Image source, Reuters

Russia's assault on Donbas has "sort of fizzled" and the battle for the region will be over in two to four weeks, says military expert Dr Mike Martin., external

The war studies visiting fellow at King's College London says: "Basically the Russians are gonna run out of troops, and the Ukrainians are going to counterattack."

The Russians have squandered their one chance to take the region, he believes.

"They pulled all of these mauled units out of Kyiv, and then tried to reconstitute them for combat in the east," he explains.

But they were "bruised and damaged" by the battle for the Ukrainian capital and Russia failed to build them up and "do some bold manoeuvre".

And Martin says there has been a "major strategic shift" in the war, with the UK declaring its aim is to clear Russian forces from Ukraine, including Crimea.

He adds that UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is "wrong", however, to say this would take 10 years, insisting: "Russian forces will collapse before that, and we’ll see a coup."

And with the US announcing US$33bn (£26bn) of funding for Ukraine, "that is an extremely clear signal of intent", says Martin.

It also means Nato and the US have decided Vladimir Putin is bluffing about using nuclear weapons if Nato up the ante, he adds.

Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhya

Cars packed full of women, children, prized pets and hastily gathered belongings piled in every free corner, continue to arrive at the refugee centre in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhya.

They are from all over the south of the country - Odesa, Melitopol, Kherson and Donetsk. It is rare that someone escapes from besieged Mariupol.

Kyiv said plans are in place to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where Ukrainian forces and civilians are encircled by Russian troops. But, so far, there are no signs that a humanitarian corridor has been set up.

On Thursday, the UN chief said everything was being done to facilitate the rescue of civilians from the city.

We met one family who had spent two weeks and two days to get here, skirting various checkpoints and, at one stage, walking with their two young children in a shopping cart.

When the war started the family hid in a basement bunker. They spent more than six weeks underground eating canned supplies to survive while listening to relentless shelling. They counted 60 to 80 air strikes on some days.

As his family hid, dad Serhii fought. He was eventually told to lay down arms and leave on 13 April, which is when he grabbed his family and escaped.

Mariupol is no more, he told me as his family received help at the refugee centre. He is determined to fight again. His three-year-old daughter Anhelina grabs my microphone and smiles as she says: "Glory to Ukraine."

A US citizen is reported to have died fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

Former marine Willy Cancel, 22, was said to have been doing part-time work for a private military contracting company.

He was married with a seven-month-old son and appears to be the first American to die fighting in the conflict, CNN says., external

Brittany Cancel told Fox News Digital:, external "My husband did die in Ukraine. He went there wanting to help people, he had always felt that that was his main mission in life."

Cancel was living in Tennessee but is reported to originally be from New York state.

It comes a day after it was announced a British man, Scott Sibley, died in Ukraine. He was also understood to be fighting with Ukrainian forces and is the first UK citizen to be confirmed killed in the invasion.

Image source, Getty Images

As heavy fighting continues in the east, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has acknowledged serious losses - but said Russia's were even worse.

Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukraine had lost control of some towns and villages - but claimed Russia's own casualties had been "colossal".

Arestovych said Russia was losing a company of troops every day, according to remarks quoted by the UNIAN news agency.

He said his soldiers were continuing to conduct a successful defensive operation.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims.

Earlier this month, Russia conceded that it had suffered "significant losses" of troops during its invasion - but has not been frequently updating its numbers.

Meanwhile, the civilian toll continues to mount as fighting in the east of Ukraine rages on.

The regional governor of Luhansk - part of the Donbas - has again urged remaining civilians to leave.

Meanwhile, police in the Donetsk region say three people were killed and six wounded over the past day during Russian strikes.

And the north-eastern Kharkiv region continues to see heavy fighting as well. Officials there say five civilians were killed in the latest shelling.

Image source, .

Image source, .

Russian forces are continuing to make advances in east of the country but strong resistance from Ukrainian troops is slowing their progress.

In the latest developments Russian forces continue to make small gains around eastern city of Izyum, but strong Ukrainian defences in Donbas region are holding for now.

The UK's Ministry of Defence said on Friday the battle for Donbas, in the east, remained Russia's main strategic focus. It said fighting had been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, and there had been an attempted advance south towards Slovyansk.

Image source, .

The devastated port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled since the start of March, is now mostly under the control of Russian forces - although several hundred Ukrainian troops remain in the Azovstal metal works factory in the south of the city.

Russian forces have blockaded the sprawling industrial complex and are continuing their aerial bombardment of it, but no attempt has been made yet to clear Ukrainian troops from a network of tunnels beneath the factory.

Read more here.

Image source, EPA

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed he needed to make "fast decisions" to protect himself and his family from capture by the Russians on the first day of the invasion.

