Talks over how the EU can wean itself off Russian energy supplies have been taking place in Brussels.

Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck earlier said that member states remained divided on a Russian energy embargo.

Hungary has made clear its opposition to banning both Russian oil and gas.

Germany itself is not ready to ban gas but would be able to deal with a ban on Russian oil by the end of the year, Habeck said. That is the time-frame for any phasing-out of Russian oil apparently being discussed by EU member states.

"We have managed to reach a situation where Germany is able to bear an oil embargo," Habeck told a news conference. But he warned this didn't mean there would be no consequences.

Germany has cut Russia's share of its oil imports from 35% to 25% but is still working to find alternative suppliers that could fill the gap in the event of a full embargo.

EU states agonising over Russian oil and gaspublished at 12:43 British Summer Time 2 May 2022

12:43 BST 2 May 2022

Jessica Parker
BBC Brussels Correspondent

The EU has been agonising over energy sanctions for weeks.

Member states have already agreed to phase out Russian coal by summer but oil is a tougher ask.

While Poland and the Baltic states have been agitating for action, Germany’s been accused of holding progress up. Now, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is showing an increased willingness to move ahead.

Hungary, in particular, is seen as a potential road-block. It’s heavily reliant on Russian supplies, while the government of the recently re-elected Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has voiced clear opposition to sanctions.

Often at odds with Brussels, Budapest’s words will be closely watched this week. And diplomats concede discussions, about a proposed ban, will be difficult.

If there is a compromise, more hard-line ban-favouring member states may find it hard to swallow. But the pressure on senior EU officials to find a way forward is acute.

The bloc knows it can’t rely on Russia for supplies, as proved by Gazprom’s decision to cut off Poland and Bulgaria from gas. And there’s a moral dilemma too.

Nearly a month ago, the bloc’s foreign policy chief conceded the EU had paid more than €35bn to Russia for energy imports since President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some in Brussels plainly refer to it as “blood money”.

We've been reporting that around 100 people were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, and are expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia, more than 200km away, today.

Outside of the steel plant, evacuations were planned to take place across Mariupol this morning - but civilians are still waiting for the buses, which were meant to arrive at the pick up point at 07:00 local time (05:00 BST).

The city council has asked civilians to remain at the pick-up point as they are hoping the evacuation will still take place.

An aide to the mayor of Mariupol earlier stated the buses left Mariupol in the morning, but later corrected his comment with a message confirming a delay in the planned evacuation.

Image source, Getty Images

A former Nato commander says the unprecedented loss of top Russian officers has been a result of its military's "amazing incompetence".

Speaking to US radio station WABC 770 AM on Sunday, Adm James Stavridis deemed the Russian army's efforts in Ukraine a "bad performance thus far," claiming they've lost at least a dozen top generals in the past two months.

The former Nato supreme allied commander for Europe criticised Russia for "massacring" Ukrainian civilians and committing war crimes throughout its "illegal invasion of a neighbour".

Stavridis says he has not seen such a significant loss of army generals during a conflict in all of modern history.

Russia has lost a number of its top-ranking officers throughout the war.

The army's chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, is said to have travelled to the frontlines himself over the past week, with reports claiming he was then evacuated from battle in Kharkiv yesterday.

There's been a furious reaction in Israel after Russia's foreign minister said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood".

Sergei Lavrov made the claim when trying to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Asked in an Italian TV interview how Russia could portray Ukraine as a Nazi country when Ukraine's own president is Jewish, Lavrov said that was irrelevant.

"The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood," he said.

His remarks play up an unproven historical claim that Hitler's paternal grandfather might have been Jewish. Under Hitler, Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Israel's foreign minister called Lavrov's statement "unforgiveable and outrageous... as well as a terrible historical error", and he has demanded an apology.

Israel fury at Russia's 'Hitler part Jewish' claim

Image source, Reu

Image source, EPA

Richard Prokypcak, chief of Slovakia's largest energy supplier SPP, has told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there's still a risk Russia may cut energy supplies to countries that don't pay on Russian terms.

He says "the risk is definitely there" and his company's main goal is to be prepared for a situation such as this.

Prokypcak says there are no easy answers about funding Russia's natural gas.

"Any imports from Russia, not just natural gas, may help fuel the war efforts. A question we face is if the sanctioning of gas imports from Russia can put an end to it," he says.

Image source, .

Last week, Russia said it would no longer supply gas to Poland and Bulgaria after the countries refused to pay for their supplies in roubles.

