Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service

Ukraine says it's disappointed that its efforts to join the European Union have met resistance from Austria.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg was quoted saying that Kyiv should not be offered membership of the 27-country bloc, and alternative paths should be considered to develop EU-Ukraine ties.

Ukraine has called the remarks "strategically short-sighted".

The EU has rallied behind Ukraine during the war, punishing Russia for its invasion with sanctions.

Anna Foster
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

It was unusual that President Zelensky announced this very high-profile visit of US officials - Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary for Defence Lloyd Austin - during a press conference last night.

Normally we only hear about these things after the event, when the high-profile individual has left the country and pictures get released around the world. Bear in mind, wherever you are in Ukraine at the moment, there is still a security risk.

I think it's notable as well that the White House has not issued any further comment, even though it’s been pressed for more detail.

We might see that later today; a sense of what happened if they do come here and speak to President Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader has said that top of the agenda will be his request for more weapons. He says they need more heavy weapons and more sophisticated, up-to-date defence systems to deploy in the south and east where the new frontlines are, and where fighting is at its fiercest.

Millions of Ukrainians are celebrating Orthodox Easter.

Easter cakes, painted eggs and other festive food have been prepared as families across the countries are gathering together - despite a continuing Russian bombardments of many cities and villages.

Here is a photo gallery of Sunday's celebrations from across the war-torn nation.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Vatican Media

Pope Francis has joined others in calling for a truce marking Orthodox Easter - which is an important event in both Ukraine and Russia.

Speaking to the Catholic faithful in the Vatican's St Peter's Square, Francis again appealed for peace in Ukraine "to ease the suffering of exhausted people".

Fighting began two months ago - but "instead of halting, the war has become worse", Francis commented.

The UN and Red Cross have also ramped up calls for a ceasefire.

Efforts to help civilians escape the devastated south-eastern city of Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor have collapsed once again, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk says.

Reuters quoted her as saying another attempt would be made in the city tomorrow.

Earlier, she accused Russia of plotting to run its own parallel pathway out of Mariupol that would have conducted citizens to Russian territory. The Kremlin did not comment.

Any evacuation would not include civilians said to be sheltering in the Azovstal steelworks, where the last Ukrainian defenders in the city are still holding out. Russia reportedly resumed attacks on the steelworks earlier today.

Air raid sirens are nowadays a regular sound across Ukraine, warning about imminent Russian air strikes.

In Lviv, the man in charge of operating such air warnings shows the BBC's Dan Johnson how his team keeps people safe.

Doug Faulkner
BBC News

Image source, Syria Relief

On Thursday, trauma surgeon David Nott was in London - a long way from Ukraine. But that didn't stop him from helping to save the leg of a man who'd been caught by a blast in the war-ravaged country.

Oleksandr, the doctor who actually carried out the operation, had never performed the tricky procedure before. But a little over a week previously he had watched Prof Nott demonstrate how it was done inside a Ukrainian hospital.

And so Oleksandr took a photo of the wound with his smartphone and sent it to Prof Nott, who had recently flown back to the UK.

The experienced British war surgeon confirmed the operation was necessary. He'd also previously given Oleksandr a video talking him through how it was done.

"I was quite nervous and it was slowly, step-by-step surgery, but it went well thanks to David Nott," Oleksandr says.

Read more here.

Image source, EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is tweeting that he has had "an important phone conversation" with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"On the eve of his talks with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, I stressed the need for immediate evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, including Azovstal, and immediate exchange of blocked troops."

On Saturday, Zelensky once again threatened to pull out of any negotiations with Moscow if Russian troops were to "destroy" the last Ukrainian defenders holed-up at the Azovstal steelworks - a large industrial area in Mariupol.

Turkey has good relations both with Ukraine and Russia, and Erdogan has played a key role in trying to broker a ceasefire between the two nations. One of such negotiation rounds was last month held in Istanbul.

Anna Foster
Reporting from Kyiv

The men and women of Kyiv's Territorial Defence are celebrating Orthodox Easter in the trenches they now call home.

Dug into the sandy soil on the outskirts of the city, they cook and sleep there.

Today they'll eat cakes there too - sweetly iced with sprinkles and blessed with holy water. They were delivered from local bakeries who want to thank them for saving the city from the Russian advance.

