If you're just joining us, here's a look at the news from the war so far today:

• The mayor of Mariupol says more than two hundred civilians remain trapped, along with fighters, in the Azovstal industrial plant
• The UN and Red Cross say they hope to evacuate more people from the steelworks plant today. A group of about 100 civilians who have already left the site are making their way towards Ukrainian territory
• At least nine civilians have been killed by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to the regional governor
• The French president's office says Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first telephone talks in more than a month

• Boris Johnson has acknowledged the UK could have acted faster in processing visas for Ukrainian refugees, but defended the decision not to offer visa-free travel for Ukrainians
• The UK PM has described Ukraine's resistance to the Russian invasion as the country's "finest hour", in a virtual address to its parliament
• Johnson also gave details of £300m in extra military support from the UK for Ukraine, including electronic warfare equipment
• The Pope says he has offered to meet Putin in Moscow but has not heard back from the Kremlin

Image source, Reuters

We have more now on what Boris Johnson told the Ukrainian parliament.

He said the West made a mistake in not helping Ukraine in 2014, when Russia annexed the country's Crimean peninsula.

"We, who are your friends, must be humble about what happened in 2014, because Ukraine was invaded before for the first time, when Crimea was taken from Ukraine and the war in the Donbas began.

"The truth is that we were too slow to grasp what was really happening and we collectively failed to impose the sanctions then that we should have put on Vladimir Putin," he said.

"We cannot make the same mistake again."

In his remarks to the Ukrainian parliament, Boris Johnson also says Vladimir Putin "sowed the seeds of catastrophe" for himself by invading Ukraine.

He says by fighting back Ukraine has "not only accomplished the greatest feat of arms of the 21st Century", it has also "exposed Putin's historic folly, the gigantic error that only an autocrat can make".

"Putin's mistake was to invade Ukraine, and the carcasses of Russian armour littering your fields and streets are monuments not only to his folly, but to the dangers of autocracy itself.

"What he has done is an advertisement for democracy."

Image source, Reuters

The Prime Minister says the UK will send more arms to Ukraine in the coming weeks as part of a £300m support package.

Boris Johnson tells Ukrainian MPs the UK will send Brimstone anti-ship missiles and Stormer anti-aircraft systems, along with armoured vehicles, to evacuate civilians from areas under attack and protect officials.

The support package will include radars to pinpoint the artillery bombarding Ukrainian cities, heavy lift drones to supply Ukrainian forces and thousands of night vision devices, Johnson adds.

He says this will aid the UK's long-term goal to "fortify Ukraine so that no-one will ever dare to attack you again".

The UK is sending a fleet of 13 protective armoured vehicles to Ukraine to evacuate civilians from besieged areas in the east of the country, the government says.

The steel-plated vehicles will also transport key workers to rebuild vital infrastructure that has been damaged or destroyed in the war, and take officials from Ukrainian ministries to temporary command posts set up for government work.

The fleet, worth £660,000, is being sent after it was requested by Ukraine's government.

It is made up of 4x4s that have been upgraded with armour to resist high-velocity bullets, anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices – all tactics used by Russian forces.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the donation will "help protect innocent Ukrainians attempting to flee Russian shelling and support Ukrainian officials carrying out vital work".

Image source, PA Media

Boris Johnson saluted Ukrainian MPs as he addressed them in an historic message to the country’s parliament.

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko wrote on Twitter: "I have never seen this many standing ovations for a single speech.

In Johnson's speech, he said: “It is a big honour for me to address you at this crucial moment in history, and I salute the courage with which you are meeting today, and will continue to meet in spite of the barbaric onslaught on your freedoms.”

Image source, No 10

Ukraine will win against Russia and once again be a free country, UK PM Boris Johnson has said in an address to the Ukrainian parliament.

"I have one message for you today: Ukraine will win, Ukraine will be free," he said according to a transcript of the address provided by his office and quoted by Reuters news agency.

"You are the masters of your fate, and no-one can or should impose anything on Ukrainians, we in the UK will be guided by you," he said from Downing Street.

