Samantha Granville
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

At the train station in Zaporizhzhia, there are many familiar faces from Thursday.

Many refugees who have arrived from the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday are getting ready to leave for the western city of Lviv.

People tell us they don’t know what’s waiting for them in this new city, if it’s better than what was happening in Mariupol.There will be no evacuations on Friday, Ukraine says.

As Russian forces encircled Mariupol, a Ukrainian woman undertook an extraordinary journey into the besieged city to rescue her parents.

She is among a small number of people who have braved the risk of attack or abduction to drive in through front lines and a blockade.

Anastasia Pavlova, 23, says her mother had warned her: "Do not come."

But in late March, five weeks into the war, Anastasia decided to try to drive to Mariupol - a journey fraught with danger and exceptionally rare to attempt other than by official humanitarian groups. She hired a driver and van from aid volunteers who were also trying to help evacuate people from the city.

Anastasia didn't know if she would find her parents alive.

They entered Mariupol shortly before curfew. Anastasia says it felt "like the end of the world".

"Around you are burning cars, tanks, holes in houses, black buildings with collapsed roofs. Crowds of very dirty people with empty eyes follow [our vehicles] along the mined road. Everything was taken away from them, relatives died."

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Meanwhile, the mayor of Mariupol has issued a new appeal on Friday for the "full evacuation" of the southern city which President Vladimir Putin says is now mostly controlled by Russian forces.

"We need only one thing - the full evacuation of the population. About 100,000 people remain in Mariupol," Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on national television, Reuters reports.

On Thursday, Putin ordered his troops to seal off a last group of fighters holed up in steel works in the south-east of the city.

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

Mariupol has endured two months of heavy bombardment and severe deprivation as Russia cut off food, water and energy supplies.

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting, Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkhiv, in the north east of the county, has come under intense bombardment by Russian forces.

Footage from the area shows the remnants of several buildings destroyed by missile strikes.

Its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, told the BBC that around 30% of the population had left the city but one million people remained, with some not wanting to leave their homes.

He said the Russians were shelling residential areas, causing civilian casualties and leaving many injured. He added: "This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers, it is the killing of a nation."

Image source, .

Ukraine will not attempt to establish any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians on Friday as the situation on the roads is too dangerous, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

"Due to the danger along the routes today, 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors," she said on social media.

"To all those waiting to be evacuated: be patient, please hold on!"

In its latest intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, the UK's Ministry of Defence says Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant likely indicates a desire to contain resistance in the southern city of Mariupol and free up forces to be deployed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.

"A full ground assault by Russia on the plant would likely incur significant Russian casualties, further decreasing their overall combat effectiveness," the MoD said in its latest update, external.

"In the eastern Donbas, heavy shelling and fighting continues as Russia seeks to advance further towards settlements including Krasnyy Lyman, Buhayikva, Barvinkove, Lyman and Popasna as part of their plans for the region.

"Despite Russia's renewed focus they are still suffering from losses sustained earlier in the conflict. In order to try and reconstitute their depleted forces, they have resorted to transiting inoperable equipment back to Russia for repair."

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here's a summary of what's been happening so far:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested Russia's gains in the east will only be temporary - after invading forces took over 40 villages on Thursday
• Ukraine's army says Russian troops are continuing to partially block Kharkiv and fire on Ukrainian positions in the city
• Hundreds of Ukrainian troops remain bunkered down at Mariupol's Azovstal steel factory - Putin has told his troops to blockade it
• Mariupol's mayor says there are still 100,000 people stuck in the shattered city and their lives are in Putin's hands

• Zelensky told the world's finance ministers that his country will need “hundreds of billions of dollars” to recover from the war
• The World Bank's early estimate shows physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from the war has reached roughly $60 billion and will continue to grow
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his aides confirmed a few dozen Ukrainian soldiers were being trained in the country on the use of the armoured vehicles supplied to them by Britain
• Ukraine says it remains hopeful for peace even after Russia rejected a proposed truce this weekend over the Orthodox Christian Easter period

This is Yvette Tan and Meryl Sebastian in Asia handing over to our colleagues Holly Wallis and Alexandra Fouché in London, as they bring you the latest.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Russia its recent gains in the east of the country are only temporary and its troops will be forced back across the border.

He made the comments in his latest video message to the nation.

"In the south and east of our country, the occupiers continue to do everything to have a reason to talk about at least some victories. They are accumulating forces, driving new battalion tactical groups to our land. They are even trying to start the so-called mobilisation in the occupied regions of Ukraine.

"None of these steps will help Russia in the war against our state. They can only delay the inevitable - the time when the invaders will have to leave our territory. In particular Mariupol - a city that continues to resist Russia, despite everything the occupiers say."

Russian forces captured 42 villages in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, but Ukraine might take them back, an aide to the chief of staff to Zelensky said on national television.

Russian forces are continuing to partially block Kharkiv, the Ukrainian army has said in its daily update on Friday.

Russian units were trying to break further south from the city of Izyum in Kharkiv province, to surround the grouping of Ukrainian troops in Donbass region, it said.