The fighters have messages of solidarity for their colleagues on the frontline too.

"I would like to tell them to stay strong and hold on," Yana says.

"I understand that these are really hard times now. Everyone has families, and all the fighters are worried about their homes and loved ones."

Oleksandr takes off his dark sunglasses to talk to me, but holds his rifle close.

"I'm protecting my land and I have nothing to worry about" he says. "Our people showed who they are. I'm in a fighting mood, so we will fight the enemy."

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining our live coverage, or want a recap, here's a little look at what's been happening.

• Ukraine is marking Orthodox Easter. President Zelensky has published defiant video address filmed inside a cathedral. He vowed that his country would emerge victorious from the war
• Despite the religious date, Russia has continued to bomb the Azovstal metal works in Mariupol, says a fighter from the controversial Azov regiment who's among the last defenders still holed up inside
• Zelensky expects to welcome a pair of top American officials to Kyiv today. But the US has not given any details about the visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary for Defence Lloyd Austin
• There have again been calls for the fighting to stop. A Zelensky aide has urged Russia to agree to an Easter truce. Meanwhile, the UN and Red Cross have asked for a halt to hostilities so that people can escape Mariupol, which has been largely destroyed
• A humanitarian corridor is once again supposed to be allowing people to flee that city today, but we await further news on whether the delicate operation is working as hoped

Image source, Reuters

More now on the shattered city of Mariupol.

The United Nations and Red Cross have both called for an immediate end to fighting, so that people have a chance to escape the southern port city.

"The longer we wait, the more lives will be at risk", said the UN's Ukraine crisis coordinator Amin Awad, according to a statement quoted by the AFP news agency.

100,000 people are estimated to be stuck in the city, which has almost totally succumbed to Russian control.

In its own statement, the Red Cross said it was "deeply alarmed" at what was happening in Mariupol, demanding immediate access to civilians there.

A fresh attempt is today being made to run a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol. We await news on whether things are working as hoped, or whether the effort has again failed.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been mentioning, Ukraine is marking Orthodox Easter today.

An aide to President Zelensky has called on Russia to use the occasion for a "real" truce.

Mykhailo Podoliak also urged his enemies to agree to a special round of talks, apparently to arrange prisoner swaps.

He also repeated Ukrainian claims that the Azovstal plant in Mariupol has come under renewed assault from Russian soldiers, in a seeming reversal of President Putin's order to seal off the industrial site and not attack it.

Azovstal represents the city's last bastion of Ukrainian defence.

Image source, Ukraine Presidential Press Service

President Zelensky has released a new video marking Orthodox Easter, a major festival in Ukraine.

He drew a comparison between the suffering caused by Covid and the struggles of war.

Addressing his compatriots, he said: "Last year we celebrated Easter at home because of the pandemic. This year, we also celebrate the resurrection of Christ not as we used to. Because of another virus. Because of the plague called war.

"Both last year's and this year's threat are united by the same thing: nothing can defeat Ukraine."

His address was filmed in Kyiv's St Sophia Cathedral, which Zelensky said had withstood the Nazi occupation of his country during World War Two.

Russian troops have been given "tacit permission" to rape civilians during their invasion of Ukraine, a top UK human rights lawyer has said.

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, who is part of a legal taskforce helping to build cases of alleged war crimes in Ukraine, said evidence so far showed "serious offences" had been committed by Russian troops.

Speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, she said soldiers on the ground were being allowed a kind of "immunity" because nobody was being disciplined for offences.

But she noted that prosecuting people for such crimes tended to be "very difficult".

Russia has been accused of war crimes in numerous areas of Ukraine, including Bucha. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that its forces have committed atrocities.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

More than 2.9 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland since the war began, the Polish Border Guard said on Sunday.

The number of people crossing the border into Poland has fallen significantly in recent weeks and numbers going into Ukraine have risen.

On Saturday, more people entered Ukraine from Poland (21,100) than vice versa (15,100), the agency wrote on Twitter.

In total, 847,000 people have entered Ukraine from Poland since the war began.

At the height of the refugee crisis, on 6 March, 142,300 people fled Ukraine to Poland. Before the war, the average daily number of people crossing the border from Ukraine into Poland was 16,800.