Speaking to Time magazine reporter Simon Shuster at the presidential compound in Kyiv, Zelensky recalls the first airstrikes on 24 February.

The Time article reports, external the military had informed Zelensky that Russian strike teams had been parachuted into Kyiv to kill or capture them.

"I remember moments from that night. The explosions. The children," Zelensky told Time.

"We woke them up. It was loud."

He said: "We all have families. We’re human beings. And we had to make some fast decisions. As of this moment, I think the decisions we made, some on purpose and others by accident, were right."

Image source, Reuters

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence claims Russia has suffered 23,000 military personnel losses since the beginning of the war, in an update on Telegram.

It claims that since Russia invaded on 24 February, the Ukrainian military has destroyed:

• 986 tanks
• 2418 armoured combat vehicles
• 435 artillery systems
• 189 aircraft
• eight ships
• 155 helicopters

It said Russia experienced the greatest losses in the direction of Izyum, in eastern Ukraine.

Estimates of Russian military losses vary widely, but Moscow has previously admitted to suffering "significant losses of troops" during the invasion.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify Ukraine's latest claims.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Radio Liberty says one of its journalists, Vira Hyrych, was killed in a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on Thursday.

Radio Liberty broadcasts news in countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.

Also known as Radio Free Europe, it works in 23 countries and in 27 languages to provide "uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate", its website says.

The American-funded operation was established during the Cold War in an effort to transmit reliable information to people living behind the Iron Curtain. It started broadcasting in 1950.

The local branch, Radio Svoboda, operates from a bureau in Kyiv.

The service offers coverage of the whole of Ukraine - including the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, and the Donbas region where Russian-backed separatists control some territory.

Hyrych started working at the bureau in 2018, a statement said.

Image source, Handout

The two British volunteers who are thought to have been captured by the Russian military have been named as Paul Urey and Dylan Healey.

The aid organisation Presidium Network said the men were detained at a checkpoint in southern Ukraine on Monday.

They are believed to have been working independently, but were in touch with the Presidium Network.

It said Urey is from north-west England, and Healey is originally from Cambridgeshire.

Urey's mother said she was extremely worried for his welfare, as he is Type 1 diabetic and needs insulin.

The UK Foreign Office has said it is urgently seeking more information.

Image source, .

Russian troops have used phosphorous munitions in the eastern village of Solovyove, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has said.

While phosphorus is not classed as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention, using it as an incendiary weapon near civilians is illegal.

Russian forces also shelled the village of Lastochkyne again, damaging a residential house and a shop, Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messenging service.

According to Kyrylenko, Russians targeted Avdiivka with Grad multiple rocket launchers at night, followed by an air raid and further shelling in the morning.

He added that residential houses and civilian infrastructure were damaged.

Moscow has largely turned its military focus to the eastern states of Donetsk and Luhansk, known as the Donbas region.

Image source, Vira Hyrych/Facebook

Vira Hyrych was a 55-year-old Ukrainian journalist for US-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty, which described her as "a true professional".

Her body was discovered this morning after a missile struck her home in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Thursday, according to a statement by the radio station.

"A wonderful person is gone," her colleague Oleksandr Demchenko said on Facebook.

The Russian missile strikes came as UN chief Antonio Guterres was visiting Kyiv for talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Moscow has confirmed that it hit Ukrainian targets, but has not commented on the strike on the building.

A video showing firefighters tackling flames following missile strikes in Kyiv yesterday evening has been released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES).

The attack happened as UN chief Antonio Guterres was in the Ukrainian capital for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Journalist Vira Hyrych was killed in one of the strikes on Kyiv, Ukraine's Radio Liberty has said.

Image source, EPA

Russia should be expelled from Ukraine and "pushed back to Russia", Estonia's prime minister has said.

Kaja Kallas said western countries should share her aim that Ukraine wins the war and Putin loses. But she says keeping unity will become more difficult as the war goes on.

"If there is some kind of peace agreement, everybody stays where they are, then the [Russian] aggression really pays off," she told the BBC's Newshour.

"Not only do you take neighbour's land by force but you also appease in the end and we shouldn't allow that."

She said European security was at stake, adding "we all need to have this understanding that our neighbour's problem today is our problem tomorrow".

It mirrors comments by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who said Russian forces must be pushed out of "the whole of Ukraine".

Not all western powers share Truss and Kallas' target. French and German officials have been more cautious about stating war aims that risk provoking Russia, preferring to focus instead on language about defending Ukraine.

Russian missile strikes in Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary General António Guterres was Putin showing his middle finger, says Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Moscow has confirmed it targeted the capital last night, including a missile production facility.

It has not commented on the strike on a residential building in which one person was killed.

Image source, Reuters

Germany has criticised Russia for carrying out an air strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, calling it "inhumane".

