Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Efforts are still under way to secure the evacuation of civilians who remain trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, after several successful – and extremely difficult – operations in recent days.

Relatives of the fighters who are waiting for any plan to include them have now been given an indication that work is taking place to get military personnel out too.

That came in President Zelensky’s late-night video address on Friday, in which he said “influential intermediaries” and “influential states” were involved in a diplomatic effort to save the fighters.

Oksana, whose husband is a fighter at the plant, told me that everyone should be evacuated, civilians and fighters. “There’s a large number of wounded and sick [fighters].”

She said the intensity of Russia’s bombing of the site suggested that Russian forces did not care whether there were civilians there.

It is not clear how many fighters are still in the plant, hiding within a sprawling network of underground shelters and bunkers.

Ukrainian officials fear Russia may step up its attacks ahead of Russia’s Victory Day, to mark victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, which falls on Monday.

No further details of the efforts mentioned by President Zelensky are known. But his words were enough to renew the hopes of the families.

“We hope that this goal will be achieved,” Oksana said.

Caroline Davies
Reporting from Odesa

Four missiles hit the city of Odesa this afternoon. There are currently no reports of casualties.

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that several locations around Odesa’s airport were hit. That includes the runway which was hit twice and a furniture production plant.

The spokesperson said that oils and chemicals used in the plant had caused black smoke and fumes that many filmed on social media.

The fire covered about 900 square metres.

The spokesperson said that the airport's radar equipment had also been destroyed. The missiles, she said, had come from the Caspian Sea.

It’s the third weekend in a row that Russian missiles have hit the port city.

In the housing estate close to the airport people swept up shattered glass from their broken windows.

One man angrily waved a shared of blackened metal that he believed was from a missile.

"My father defended this country from Nazis and now it’s happening again!" he shouted.

Ksenia and Andrei’s windows were completely destroyed.

"I don’t feel safe here," Ksenia said. "But our family are in Odesa. We will try to clear up but then see where we can go."

Image source, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has accused President Putin of twisting history in order to justify an unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Blinken's remark came in a statement issued on the eve of Victory in Europe, or VE Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Russia has claimed the intention behind its fight in Ukraine is to 'denazify' the country - claims it has made since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

The secretary of state said Putin was manipulating historical memory to advance his own ambitions.

Last month Blinken, who is currently isolating at home in the US after a positive Covid test, visited Kyiv, where he met President Zelensky and pledged further military aid for Ukraine.

Air-launched Russian missiles have hit two locations in Sumy, a city in northern Ukraine near the Russian border, officials say.

Both the local governor, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, and the governor of the neighbouring Russian Kursk region Roman Staraovoyt said a Russian air strike hit the Sumy area.

Zhyvytskyi said a border guard was wounded by the strikes.

Russia's governor Staraovoyt assured the residents of his region that there was no fighting on Russian territory and their lives were not in danger.

He added "our aircraft are working on ground targets in the adjacent territory".

Russian ground forces fully withdrew from Sumy region in early April after advancing into parts of the region at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Back now to Odesa, where there have been reports of further missile attacks this afternoon.

It's not yet clear if there are any casualties - but images shared on social media, including by the Belarusian media outlet Nexta TV, show black smoke rising

Meanwhile authorities in Odesa have announced a curfew between 22:00 local time on 8 May and 05:00 local time on 10 May.

As we've been reporting, missile strikes have been hitting Ukrainian targets throughout the day.

Local authorities in Kharkiv, Odesa and Poltava have reported attacks by Russian missiles.

A 28-year-old civilian was killed when heavy shelling hit her home in Korobochkyne, Kharkiv's regional military administration reports.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports that a cruise missile in the Poltava region was shot down.

But another missile hit an infrastructure facility in Karlivka (in the Poltava region), causing fire and damage to buildings nearby. No one was killed or injured, the agency reports.

Meanwhile, the region surrounding Odesa was hit by shelling earlier on in the day and the city itself has been hit by missiles in the past hour or so.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Police in Berlin have banned the display of Russian and Ukrainian flags at World War Two memorial sites during events to mark the anniversary of the end of the war in the German capital.

They said the flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics and the Russian war symbols V and Z would also be outlawed during ceremonies on Sunday and Monday.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, expressed outrage at the ban, which he said amounted to giving the same treatment to the victim and the aggressor in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We are shocked that Berlin police banned flags connected to Ukraine on 8 and 9 May," he said. "This is a slap in the face of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people."

Russians celebrate victory over Nazi Germany on 9 May, whereas in Western Europe the end of the war on that continent is commemorated on 8 May.

