Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has rejected Russian claims that the southern city of Mariupol is now under full Russian control.

In a Twitter livestream, he said the Azovstal steelworks, which remains the last pocket of Ukrainian fighters in the city, still holds.

Russian forces strike the fighters and civilians there every day, he says, with endless attacks, including bombardments and artillery fire.

The recent evacuation of a group of civilians, under the auspices of the UN, from the industrial complex proves that "where there is a political will in Russia, this mechanism can work", he says.

"But we see that they are very reluctant to let people go, and every next move requires a lot of work... and a lot of pressure put on Russia," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

Some lighter news out of Ukraine now.

UK PM Boris Johnson is to have an embankment named after him in the city of Vasylkiv, near the capital Kyiv.

The city's mayor, Natalia Balasinovich, made the announcement on Facebook.

"Great news, friends!" she wrote.

"Our new embankment on the Stugna River ... will now have the name of a great friend of Ukraine: Prime Minister Boris Johnson."

The UK prime minister was the first among European leaders to provide full-scale military assistance to Ukraine, and "supported the aspirations of our country and our people to defeat the Russian invaders", she added.

"Thank you Boris!"

Last month the town of Fontanka, near Odesa, announced it would be naming a street after Johnson.

It came after his surprise trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when the pair took a trip around the capital together on foot.

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Join our correspondent Ben Brown on BBC News and BBC World News tomorrow as he hosts an edition of Your Questions Answered live from Kyiv.

What is it? A panel of experts will be on hand to answer your questions about all aspects of the war - from what Russia hopes to gain, to the humanitarian consequences and what western countries can do about it.

When is it? 16:30 BST tomorrow (Thursday).

Where is it? On BBC News (UK only) and on BBC World News (internationally). Readers in the UK will also be able to watch via the video stream on this page.

How do I ask a question? Tweet us using #BBCYourQuestions - or email us on yourquestions@bbc.co.uk.

Hungary will veto the EU's proposal to ban imports of Russian oil, the country's Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations tells the BBC.

Zoltán Kovács says the proposal is "unacceptable" and would "ruin the Hungarian economy".

His comments throw the proposal into doubt as the plans must be approved by all 27 of the EU's member states.

Here's what Kovács told Stephen Sackur from BBC HARDtalk:

Stephen Sackur: Are you telling me when it comes to coherent, cooperative EU action, that you will exercise your veto. Is that what you’re going to do?

Zoltán Kovács: Shortly, yes. But at the end of the day you have to again remember how the European Union works. The proposal is coming from Brussels... that is the administrative, bureaucratic centre of the European Union - not from the member states.

They exactly know that what they are proposing is against Hungarian interests, is against the possibility that is feasible on the ground, and if we do that we are completely going to ruin the Hungarian economy.

Watch the interview in full on 4 May on BBC World at 21:30 GMT and 5 May at 03:30, 08:30, 14:30 and 21:30.

Image source, Reuters

The EU's proposal to ban Russian oil imports is just the latest in a long list of sanctions already imposed on Russia by many western countries.

These penalties have been used to target individuals, banks, businesses and exports.

Russia's central bank assets have been frozen, causing the rouble to fall 22% in value, while the UK has stopped the sale of "golden visas", which allowed wealthy Russians to secure British residency rights.

Find out more about how sanctions work and what has already been implemented after Russia's invation of Ukraine here.

Sticking with Mariupol, the city's mayor says heavy fighting is taking place at the Azovstal steelworks, where Ukrainian forces are defending their last pocket of control in the city.

But Vadym Boychenko told Ukrainian television contact has been lost with the fighters inside.

Around 100 civilians have been evacuated from the plant in recent days, but it is thought hundreds of civilians, including more than 30 children, remain inside.

A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told the BBC “a storm has begun on the part of the Russians” at the steelworks.

But earlier the Kremlin denied that Russia is storming the industrial complex.

"There is no storming," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, although there are "escalations" when Ukrainians take up firing positions, he said.

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Image source, epa

More now on Mariupol, which was discussed by Russia's defence minister at a briefing in the Kremlin earlier today.

Sergei Shoigu talked about the progress of Russia's invasion, which its officials refer to as a "special military operation".

He insisted the Russian military controlled the port city of Mariupol and that it was restoring "peacetime life" there and in other towns.

He said that Ukrainian forces who continued to hold out in the ruined city's Azovstal metal works were hemmed in, and attempts would continue to persuade them to "release" trapped civilians and lay down their arms.