"We strongly condemn the Russian missile attack on Kyiv while... Guterres was in talks yesterday," government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said.

Moscow has confirmed it struck Kyiv last night, but claims that its target was a military one - specifically, a plant which manufactures missiles.

US-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty says one of its journalists, Vira Hyrych, was killed in the strike when a missile hit her home.

Doug Faulkner
BBC News Online

Image source, Andrei Kirilenko

A Ukrainian professor at the University of Cambridge has told how his mother was found dead by a neighbour in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Andrei Kirilenko told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the neighbour's son had found his 85-year-old mother Svetlana in her home on 11 March and they could not bury her due to the danger from Russian shelling.

It was too dangerous so he took her body into a cold garage, so that it would be preserved for longer, he said.

Kirilenko said the last time he spoke to his mother was in early March when they said goodbye to each other.

"She was talking a bit about her past and was also asking a bit about my son, her grandson, who is college-bound, so she was thinking a bit about her past but also about the future," he said.

Read more of Andrei's story here.

Emily McGarvey
BBC News Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, the Ukrainian president's office has said there will an attempt today to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant. Here's a quick recap of the situation there.

What's going on in the steelworks?

The last Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol are still defending the Azovstal steel plant - a huge industrial site, and the last part of the city not under Russian control.

They are holed up in a network of bunkers and tunnels underneath the plant which has been sealed off by Russian troops.

Despite Putin last week abandoning plans to storm the plant after declaring victory in Mariupol, Ukraine's officials say there has been no let-up in air strikes.

Which groups of fighters and civilians remain there?

The Azov regiment, originally a far-right group that was later incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard, are still there along with Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade.

Hundreds of civilians are said to be stuck there including elderly residents, children and many people with disabilities, many of whom need medicine. Food and water is running out and families are pleading to be evacuated.

There are said to be about 600 seriously wounded fighters in need of urgent care, including major surgery such as amputations.

Why haven't civilians been evacuated?

Depending on what happens today, it would be the first attempt to get civilians out of the Azovstal plant.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed "in principle" earlier this week to the UN and the Red Cross evacuating civilians from the Azovstal steelworks.

Fighters have asked to be given safe passage out of the plant, saying they are outnumbered and running out of supplies.

But attempts at establishing humanitarian corridors in Mariupol have so far largely failed, with Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of acting in bad faith in negotiations.

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

If you are just joining us, here's a round-up of the latest events in Ukraine:

• A journalist was killed in yesterday's Russian missile strike on Kyiv, her employer Radio Liberty has said. The station said Vira Hyrych, who was described as a "true professional", had been at her home when a missile hit her building
• Earlier, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a person had been killed in the strike, though no details were given about the victim
• Moscow has confirmed it hit Ukrainian targets in the capital, including the production facilities of a space-rocket plant, but has not commented on the strike on the building
• Two British volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in the country have been captured by the Russian military, an aid organisation working in Ukraine says
• Ukraine's government says it will make attempt to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where its soldiers are still holding out
• Nato deputy secretary-general Mircea Geoana tells the BBC it could be years before the Ukraine war is over
• And the UK announces it will be sending a team of experts to help Ukraine gather evidence for its war crimes investigations

Image source, EPA

The UK is to provide Ukraine with experts to help gather evidence and prosecute potential war crimes by Russia.

Kyiv says it is investigating 7,600 war crimes and at least 500 suspects.

The UK Foreign Office says its team will arrive in Poland in early May. They will meet international partners, NGOs, refugees and the Ukrainian government to work out how they can best provide assistance.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "Russia has brought barbarity to Ukraine and committed vile atrocities, including against women. British expertise will help uncover the truth and hold Putin's regime to account for its actions."

The announcement comes as Truss travels to The Hague for talks with her Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra and the International Criminal Court President, Judge Piotr Hofmanski.

Russian strike on Kyiv a display of Putin's contempt for world leaderspublished at 11:35 British Summer Time 29 April 2022

11:35 BST 29 April 2022

Jenny Hill
Reporting from Moscow

Image source, PA

Moscow has confirmed it struck Kyiv last night, but claims that its target was a military one - specifically, a plant which manufactures missiles.

It’s two weeks since Russian forces last attacked the Ukrainian capital in a series of strikes which were widely interpreted as retaliation for the sinking of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Moskva warship.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that the plant targeted last night is, reportedly, involved in the manufacture of the Neptune missile which Ukraine claims it used to destroy the flagship of the Black Sea fleet.

But Putin knows that, in striking Kyiv during the visit of the secretary general, he is sending a powerful message to the international community.

He wants its leaders and institutions to know that he holds them in contempt.

And he wants them to understand that he’ll do what he wants and that, as far as he’s concerned, no one has the power to stop him.