An operation to evacuate civilians trapped in a steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol is under way, the UN says
The Ukrainian president says a group of about 100 people have left and should arrive in the town of Zaporizhzhia tomorrow
An evacuation plan for residents from other parts of Mariupol has been postponed until Monday morning
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has led a Congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet President Zelensky
She promises American support "until the fight is done" and says Congress will move quickly to approve $33bn in aid for Ukraine
Russian troops controlling the city of Kherson say the rouble will be used there from Sunday
Less than 20 miles from the front lines is the city of Mykolaiv. On the Black Sea coast, it stands between the Russian army and Odesa.
The city’s being shelled almost daily. But the attacks themselves aren’t the only threat because the pieces of artillery left behind can be just as fatal.
The BBC followed the city’s bomb disposal unit around the city.
The Russian foreign ministry's head of nuclear non-proliferation has said nuclear war should never be unleashed, and that Russia is clearly following understandings between nuclear powers to prevent it.
Vladimir Yermakov has told the Russian Tass news agency that the risks of nuclear war "must be minimised, in particular, by preventing any armed conflict between nuclear powers".
He cited an agreement, external pledging to seek to avoid nuclear war, reached in January by the US, Russia, China, France and the UK.
But he said the Western nuclear "troika" [the US, UK and France] were "slipping into other positions", as was Nato in "positioning itself as a nuclear alliance".
"Such 'balancing on the brink' is fraught with the most serious consequences," he said.
Yermakov also said dialogue on strategic stability with the US was currently "frozen on the American side".
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West not to underestimate the risks of nuclear conflict.
But yesterday a senior US defence official said the US does not believe there is a threat of Russia using nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian fighters besieged by Russian forces inside Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant have confirmed that a group of civilians have been able to leave the site.
The deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov battalion, Sviatoslav Palamar, said the group of 20 - including women and children - had been transferred to a "suitable place".
Earlier, Russian state media said 25 people had been evacuated. It is not clear where they have been taken to.
Moscow has been under intense international pressure to allow civilians to leave.
Hundreds are thought to be sheltering in the plant - the last place controlled by Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol. Moscow has demanded they surrender. Ukraine's military says Russian airstrikes have continued.
Image source, .
Image source, Getty ImagesBoris Johnson spoke with Ukraine's leader on the phone
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he is more committed than ever to reinforcing Ukraine, Downing Street says.
In a phone call earlier today, Johnson said he remains committed to "ensuring Putin fails" and said the UK will continue to supply Ukraine with military and humanitarian aid.
“President Zelensky updated on the fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine and ongoing siege of Mariupol," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
"The leaders also discussed progress of the UN-led effort to evacuate Mariupol and concern for the injured there."
In a tweet, external about his conversation with Johnson, Zelensky said: "Spoke about the situation on the battlefield and in the blocked Mariupol. Discussed defensive support for Ukraine and the necessary diplomatic efforts to achieve peace."
Earlier this month, the UK prime minister met with Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and said that the UK "stands unwaveringly" with Ukraine.
Image source, Galina RyzhenkoTanya has now been reunited with her daughter Galina Ryzhenko in South Yorkshire
A Ukrainian woman who staged a protest to try to speed up her mother's visa application said she was relieved to finally be reunited with her.
Galina Ryzhenko said her mum Tanya fled Kyiv in February, but was not able to join her in South Yorkshire in the UK until seven weeks later.
Galina, who has lived and worked in the area for five years, applied for her mother to join her soon after the war broke out.
After 38 days without news, she mounted a protest with a placard outside a Home Office building in Sheffield.
Her 70-year-old mother has now arrived and is adjusting to life in the UK.
"I really like it here. I like the people, people are very kind here and life is well organised," she said.
In a statement, the Home Office said it had "streamlined the visa system, including simplifying the forms and boosting staff numbers".
Image source, Galina RyzhenkoGalina Ryzhenko held a protest outside a Home Office building in Sheffield
Here are some pictures from around Ukraine on the 66th day of the war.
Image source, Getty ImagesThese woman resting in a metro station in Kharkiv are among many still taking shelter underground. Russian shelling was reported overnight in the eastern city
Image source, ReutersLila is pictured inside her damaged apartment in Dobropillia in Donetsk. Ukrainian media cited officials saying seven people have been injured, including three children, by Russian attacks in the town
Image source, EPAZaporizhzhia has become a hub for displaced people who have fled fighting elsewhere. An argument broke out between these people as crowds waited for humanitarian aid
Image source, Getty ImagesAn elderly man cries as he looks at an apartment building in Kyiv that was badly damaged in Thursday's missile attacks
Image source, ReutersIn contrast, this woman and two girls enjoy a peaceful moment among tulips in the centre of the capital. Some normality has returned since Russian troops withdrew from outside the city several weeks ago
Angelina Jolie has been visiting Ukraine to meet children affected by the conflict, and the local organisations working to protect them.