The EU has said it considers the move to be a form of blackmail.

Budapest remains opposed to the introduction of an EU embargo on oil and gas imported from Russia, government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs says.

"The Hungarian stance regarding any oil and gas embargo has not changed: we do not support them," he says.

A total embargo on the two Russian fossil fuels is currently being considered by the EU Commission for inclusion in its sixth round of sanctions against Moscow.

EU energy ministers are hoping to reach a united stance on Russian gas and oil via a series of emergency talks this week.

However, Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck admits there's no unanimous view among the bloc's 27 countries on winding down supplies of Russian energy.

Of a potential oil embargo, he says: "Other countries aren't there yet, and I think that needs to be respected. In the case of gas, for example, we would not be ready either."

Moscow continues to state that foreign gas buyers must pay into its own private bank, Gazprombank, which would convert any dollars or euros into roubles.

The European Commission suggests European countries complying with Moscow's banking requirement may breach EU sanctions.

How reliant is the world on Russian oil and gas?

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, David Arakhamia/Azov Regiment

Negotiations for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, and the task of carrying it out, has proved to be complex and delicate. A convoy of about 100 people who were sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant is expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia in the next few hours.

Many had been sheltering there for weeks, some since the first days of Russia’s invasion, hiding in underground shelters and bunkers with very little food and water.

The site is also the last pocket of refuge for Ukrainian soldiers. Denys Shlega, a Ukraine National Guard commander, said Russian forces resumed artillery bombardment of the plant almost immediately after the civilians left the site on Sunday.

Few details of the evacuation process have been disclosed, after previous attempts failed to guarantee a safe passage for those hoping to flee a city completely devastated by weeks of intense fighting.

It is not yet clear when the several hundred civilians who remain at the steel plant will be rescued. And, to the despair of families of the fighters holed up there, there is no indication that any plan will include them too.

Image source, Reuters

Russia is said to have resumed its assault on the Azovstal metal works in Mariupol following the successful evacuation of Ukrainian civilians from the vast industrial complex.

One of the plant's defenders, Ukrainian national guard commander Denys Shlega, says the shelling continued after the evacuation buses left.

“A ceasefire has been declared for the past two days during a civilian evacuation operation,” Shlega said on national television on Sunday night. “Two days passed quietly.

“As soon as the last civilian left the plant, shelling from all kinds of weapons began.”

Shlega estimates several hundred civilians were left inside, along with about 500 wounded soldiers.

Dozens of civilians are expected to arrive in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia today after managing to escape Azovstal.

Image source, Reuters

A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet has been destroyed during an air battle in the eastern Donetsk region, the Russian military claims.

At a press briefing, a military spokesperson said Russian air defences also destroyed two Tochka-U missiles in Luhansk, as well as a Smerch missile in Donetsk.

Ten Ukrainian drones have also been destroyed, Igor Konashenkov added.

He said Russian forces had also hit 38 military targets in Ukraine, including weapons depots and command posts.

Both sides regularly claim detailed losses they have inflicted on the other, which the BBC can't independently verify.

Image source, Ukraine Ministry of Defence / Twitter

A Ukrainian drone has destroyed two Russian patrol ships in the Black Sea, Ukraine's military chief says.

"Two Russian Raptor-class boats were destroyed at dawn today near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island," Chief of General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhniy says.

Unverified drone footage released by the Ukrainian military appears to show two ships being targeted by missiles from the air while on patrol in the Black Sea.

Moscow is yet to respond to the claim.

Image source, Reuters

Around 100 civilians are expected to reach the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia today - after evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol.

The BBC has been speaking to a pair of mothers who last week made that same journey from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia.

One of them, Natalia, said she feared for her life and the lives of her children every day while in Mariupol - moving between three different bomb shelters to escape shelling.

"Only silly people could believe in Russian fairy tales that a future under occupation will be good," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Nadia called it "incomprehensible" that a whole city had been "wiped out", claiming there were whole streets that no longer existed.

The two women went on to describe a difficult, hazardous and emotional journey out of Mariupol. "The Russians were sarcastically asking whether we really wanted to go to Ukraine," Nadia said.

Of their arrival in Zaporizhzhia, Natalia said: "I had tears of joy. I felt tranquillity, and felt relieved."

Ukraine's President Zelensky has warned that the conflict could trigger a food crisis affecting countries around the world.

Speaking to Australian news programme 60 Minutes, Zelensky said his country could lose tens of millions of tonnes of grain because Russia had blockaded its ports on the Black Sea.

