrastructure, and the detention, ill treatment, torture and even killing of both civilians and prisoners of war by all parties to the conflict.

The UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet made an urgent appeal to all those fighting to ensure international law is respected, and to investigate all allegations of violations.

Russia says it struck 58 military targets in Ukraine overnight, including sites where troops, fuel depots and military equipment were concentrated, according to the latest update from Russia's defence ministry.

It also said it struck three targets using high-precision missiles, including a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and a large concentration of Ukrainian troops with their equipment.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the report.

A Ukrainian plane has crashed during a "technical flight" in southern Ukraine and there are casualties, local authorities have said.

The AN-26 plane, a military transport aircraft operated by the Ukrainian armed forces, crashed on Friday morning in the Vilnia district in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said.

The circumstances of the crash are being verified and there will be more information later, the authorities added.

Jonathan Beale
Reporting from Sloviansk

The war in eastern Ukraine is still largely an artillery battle. Overnight, there was more heavy shelling.

We stayed the night in Slovyansk, more than 20km (12 miles) from the front line. We thought we’d be relatively safe in a residential area. But at just after 01:00 (23:00 GMT) we woke to a sudden and very loud burst of Russian shelling. We took refuge in a bunker.

In the morning, once the curfew was lifted, we surveyed the damage. The strikes were just 200m from where we were staying. There were small craters in the pavement along with smashed glass from the windows of nearby apartment blocks.

The power lines were down and there was no electricity. This is now the scene in many cities and towns in the Donbas. Those who remain try to literally pick up the pieces and continue their lives.

Image source, .