The Russian military and its Ukrainian separatist allies in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics were taking more territory under their control, Shoigu said.

Two months into the war, the military focus is on the Donbas since Russian forces pulled back from the region around the Ukrainian capital after suffering heavy losses.

Ukrainian forces who have been confronting the separatists there since 2014 are well-equipped and well dug in, but the Russians and their allies have managed to make some territorial gains.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, the European Union has set out plans for a sixth round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

They include a ban on imports of Russian oil by the end of the year, and cutting off three state-owned Russian broadcasters in the EU.

But what's happened since the proposals were unveiled this morning?

• The plan still requires the approval of all 27 of the EU's member nations - with the proposed oil import ban a sticking point
• There was no immediate agreement on the measures, the Reuters news agency reported. EU envoys were due to meet for more talks tomorrow, a source said
• The Czech Republic and Bulgaria are among the countries asking for exemptions in order to adapt to a potential embargo. Slovakia has requested a three-year transition period
• Hungary has also voiced doubts, saying it's not clear how the transition can be achieved
• As the below chart shows, Hungary, like Slovakia, is one of Europe's top importers of Russian oil. It's worth noting, though, that this uses data from 2020 - and countries have been working to reduce their dependency since then

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Moldova could soon get more military support from the EU amid fears the war in neighbouring Ukraine could spill over the border.

Russia already controls territory in a breakaway region of Moldova called Transnistria, and recent reports of mysterious explosions in the area has only compounded fears of a further conflict.

The BBC's Ros Atkins takes a look at what might happen - and why.

Image source, EPA

As we’ve been reporting, dozens of evacuees from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol safely reached Ukrainian-held Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday.

James Elder, from the UN children’s charity Unicef, said he witnessed a “full gamut of emotions” when he met evacuees there who had been transported by bus.

He told the BBC that one woman was “in awe” that she and her two young grandchildren had got out alive from the steelworks, which have been bombarded by Russian forces.

As well as tears of joy, there were tears of sadness from those whose family members were still trapped in Mariupol, Elder said.

He also said there was a wide range of ages among the evacuees, with some elderly people immediately needing wheelchairs. Others showed “degrees of malnutrition”, as some of the evacuees had only been fed one meal a day.

Whether medical or psychological, “everybody needed some kind of care”, Elder added.

Damien McGuinness
Reporting from Schwedt

Image source, Reuters

The pipeline that carries Russian oil to Germany is called Friendship, or Druzhba in Russian. But Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine has destroyed any lingering feelings of affection.

Druzhba opened in the 1960s, transporting oil more than 5,000km (3,100 miles) from what was then the Soviet Union to Schwedt in former communist East Germany.

The refinery in Schwedt is key to the European Union's plan to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022, a proposal that has won Germany's support.

Since the invasion the German government has dramatically reduced its dependence on Russian oil from 35% to 12%, all of which comes to the refinery in Schwedt.

But people here are concerned what an embargo might mean for German regions like this, where thousands of livelihoods depend on Russian energy.

"We are very worried and very shocked," says Schwedt's mayor, Annekathrin Hoppe, who once worked in the refinery herself.

Read more here.

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The Russian offensive is still focused on the east - with the exception of those attacks in Lviv overnight. However resistance from Ukrainian troops is slowing the progress of the invaders.

Here are some of the latest developments:

• Russian forces are still advancing around the eastern city of Izyum
• But strong Ukrainian defences in Donbas region are holding for now
• Ukrainian forces are pushing Russian troops back around Kharkiv
• Attempts continue to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal works in Mariupol. But heavy fighting is said to be taking place at the plant today

Find out more here.

Russian missiles hit electrical substations in Lviv on Tuesday evening, as we've been reporting.

Daytime images from the western Ukrainian city show the extent of the damage caused. Parts of Lviv were left without power and water.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

A new attempt to evacuate residents from the southern port city of Mariupol and surrounding areas is taking place.

Mariupol has seen the heaviest fighting of the war so far and a group of Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of civilians remain blockaded in the Azovstal steelworks.

Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said a convoy of buses carrying civilians had set off for the city of Zaporizhzhia this morning. It was not expected to include any people trapped in the steelworks.

City mayor Vadym Boychenko said on national television that more than 30 children are awaiting evacuation from the plant. He added that heavy fighting is taking place there and said contact had been lost with Ukrainian fighters inside.

