Russian President Vladimir Putin met the UN Secretary General across his famous long white table earlier today, telling Antonio Guterres that negotations with Ukraine continue online.

He said he hopes for a "positive result" from the talks.

But Putin said he cannot sign security guarantees for Ukraine without deciding on territorial issues over Crimea and Sevastopol, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the Donbas - where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine for eight years.

Image source, Getty Images

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK was looking at ways to supply anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, including mounting its Brimstone missiles to vehicles.

Now, defence minister James Heappey has told MPs that the work to adapt the missiles has progressed quickly enough that it can provide them "in the next few weeks".

This latest planned delivery is in response to requests from Kyiv for longer-range ground attack missiles, he said.

Brimstone missiles are designed for use against fast-moving land and sea targets and are typically fired from aircraft.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces have "liberated" the entire region of Kherson in southern Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency.

The BBC has not been able to confirm this independently, but earlier today, a Ukrainian regional military official said the Russian army had appointed new heads of the regional administration and the city council.

In a Telegram post, Hennadiy Lahuta said: "Yesterday, the occupiers seized the premises of the Kherson city council, removed all Ukrainian symbols and replaced their guards."

The mayor of the city of Kherson, Ihol Kolykayev, said he refused to co-operate with the administration appointed by Russian troops.

"I remain in Kherson and I am with Kherson residents, who over 18 months ago entrusted me with managing our city," he said on Facebook.

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Paul Adams
BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, EPA

Today’s large gathering at Ramstein was designed to chart the way forward, but also to make a point.

Most participants were from Nato, but others came from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. This was a calculated display of international solidarity, at a time when some of Ukraine’s backers are moving towards sending heavier, more sophisticated weapons.

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has accused the West of fighting a proxy war in Ukraine. It’s hardly that – Ukraine is fighting for itself, not someone else. But the West is getting more and more involved, upping the military assistance and the rhetoric.

It's a calculated gamble. The Kremlin has rattled its nuclear sabre more than once during this crisis, and may well do again.

But Washington has clearly decided to send a message: Ukraine can win and the West is determined, in the words of Lloyd Austin, to “move heaven and Earth” to make that happen.

The Bulgarian government has said Russia's state gas company Gazprom is halting deliveries to the country from tomorrow.

It comes just hours after Poland said its gas supply from Russia was being suspended.

Reuters quoted the Bulgarian energy ministry as saying Bulgaria has taken steps to secure alternative gas supplies and that it has told residents there is no need to restrict gas consumption at the moment.

It said Gazprom has proposed a new payment scheme which breaches its current contract with Bulgaria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree earlier this month requiring gas buyers to pay in roubles through Russian bank accounts, to support its currency as Western sanctions bite.

As we've been reporting, there have been a series of explosions over the last couple of days in Transnistria, the Russian-controlled slice of territory in Moldova bordering Ukraine.

Ukraine's foreign ministry has pledged its support for Moldova's territorial integrity and accused Russia of trying to create unrest and destabilise the area.

It suggested Russia was attempting to drag the area into its war against Ukraine.

Writing on Twitter, Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukraine presidential aide, said "Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team".

The Russian army has been fighting alongside separatists in Transnistria since the early 1990s.

Atomic energy experts say no new problems at Chernobylpublished at 20:21 British Summer Time 26 April 2022

20:21 BST 26 April 2022

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Reports of comments from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, as he arrived at Chernobyl raised new concerns about the former power plant.

But the IAEA has told BBC News that Grossi was not referring to any new problems at Chernobyl.

He was talking about a situation that was potentially dangerous when Russian forces occupied the site (they have since left).

Mr Grossi was asked by a reporter: “Just how close did we come to disaster during the invasion?”

He replied: “I don’t know if we were very close to disaster, but the situation was absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous.”

Radiation levels were raised by the movement of soil caused by heavy machinery and the digging of trenches, and they remain higher than normal. But it is thought that they are not dangerously high.

Experts believe that other than slightly elevated levels of background radiation, the inherent safety of the site has not been affected by the invasion.

The IAEA mission is there to find out whether that is the case and to check that no nuclear material has left the site to be used for military purposes. Independent, expert verification of those facts by the nuclear watchdog will be a huge relief to the international community.

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

UK defence sources have sought to clarify remarks by Defence Minister James Heappey who said earlier it was “not necessarily a problem” for UK-supplied arms to be used by Ukrainian forces against military targets in Russia.

They said the UK was not involved in Ukrainian targeting and said the phrase “deep strike precision targeting” referred to stopping the relentless bombardment of Russian artillery, not striking targets in Russia.

“The UK and many other Western allies are now providing longer-range weapon systems to help counter the indiscriminate artillery fire that the Russian armed forces have been raining down on besieged Ukrainian cities,” the source said.

“Targeting is a matter for Ukraine, but the UK expects all parties in this conflict to decide on their military targets in full compliance with the laws of armed conflict.”