Jolie, who’s a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, met with orphaned and displaced children – including youngsters evacuated from Mariupol – as well as the Ukrainian volunteers and doctors caring for them.
The actress also surprised people in a coffee shop in Lviv, western Ukraine.
Footage posted on social media shows her waving at onlookers and signing autographs for fans.
Angelina Jolie visits cafe in Lviv, Ukraine
Caroline Davies
BBC News, Odesa
Three loud explosions were heard across Odesa late this afternoon, emanating from the south west of the city. Images on social media show smoke rising on the horizon.
Shortly after, the head of the press centre for the southern defence forces put a message on social media saying that the runway of Odesa airport had been damaged as a result of the missile attack and its further use was impossible.
Ukrainian air space has been closed to commercial flights since 24 February.
Image source, .Russian troops are gradually increasing the intensity of their offensive in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman for the Ukrainian defence ministry has said.
Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said in a briefing there were "signs that the aggressor is preparing for an even bigger activation of military actions".
"We are seeing signs that Russia is also building up its grouping in the eastern operating zone... and is now increasing its desire to seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible," he said.
Motuzyanyk said Russia was continuing air strikes on the southern port city of Mariupol.
"The main efforts of the occupants are concentrated on blocking our units near the Azovstal plant, he said, though some troops were being redeployed further east, he said.
Motuzyanyk accused Russian troops of forcibly taking residents from the Kharkiv region to the Russian Federation.
Earlier, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said more than a million people had been "evacuated" from Ukraine to Russia since the invasion began.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of deporting people against their will – and using them as hostages.
Image source, .
Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro
Image source, ReutersEfforts continue to organise the safe evacuation of thousands of civilians who remain in the city of Mariupol, which could include people trapped at the sprawling Azovstal steel plant.
The site, completely surrounded by Russian troops, is the last pocket of refuge for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. They are sheltering in the plant’s vast network of underground shelters and tunnels while food supplies quickly run out.
Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, told the BBC that people there were “on the borderline between life and death”. “[People] are waiting, they are praying for a rescue… It’s difficult to say how many days or hours we have to save their lives.”
Boychenko, who is no longer in the city, said there were about 1,000 civilians at the plant “begging to be evacuated”, and that 600 of them had been injured. Some of them, the mayor said, had been there since the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February.
Mariupol has been almost totally destroyed in the war, and the remaining residents have no electricity, water or heating. With the phone network inoperative in most of the city, it is hard to independently verify information or videos that circulate online.
Footage posted by the Azov Battalion, originally a far-right group that was later incorporated into the country’s National Guard, showed women and children in crowded rooms and corridors. In one of them, a girl said she had left her house with her mother and grandmother on 27 February. Since then, she said, they had not seen the sky or the sun.
“People stuck there have almost no chance to save their lives,” the mayor said. “They have no opportunity to breathe fresh air. They entered bomb shelters and are waiting for their lives to be saved.”
Image source, .The bodies of three men have been found in a pit near Bucha, Ukrainian police have said.
The bodies were found on Friday in the town close to Kyiv that has become synonymous with allegations of Russian war crimes.
"The victims' hands were tied, cloths were covering their eyes and some were gagged. There are traces of torture on the corpses," Kyiv regional police said in a statement.
The BBC has not been able to confirm this independently.
Moscow has denied any crimes were committed in Bucha, which was under the control of the 64th motorised infantry brigade for more than a month at the start of the war.
Ukraine has launched a hunt for 10 Russian soldiers accused of war crimes in Bucha.
Image source, ReutersUkraine's national guard has released footage appearing to show strikes being carried out against a Russian armoured military convoy near Izyum in eastern Ukraine.
The video shows what the Ukraine National Guard said were tanks and armoured personnel carriers being hit.
The BBC has verified the location of the footage but not the details of the incident.
Joe Inwood
Reporting on the road to Lviv
It’s lucky our drivers filled up before we left Kyiv.
We are heading west, and the road is dotted with scenes of absolute devastation, sites of missile strikes. A disproportionately high number of them are petrol stations.
We’ve already passed dozens of burned out buildings, their roofs mangled metal, the gas tanks twisted shells. It doesn’t feel random.
There are other buildings that have been targeted, but in general it seems there’s been a concerted effort to take out Ukraine’s petrol stations.
There have also been strikes on refineries and other infrastructure, as well as a sea blockade. The cumulative effect is starting to bite.
It’s something President Zelensky addressed directly when he spoke to the Ukrainian people yesterday. He said they would solve the problem, but admitted “queues and rising prices at gas stations are seen in many regions of our country”.