At least nine civilians have been killed in Russian shelling in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine this morning, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

At least three civilians had been killed during an aerial bombardment of the town of Avdiivka, Kyrylenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Three more were killed while drinking water in the city of Vuhledar and three were killed in shelling of the town of Lyman, he added.

Other areas of Donetsk were under constant fire and regional authorities were trying to evacuate civilians from frontline areas, the Ukrainian president's office said earlier.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.

Image source, Reuters

More now from Pope Francis's interview with the Italian paper Corriere della Sera. He describes himself as "pessimistic" about the war in Ukraine, telling the paper there is not enough will for peace.

The Pope also says that when he met Viktor Orban the Hungarian prime minister told him the Russians "have a plan" and that it will "all be over" on 9 May.

This is Victory Day in Russia and an important date when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, typically with a large military parade.

However, Russia's foreign minister said at the weekend that its military would not "artificially adjust" its actions to any date, including Victory Day.

Joel Gunter
Reporting from Kyiv

It can be hard to convey what it's like in the Ukrainian villages west of Kyiv that were occupied by the Russian army.

In villages like Andriivka there is destruction everywhere you look - homes burned to the ground or sprayed with bullets. Thousands of people killed across the region.

And there is a particular agony for the relatives of those who vanished.

Stop in any village, and you will hear a story about someone missing: A brother who took petrol to a friend and never arrived; a father who went out on an errand and didn't return; a son taken away at gunpoint who didn't look back.

"We went to the nearby villages and the ones further away," said Maria Sayenko, whose father vanished. "He wasn't at a friend's house, or at a checkpoint. Not dead, not alive. It's like he disappeared into thin air."

It has become clear that the Russian army took civilian hostages into Russia and is holding them in prisons and camps, and slowly they are being identified. So the relatives hope for a phone call to say their loved one's name has been found on a list.

Until they get that call, all they can do is wait.

Read the full story here.

Melinda Simmons, the UK's ambassador to Ukraine, has returned to Kyiv as the UK reopens its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.

In an interview with BBC's Ben Brown, the ambassador said her return was "incredibly emotional", adding that Kyiv was "the right place" for her and all other ambassadors to Ukraine to be.

Simmons told the BBC that the Ukrainian people were grateful for her return and said the relationship between the two countries remained strong.

The ambassador also spoke of her shock as she drove past "bombed-out" playgrounds, schools and hospitals on her way to the capital.

"It's so obvious really that right from the beginning this was about hitting the Ukrainian nation," she said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "very proud" of UK diplomats for returning to Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on "unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organisations", the Kremlin has said.

The decree means Russia will forbid the export of products and raw materials to sanctioned people and entities, Reuters reports.

It will also permit Russian entities to not fulfil their contractual obligations towards the people and companies hit by sanctions, the news agency adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Russia's foreign ministry has accused an Israeli minister of making "anti-historical statements" after he condemned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for claiming Hitler had been part Jewish.

Lavrov sparked a firestorm of criticism in Israel after he said Hitler "had Jewish blood" and that "the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews".

Israel's foreign minister Yair Lapid demand an apology, saying Lavrov had made "both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error. Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust."

But on Tuesday, Russia's foreign ministry doubled down on Lavrov's comments, tweeting that Lapid had made "anti-historical statements... which largely explain why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv".

Russia has repeatedly made baseless claims that the Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis as a justification for its invasion.

The war of words between Israel and Russia risks becoming the most serious diplomatic crisis between the two countries in recent times.

Israel has friendly relations with both Ukraine and Russia and has led international mediation efforts to try to stop the war in Ukraine.

The French president's office says Emmanuel Macron will speak to Vladimir Putin on the phone shortly - at around midday French time (11:00 BST).

The two leaders haven't spoken since 29 March, but up until that point had been in regular contact.

Macron has since secured re-election as French president for a second term.

His efforts to keep open communication with the Russian leader had led to criticism by some, both at home and abroad, including the Polish prime minister.

"It's my duty to speak with him, we need it. I won't stop doing it," he told a French newspaper in April.

Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

Image source, Reuters

The column of evacuees from besieged Mariupol is slowly making its way towards the evacuation centre here in Zaporizhzhia. The buses are travelling hundreds of miles through territory held by Moscow-backed separatists.

We are being given limited information about the convoy’s progress and it’s unclear if it is yet in Ukrainian-controlled territory. But we do expect the buses to arrive here in the next few hours.

Those on board include around 100 women and children who have spent more than 60 days in maze-like tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant. It was built to withstand a nuclear blast and when war broke out, many civilians used the vast underground chambers of the plant as a refuge. It is also being used by a group of Ukrainian fighters who are making a last stand at the site, even as the city around them fell after weeks of Russian bombardments.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross began an operation co-ordinated with Ukraine and Russia on 29 April to bring out women, children and the elderly from the steelworks. Negotiations are continuing to release a further 200 civilians still trapped there. Residents of Mariupol were also invited to join the convoy if they could make it to a meeting point.

There are thought to be around 100,000 civilians still living in the southern Ukrainian city, now occupied by Russian forces.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's outspoken ambassador in Berlin has sharply criticised Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not yet visiting Kyiv in a show of support, unlike a number of other European leaders.

Scholz indicated on Monday night that he wouldn't visit the Ukrainian capital until German President Frank-Walter Steinmeiner had gone there.

Ukraine rejected the offer of a visit from Steinmeier last month, in what was widely seen at the time as a snub.

"Acting like a sulky liver sausage doesn't sound very statesmanlike," Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk told the German press agency. "This is about the most brutal war of extermination since the Nazi attack on Ukraine - it's no kindergarten."

Melnyk has ruffled feathers in Germany, repeatedly criticising the chancellor's centre-left Social Democrats for years of close ties to Russia.

Scholz denied responding hesitantly to Russia's invasion: "I've always made quick decisions, in tandem with everyone else... but my line is that we act in a level-headed and prudent manner."

Image source, Ukraine Government/PA Wire

Boris Johnson has acknowledged that the UK could have acted faster in processing visas for Ukrainian refugees.

Questioned by ITV's Good Morning Britain on the thousands of women and children still waiting for their visas to be processed, the UK prime minister said: “Could we have done it faster? Yes, perhaps we could.”

But Johnson defended the decision not to allow visa-free travel for Ukrainians, as other European countries have done, as a safety precaution to "protect the system for those who might want to abuse it".

• How do the UK's schemes for Ukrainian refugees work?
• Patel apologises for UK visa delays

Pope Francis says he has offered to travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, but hasn't yet heard back.

The Pope told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had sent a message to the Kremlin 20 days after the Russian invasion, via the Vatican's top diplomat.

It is the first time the pontiff has mentioned Russia or publicly named Putin since the beginning of the war in Ukraine more than two months ago.

The Pope also said he had recently had a 40-minute zoom call with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill supports the war, and spent the first 20 minutes of the call reading out all the justifications for it, he told the paper.

The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy, the Pope said.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's ambassador to the UK has said he is "constantly working with the Home Office" to find a solution to delays in issuing visas to refugees.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Vadym Prystaiko said he understood that at a time of war the UK was careful about who's "coming to your nation".

But he said a "temporary relief in visas" would help those fleeing the war in his country. Many, he said, are waiting in neighbouring European countries.

As of 27 April - the latest figures, external - 86,100 visas had been issued by the UK to Ukrainian refugees, but so far only 27,100 have arrived.

There has been criticism

Prystaiko thanked those in the UK who had already "opened up their hearts and homes" by taking in Ukrainian refugees.

How can I offer a UK home to Ukrainian refugees?

Russia has been taking measures to replenish "significant losses" of military equipment during its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces has said in its latest operational update.

It said that according to available information, 17 tanks and 60 BMP-1 military vehicles were taken out of storage in Russia between 27 April and 2 May and were sent to the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian troops.

The update also says that Russia has continued shelling the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and nearby settlements.

Ukraine's armed forces said they had repelled 12 Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, destroying six tanks, five artillery systems, 22 armoured combat vehicles and eight vehicles.