• Russia accuses UK of provoking attacks on its territory

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, welcome back to our live coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. Here's a look at developments today:

• Nato and other Western allies met at a US air base in Germany to consider how to help Ukraine, and the German government announced it would send about 50 tanks with anti-aircraft weaponry to Ukraine - a reversal of a long-standing policy

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is visiting Moscow and held "frank discussions" with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, repeating the UN's view that the war was a violation of the integrity of Ukraine's territory and against the UN charter

• Guterres said he was concerned about reports of war crimes in Ukraine
• President Vladimir Putin told Guterres he had hope and expectations of a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but denied Russian involvement in atrocities against civilians in Bucha
• The UN said that Russia's president had agreed "in principle" to Red Cross help with civilian evacuations from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol

• Meanwhile Ukraine's neighbour Moldova said it had stepped up security measures after explosions in the breakaway Russia-backed region of Transnistria raised fears of the conflict spreading
• The Polish state gas company says Russia will stop sending gas to Poland from Wednesday

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Russia will stop sending gas to Poland from tomorrow morning, the Polish state natural gas company PGNiG has said.

Gazprom justified the suspension under new payment rules announced on 31 March, under which “unfriendly countries” must pay for Russian gas in roubles. PGNiG has refused to pay in the Russian currency.

PGNiG relies on Gazprom for the majority of its gas imports.

However, the supply suspension will not create an immediate threat to supplies in Poland. PGNiG said its underground gas storage is almost 80% full and the summer is coming, so demand is lower.

Also, Poland does have alternative supply sources. It has a liquefied natural gas (PNG) terminal in Swinoujscie on the Baltic coast and pipeline connections to Germany and the Czech Republic.

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However, if Russian gas supplies remain suspended for several weeks, the country will probably have to start restricting supply to the country’s largest consumers, such as chemical manufacturers.

In the longer term, Poland would be able to cope better, and indeed is planning to stop importing Russian gas by the end of the year.

A new pipeline delivering gas from Norway, called the "Baltic Pipe", comes online in October and should reach full capacity by the end of this year.

Image source, Getty Images

There has been heavy fighting in the eastern region of Ukraine - known as the Donbas - which borders Russia.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, told the BBC that although the situation in the region is difficult, the Ukrainian military is "holding the line" against Russian forces.

He said Ukraine has repelled six Russian attacks in the region in the past 24 hours. He said constant shelling had caused many casualties.

The town of Kreminna has fallen to the Russians, Haidai confirmed.

Haidai said the situation for people across Luhansk is "critical", with many cities remaining cut off from electricity, water and food supplies as key infrastructures have been "destroyed completely".

He also said all residents have been advised to evacuate to safer regions and that evacuations are being carried out every day while it's safe for people to leave.

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More now on Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Putin has agreed "in principle" to UN and International Committee for the Red Cross involvement in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, the United Nations says.

"Follow-on discussions will be had with the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry," UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric adds.

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Ukraine could be broken up into several smaller countries as a result of the war, one of Russia's top defence officials has said.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, accused the US and other Western nations of trying to instil hatred towards Russia in Ukraine - and said that "history teaches that hatred can never become a reliable factor in national unity", Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

As a result, "the policy of the West and the Kyiv regime under its control can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states," he told the paper.

Russia has already said it recognises the independence of two pro-Russia breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, initially styling its invasion as a peacekeeping operation in defence of them. In recent weeks, Russia has redeployed its forces to focus on those areas.

Russia also previously annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Andrew Harding
Reporting from Donbas

We visited two volunteer fighters at a hospital in eastern Ukraine.

The men - one British, one American - were injured during a Russian missile attack.

“I’m going to keep fighting when this has healed,” said the 27-year-old Yorkshireman, gesturing with his broken fist.

“Yeah. There’s no going back (home),” agreed the 28-year-old American.

The BBC has confirmed that the men - neither currently serving with UK or US military - have been absorbed into a Ukrainian special forces unit involved in ambushing Russian troops. They asked not to be identified.

They described Russian troops as “unprofessional” and “inaccurate”, and said Ukrainian forces had become far more determined since news of Russian atrocities in places like Bucha had emerged.

More now from the UN secretary general's visit to Moscow and his news conference with Vladimir Putin in the past hour.

Antonio Guterres told the Russian president that the invasion of Ukraine fully contradicted the constitution of the UN charter.

Guterres said he was deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation.

He said that he wanted to establish a new group comprising Ukraine, Russia and the UN to co-ordinate the setting up of humanitarian corridors.

Regarding the besieged port city of Mariupol, the Russian president claims Ukrainian soldiers are holding civilians as human shields at the Azovstal steel plant and Russian forces were not stopping them leaving.

Russia has made this allegation about human shields before. The BBC has not seen evidence to support the claim.

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Putin restated at length his justification for invading Ukraine.

But he told Antonio Guterres: "We still expect and hope we will be able to achieve agreements through a diplomatic channel."

Putin said recent talks in Istanbul had reached a "breakthrough" but he suggested they had been derailed after the reports of atrocities against civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

He claimed these were a "provocation" and added "the Russian army had nothing to do with it".

But he said talks continue and he hopes they reach a positive result.

Vladimir Putin says that negotiations with Ukraine will continue in an online format and hopes that the talks will yield a positive result.

With reference to the current situation in Mariupol, which he describes as "complicated and tragic," he adds there are no longer Russian military operations taking place in the besieged city.

Vladimir Putin is speaking in Moscow, where he's been having talks with the visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

We'll bring you more from the two men's meeting as soon as we have it.

More from the meeting that has been taking place at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany, where representatives from more than 40 countries allied with the US have been holding talks.

Germany's ambassador to the US Emily Haber says that in addition to sending anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine, as we've been reporting, Germany will also be training Ukrainian soldiers on German soil.