That too was evident on our drive west. Any petrol station that wasn’t destroyed or shut had a huge line of cars outside.
It’s just another example of the impact it is having on ordinary people, even far from the front lines.
Image source, REUTERSPresident Emmanuel Macron says France will step up military and humanitarian support to Ukraine, following a conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron also reiterated his "strong concern" over Russia's bombing of Ukrainian cities and the "unbearable situation" in the southern port city of Mariupol.
The US, France and other allies have provided Kyiv with hundreds of long-range artillery pieces to help it counter Moscow's offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
The French presidency also says aid to Ukraine amounts to "more than 615 tonnes of equipment, including medical equipment, generators for hospitals, food aid, shelter aid and emergency vehicles".
Two shells hit an oil refinery in a region bordering Ukraine when Russian air defence units repelled a Ukrainian warplane attempting to enter Russian airspace, the Bryansk regional governor has said.
Alexander Bogomaz said the blast wave from the incident damaged parts of the oil terminal but there were no casualties.
It was not clear from his post on Telegram whether the blasts were a result of Russian air defence fire or came from missiles fired from the Ukrainian military plane.
Earlier this week, the governors of both Bryansk and the neighbouring Kursk region said that two border checkpoints were shelled "from Ukraine".
The BBC is unable to verify this information independently.
Andrew Harding
Reporting from the Donbas
Only one of three buses returned to Bakhmut
Two buses sent to rescue civilians from a Ukrainian town under heavy attack by Russian forces are reported to have gone missing.
A military official from Popasna, in the Donbas region, said one of the two buses, driven by volunteers, had come under fire inside the small town.
Mikola Khanatov said there was no news about the second vehicle - a school bus driven by a local history teacher.
One of the volunteers, Galina Kroshka, said three buses had been sent to Popasna on Friday to help with the evacuation of hundreds of civilians.
Two buses failed to return to the town of Bakhmut. Earlier in the day 31 civilians had been brought to safety.
“We’re very worried. Our buses didn’t come back, and we’ve had no contact with them since yesterday. We can’t go to Popasna ourselves until the situation is clearer,” said Galina, who, with her husband, has been ferrying civilians, and humanitarian aid, between the towns for several weeks.
Popasna has been fiercely contested in recent weeks, but there are reports that Russian forces now control almost the entire town.
Russia's ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has rejected Pentagon spokesman John Kirby's accusation that Russian President Vladimir Putin acted with "depravity" in his invasion of Ukraine.
Yesterday, Kirby became visibly emotional as he asked how anyone "moral" could justify the atrocities committed by Russia.
But in a social media post, Mr Antonov described Kirby's statement as "offensive and unacceptable".
"It has become a norm here that administration officials base their judgments on dirty lies of the Ukrainian authorities," Mr Antonov said.
The Russian ambassador added that the US did not want hostilities in Ukraine to end.
"What matters for John Kirby and his colleagues is that the American military-industrial complex receives additional income by getting rid of obsolete weapons from their warehouses."
He concluded by saying Mr Kirby "has lost the dignity of an American officer, resorting to street insults".
Image source, Getty ImagesGrain harvesting in Zaporizhzhia region last summer
Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister has accused Russia of stealing several hundred thousand tonnes of grain from territory its forces occupy.
Taras Vysotskyi, speaking on Ukrainian national TV, said he feared Russia might steal most of the 1.5m tonnes of grain in areas now under its control.
Russia has not commented on the allegation, but its military has inflicted huge economic losses.
Russia’s widespread shelling and its blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports have disrupted grain production, raising international concern about soaring food prices. Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of grain and vegetable oils. It has been nicknamed Europe’s “bread basket”.
Vysotskyi has assured Ukrainians however that they will not suffer food shortages because of the disruption.
A cargo ship carrying over 71,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn left the Romanian port of Constanta on Thursday - the first since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
Constanta is handling Ukrainian exports in a Romanian gesture of solidarity, as the Russian navy is blockading Odesa, Ukraine’s main export hub.
Grain is a hugely sensitive issue in Ukraine, where many families have bitter memories of the 1930s famine (“Holodomor”), caused by Soviet deportations of richer peasants (“kulaks”) and seizure of farms.
Image source, Ukraine State Emergency ServicesA hospital and residential areas in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv were hit in overnight shelling, Ukraine's State Emergency Services say.
As a result, apartments in two nine-storey apartment buildings were set on fire, and a man who owned one of the apartments was injured and taken to hospital, they say.
Concrete structures and window frames were damaged in the hospital, and a fire broke out on the 5th floor but there were no casualties.
The BBC has not been able to confirm this independently.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby became emotional during a press briefing on Friday while discussing the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Kirby previously said President Putin’s actions are "brutality of the coldest and most depraved sort”.
He later apologised for displaying his emotions.