Ukraine is one of the world's top exporters of grain and other food products.

"Russia wants to completely block our country's economy," Zelensky said.

Image source, David Arakhamia/Azov Regiment

As we've been reporting, dozens of civilians are expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia today after some evacuations were finally managed from a huge industrial complex in Mariupol.

Ukraine's President Zelensky said in a video address yesterday that more than 100 women and children had managed to leave the Azovstal metalworks on Sunday.

It had taken weeks of talks and attempts to get people out of there, he said. "For the first time there were two days of real ceasefire in this territory," Zelensky added.

He was hopeful that further evacuations could be made on Monday - if conditions allow.

Organising these exit corridors was "very complex," he acknowledged.

Two additional locations will house refugees coming from the besieged city of Mariupol, the Mariupol City Council has said.

In a statement on Telegram, the administration said they would go to two villages - on Mangush which is west of Mariupol, and in a village near Berdyansk, in south-east Ukraine.

"With the support of the United Nations and the Red Cross, two additional locations have been agreed today to put people in an evacuation convoy leaving Mariupol," it said.

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Image source, Reuters/Transnistria Interior Ministry

Ukraine's military has reportedly suggested that Russia could attack Moldova in the near future.

According to Ukrainian intelligence sources cited by the UK's Times newspaper, an invasion of Moldova would help Russia threaten the Ukrainian city of Odesa from the west.

They reportedly said Odesa would be an easier target if Moscow controlled Moldova - and the Moldovan army only consisted of a few thousand troops.

Tension has already been rising in the pro-Russian Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria, where there's been a series of unexplained explosions.

Image source, .

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Lviv

Image source, Reuters

Around 100 Ukrainian civilians, rescued from a huge industrial complex in the port of Mariupol, are expected to arrive this morning in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is controlled by Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he hopes evacuations from Mariupol will continue today, if conditions allow. The Ukrainian government says around 1,000 civilians remain trapped in the steel plant, as well as hundreds of wounded soldiers.

This was the moment the world had been talking about for weeks. Time and again humanitarian corridors for the civilians stuck under the Azovstal steelworks had been proposed. Time and again they had failed.

But, under a shroud of secrecy, yesterday around 100 did manage to make it out. They emerged from the sprawling tunnels, many of them needing help over the wasteland that greeted them. Once free, they were loaded onto buses and taken to a Russian-controlled village - a source of some concern.

But, speaking in his nightly address, President Zelensky said they would eventually be taken to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

This is a significant diplomatic achievement, for both the Red Cross and the United Nations, and will offer some hope that negotiations can bear fruit in this most brutal of wars.

The situation is still desperate for around 1,000 civilians who remain trapped inside the plant, and the Ukrainian soldiers there. President Zelensky said further evacuations would be carried out if conditions allowed.

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If you're just joining us or need a quick catch up, here are the latest developments from Ukraine:

• Around 100 civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks complex in the southern city of Mariupol
• Russia said dozens have arrived in a village it controls
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said a large group is on its way to Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia
• Evacuees from the steel plant have described what they faced under siege - one woman said she has not seen sunlight for two months
• A Ukrainian Guard official said that despite evacuation efforts, hundreds still remain in bunkers in the steel plant. He added that at least two more efforts would be needed to get everyone out
• Meanwhile, two strong explosions took place in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod city, which borders Ukraine to the north. No casualties were reported
• Meanwhile, 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

With that, its Yvette Tan in Singapore and Andrew Clarence in Delhi signing out. We're handing over to our colleagues Jeremy Gahagan and James FitzGerald in London.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has offered a new sense of the scale of Russian losses during the invasion of Ukraine.

It is likely that more than a quarter of the Russian battalion tactical groups sent to the conflict have been rendered "combat ineffective", the MoD estimated in its daily update, though it did not elaborate more on this.

More than 120 such units had been committed to the Ukraine invasion, the MoD said in a tweet. This was around two-thirds of Russia's entire ground combat strength.

Most battalion tactical groups are thought to have 700-800 personnel, according to British security think tank RUSI.

Some of Russia's most elite units - including the VDV Airborne Forces - have suffered the "highest levels of attrition", the MoD added.

"It will probably take Russia years to reconstitute these forces," its tweet said.

Two strong explosions took place in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, a Russian city just north of Ukraine, said its governor.

"According to the operational headquarters, there is no damage or destruction. There were no casualties," governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

We'll bring you more information on this as we get it.