The Kremlin denies that Russia is storming the steelworks, after Ukraine accused Moscow of launching a "powerful" assault.

"The order was publicly given by the supreme commander-in-chief to call off the assault," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, in reference to an order given by Vladimir Putin last month to not storm the plant.

"There is no storming," he said.

On Tuesday a group of civilians evacuated from Mariupol made their way to the relative safety of Zaporizhzhia - the first time a humanitarian corridor has been successfully agreed to get them out of the steel plant.

Read in full: 'We were losing hope that we would ever get out'

Image source, PA Media

In a move outside the EU sanctions we have been hearing about today, Russia has been banned from using British management consulting, accounting and PR services in changes announced by the UK.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the ban will cut off service exports "critical to the Russian economy".

She added it will "help ensure Putin fails in Ukraine".

Other sanctions among the 63 introduced on Wednesday target Russian media organisations and those working for them.

Read more on what it means here.

George Wright
BBC News

The EU has announced a raft of new sanctions on Moscow, including a ban on Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

But will this affect how Vladimir Putin calculates the war in Ukraine?

Tyler Kustra, assistant professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, who has studied economic sanctions, calls the new sanctions a "half measure".

The oil cut-off is at least six months away, he says, while Hungary and Slovakia will be able to continue to buy Russian crude oil until the end of 2023.

"As a result, Putin is going to see hundreds of millions of euros a day flow into his bank accounts. He can use that money to fund this costly war," Kustra says.

Moscow will likely use that time to try and secure new oil contracts in Asia, he says.

Cutting off all natural gas to the EU would show "serious political will to stop these atrocities", Kustra says.

There is no consensus among the EU's 27 members on winding down the use of Russian natural gas - a fuel which has not yet been targeted by EU sanctions.

"He has so many fewer places he could sell that," Kustra says.

The new sanctions are tougher than previous measures, but "do not go far enough to end the worst war in Europe since 1945", he adds.

We've received reports of a fire at an oil facility in the Donetsk region, after earlier reports of an explosion.

A depot in a rebel-held part of Ukraine's Donetsk Region came under Ukrainian artillery fire, the Donetsk News Agency says.

It's thought the facility is in Makiyivka, and was used to supply fuel to the Russian army.

One person was killed and two injured, according to a Telegram post from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.

The Russian-backed separatists are in control of the area.

The BBC has not been able to verify the cause of the fire.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

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The murky business of oil embargoespublished at 12:45 British Summer Time 4 May 2022

12:45 BST 4 May 2022

Dharshini David
Economics Correspondent

As Europe wrestles over how best to turn off the Russian oil tap, preventing leaks may be tricky.

Not all “Russian oil” is as it appears. CPC Blend crude shipped from Russia’s Black Sea coast contains some Russian crude - but most of the oil is from Kazakhstan. It’s the latter nation that would suffer if it’s included in an embargo.

Conversely, buy oil products via a refinery in another country and there’s a chance it could have originated in Russia.

Meanwhile, “ship-to-ship” transfers of oil between tankers in the western Mediterranean have surged, as Indian buyers, for example, have snapped up discounted Russian crude.

There are already reports of some Russian tanker ships “going dark”, switching off systems that broadcast their location to evade sanctions.

That could increase in the face of unscrupulous buyers elsewhere looking to work around embargoes. With prices on the open market so high, some will be tempted.

Imposing oil embargoes can be a murky business.

How reliant is the world on Russia for oil and gas?

So what is the Kermlin's first take on the latest and toughest round of EU economic sanctions yet?

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says the punitive action, which includes an eventual total ban on Russian oil imports, is a "double-edged" weapon.

"The cost of these sanctions to the citizens of Europe will grow by the day," he says.

Peskov says the Kremlin is looking at "various options" for its response to the new sanctions.

It will have to look hard, of course: the EU accounts for nearly half of Russia's crude oil and petroleum product exports, according to Reuters news agency, external.

Image source, EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that President Vladimir Putin plans to declare war against Ukraine and mobilise nationally when Russia commemorates the Soviet Union's victory in World War Two.

Russia's biggest public holiday, Victory Day, is held annually on 9 May. World War Two cost more than 20 million Soviet lives.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called the speculation "nonsense" and says "there is no chance of that".

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is set to deliver a speech on 9 May and oversee a military parade on Moscow's Red Square, as is usual for Victory Day.

The invasion of Ukraine has been described as a "special military operation" and not war by Russia.