Ukraine has also repelled 10 attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Thursday, the army added.

In all the eastern parts of the front, Russians troops intensified attacks in the past 24 hours, particularly in the areas of Zarechny, Rubezhny, Popasnaya, Novotoshkovsky and Marinka, it said.

Ukraine said it had shot down 15 Russian aircrafts in the past 24 hours.

The BBC is unable to independently verify these statements.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's president has told the world's finance ministers that his country needs $7bn (£5.4bn) every month until the summer to keep functioning.

Volodymyr Zelensky also said "we will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later".

He was addressing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conference via video link from Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky also said the global community needed to exclude Russia immediately from international financial institutions, including the World Bank, IMF and others.

All countries "must immediately be prepared to break up all relations with Russia," he added.

Asked whether the IMF would be able to secure the immediate funding that Ukraine needs, the organisation's managing director Kristalina Georgieva told BBC economics editor Faisal Islam: "We found it for the first and second month.

"We believe that over time this amount is going to go down as the Ukrainian economy in the parts of the country that are not under occupation picks up, and as remittances from those who now work somewhere else start flowing."

Read more here

Across Ukraine’s Kyiv region, efforts have begun to clear the countless pieces of unexploded ammunition left behind after fierce fighting.

The main hospital there says it’s receiving increasing numbers of patients who’ve touched or stepped on mines and shells.

The State Emergency Service, police and army all have expert teams working on the ground to make the area safe.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed that Ukrainian troops are in the UK being trained on how to use the armoured vehicles Britain is supplying to repel Russian forces.

“I can say that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of anti-aircraft defence, and actually in the UK in the use of armoured vehicles,” he told journalists travelling with him on his visit to India.

Johnson's press secretary said “a couple of dozen” Ukrainian soldiers were currently in the UK for training.

The Ukrainian troops began training with vehicles donated by Britain this month, a spokesman for Johnson said.

Britain is providing Ukraine with 120 armoured patrol vehicles, including the Mastiff, which can be used as a reconnaissance or patrol vehicle. The soldiers will also be shown how to use the Samaritan ambulance, and Sultan and Samson armoured reconnaissance vehicles.

The spokesman said Britain and its allies were providing Ukrainian soldiers with new types of equipment that they may not have used before.

"It is only sensible that they get requisite training to make best use of it," the spokesman said. "We are always conscious of anything perceived to be escalatory but clearly what is escalatory is the actions of Putin’s regime."

Image source, Maxar

As Ukraine enters the early hours of Friday morning, here's what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

• Physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from Russia's invasion has reached roughly $60bn, said World Bank President David Malpass

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a meeting of the World Bank and IMF that Ukraine now needs about $7bn (£5.4bn) per month in assistance
• Ukraine says that Russia rejected a request for a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday
• Mariupol's city council have released aerial images that appear to show that Russian forces are burying Ukrainian citizens in nearby mass graves. The BBC hasn't independently verified the claim, and Russia hasn't spoken publicly on the issue

• Biden announced another $800m (£610m) military aid package for Ukraine, which will include heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, ammunition and tactical drones

The World Bank has said that an early estimate shows physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from the war had reached roughly $60 billion.

The estimate does not include growing economic costs of the war. The amount will continue to rise as the war goes on, World Bank President David Malpass said at a conference on Thursday.

In his virtual address to the conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that the country needed an estimated $7 billion per month to make up for its economic losses now and "hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later."

Zelensky asked countries that have imposed sanctions and freezes on Russian assets to use that money to help rebuild Ukraine after the war and to pay for losses suffered by other countries.

The Organisation of American States (OAS), the world's oldest forum for regional diplomacy, has suspended Russia's participation as a permanent observer state in the institution until it "ends its hostilities".

The multilateral body brings together the 35 independent nations in the Americas on issues of democracy, human rights, security, and development, including a focus on election monitoring.

Founded in 1948, it also granted permanent observer status to 72 countries.

Russia's removal from the group comes as its invading forces step up their operations in eastern Ukraine, and amid allegations of war crimes in other parts of the country.

"We do not stand on the sidelines in the face of the Russian government’s violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses," said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Thursday.

"Our Hemisphere stands with Ukraine."

Image source, OAS

In an interview with Reuters news agency, Mariupol's mayor Vadym Boychenko said the lives of people stuck in the shattered city are in Vladimir Putin's hands.

Boychenko expressed his frustration at the rate of the evacuation from Mariupol since the beginning of the war.

He said that Russia has "undermined this evacuation", which they started in "the first days of March".

"They asked us to give them a map of where the evacuation will start from - we gave them the map.

"(They asked) how many buses do you have? We gave the number of buses.

"And they destroyed and demolished all of those places, the destroyed our buses."

Boychenko said that there are still 100,000 people stuck in the city and the soldiers in the Azovstal steel plant are not going to surrender.

He added: "It's important to understand that the lives that are still there, they are in the hands of just one person - Vladimir Putin."

Image source, Reuters