Some of the refugees have already left Poland. Warsaw University migration researcher prof. Maciej Duszczyk estimates around 1.3-1.4 million remain.

More than 900,000 Ukrainians have applied for a Polish national identity number.

Image source, Azov regiment

Turning now to the devastated southern city of Mariupol.

Russian planes are continuing to drop bombs on the Azovstal steelworks plant - where the city's last Ukrainian defenders are holed-up - a deputy commander of the Azov regiment has said.

"Naval artillery and cannons are being used, tanks are firing, and there are infantry attempts to storm" the massive industrial area in central Mariupol, Svyatoslav Palamar said in a video address published on Azov's Telegram account on Sunday.

He stressed that the Russians were not stopping even for the Orthodox Easter - a major Christian festival.

Palamar also thanked all those who have been trying to evacuate civilians trapped in underground bunkers at the site, as well as negotiating to allow the Ukrainian fighters withdraw from the besieged southern city.

While many Ukrainians across the country were celebrating Easter, in Mariupol "the enemy is dropping bombs on the heads of innocent children", he added.

The Azov regiment, along with a Marine brigade, border guards and police officers, are now the last Ukrainian defenders left in the strategic city on the Sea of Azov coast.

The reported bombardment comes despite an order earlier this week by Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off an assault on the steelworks. Putin said his troops must seal off the site instead.

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

President Zelensky is today expecting to welcome to Kyiv the most senior US officials to journey to Ukraine since the war started.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary for Defence Lloyd Austin are due in Kyiv. But there's still a lot we don't know about the American plans, as Washington has not commented.

Something we do know, though, is that Zelensky plans to keep up his demands to be sent heavy weapons to help combat the Russian military.

He's also hopeful that today's meeting could pave the way for an eventual visit by President Biden.

Other leaders have been to see Zelensky since the war started. The Spanish and Danish Prime Ministers visited on Thursday, following in the footsteps of the UK's Boris Johnson, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and others.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, Ukraine’s President Zelensky says he's expecting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary for Defence Lloyd Austin to visit Kyiv today.

The White House has not commented on the plans, but US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price has been speaking to the BBC about the war in Ukraine.

He told Sophie Raworth on the Sunday Morning programme he was confident Zelensky would prevail in the war.

"This is going to be a victory for Ukraine; it is going to be a strategic defeat for Russia," he said.

Asked whether the US and its allies were providing enough heavy weaponry, Price said: "What we have done is send precisely what our Ukrainian partners need to fend off this Russian aggression."

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

Yesterday’s missile strikes on Odesa might seem as random as they do horrific. Two residential blocks were hit, killing at least eight people, including a three-month-old, her mother and grandmother.

The Ukrainian government has said the killing of baby Kira and the seven other victims is an act of terror, designed to break people’s will to fight.

The Russians claim they hit legitimate military facilities.

But, there could be another rationale for the strikes, one that is as effective as it is cynical.

A couple of weeks ago we interviewed the spokesman for Dnipro’s Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, one of the people responsible for the defence of Ukraine’s skies.

Captain Vasyl Kravchuk said that they currently don’t have enough systems to cover the whole of Ukraine, leaving blind spots in their protection. "The enemy can use these blind spots to strike," he said.

But, his crucial point was this: "If the troops are moving east, we cannot, for example, take our systems from the west and move them east. We cannot leave half of Ukraine completely without protection. Because Russian systems can strike 3,000 km (1,860 miles) away.

"And strikes, as practice now shows, are carried out not only in eastern Ukraine, but also in western and central Ukraine."

His point being that as long as Russia has the capacity – and will – to strike across the whole of the country, Ukrainian air defences have to be spread thin.

Given that control of the skies will be crucial in the fight for the Donbas, it may be there is a horrible logic to attacks like the ones on Odesa and Lviv.

Image source, Reuters

Another attempt is being made around now to let women, children and the elderly escape the shattered city of Mariupol via a humanitarian corridor.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said the mission was planned from 12:00 local time (10:00 BST, 09:00 GMT). Those evacuated are due to be taken in the direction of Zaporizhzhia.

But previous efforts to facilitate escapes - including on Saturday - have failed, with both sides accusing the other of breaking agreements.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Vereschuk urged civilians to be "careful and vigilant", because the Russians could be plotting a second, parallel corridor - running into Russian territory.