Several missiles have hit Odesa on Saturday, a spokesman for the administration in the southern Ukrainian city says.

Serhiy Bratchuk did not give further detail about casualties or the extent of the damage cause by the missiles.

Earlier in the day targets in the surrounding region were hit by four missiles, he said.

Images online showed plumes of black smoke rising over the city.

We'll bring you more details when we have them.

Image source, Getty Images

The Ukrainian defence ministry says it has hit a Russian landing craft, striking it with a missile from a drone.

It released video footage of a small ship at a dock being engulfed in smoke and flame, saying a Bayraktar TB2 drone was used in the attack.

It appears the vessel is a Serna-class fast landing craft which is capable of carrying an armoured vehicle.

No date or location for the attack was given but Reuters news agency verified the location of the video as Snake Island, matching buildings, roads and structures as seen on satellite imagery.

The island in the north-western Black Sea was captured by Russian forces at the start of the invasion after a battle with border guards which inspired Ukrainian resistance to the invasion.

Ukraine has claimed the destruction of 11 Russian warships so far, the biggest of which was the cruiser Moskva.

There is still no confirmation of Ukrainian claims on Thursday that a frigate called the Admiral Makarov was also hit.

Police in Berlin say criminal investigators are studying an improvised bomb that was found and deactivated on Friday at a residential building housing journalists from Russia's RIA news agency.

A German police spokesman said the investigators were looking into how dangerous it was and who it was aimed at.

Russia's embassy in Berlin said a bottle had been thrown through a window of the building in the city's Steglitz district.

It blamed what it described as the persecution of Russian media outlets and their employees in the West.

Two state-controlled Russian TV outlets, RT and Sputnik, were banned in the EU on 2 March, a week after the invasion of Ukraine.

Image source, re

Artworks from Lviv's National Gallery - many of which were removed for safekeeping at the outbreak of the Russian invasion - are going back on display in key buildings around the western Ukraine city.

Gallery director Taras Voznyak told the New York Times putting up the work was an act of resistance.

“Putin now has the goal of turning Ukrainians into nobody, into nothing,” he says.

“In order to show that we are alive, we have opened several branches," he adds.

Eighteen branches across the Lviv province are hosting works from the 65,000-piece collection, in buildings including palaces, castles and cathedrals.

There are even plans to re-open the main gallery in Lviv's ornate Potocki Palace, where two local artists have been sheltering - and producing "living art" reflecting the war - over the past two months.

“Life does not stop,” insists Mr. Voznyak.

Earlier in the invasion, as the Russian threat to Lviv - which sits a short distance from the Polish border - intensified, many of the historic city's artworks were boarded up or wrapped in protective sheets to shelter them from artillery damage.

Image source, Reuters

Just joining us? Here is a brief round-up of what's happening today - 73 days since the launch of Russia's invasion.

• Russian forces have continued heavy shelling along the front line in eastern Ukraine, with the governor of the Kharkiv region reporting a missile strike on the local Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Museum
• A US military think-tank, however, says Ukrainian forces may soon free Kharkiv from the threat of Russian artillery – and secure the strategically-located city
• It comes as Russian-backed separatists said small-arms fighting was taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk, with the eastern city close to being encircled by Russian forces
• In Mariupol, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said diplomatic efforts were afoot to get both the civilians and the remaining military personnel out of the besieged Azovstal steelworks
• Meanwhile Italy has ordered the seizure - under EU sanctions - of a $700m yacht linked to President Vladimir Putin.

The Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights has described as "staggering" the extent and gravity of "violations of rights and international humanitarian law" by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Dunja Mijatovic was speaking at the end of a four-day trip to Kyiv and its surrounding region. She highlighted mounting evidence of arbitrary killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and sexual violence by Russian soldiers.

Mijatovic said it was imperative to deliver justice and support victims and their relatives, but described this task as "incredibly daunting".

Image source, Council of Europe

The conflict in Ukraine is inflicting considerable damage on Russian military forces and their equipment, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.

Overnight the MoD's daily report - posted on Twitter, external - said at least one of Russia's "most advanced" tanks, the T-90M, had been destroyed in fighting.

The MoD said "it will take considerable time and expense for Russia to reconstitute its armed forces following this conflict".

It added: "It will be particularly challenging to replace modernised and advanced equipment due to sanctions" which prevent access to essential microelectronics.

The T-90M, which comes with upgraded armour designed to counter anti-tank weaponry, is one of 100 such tanks deployed by Russia's best equipped forces.

But the tank "remains vulnerable if unsupported by other force elements", the MoD stated.

Image source, Reuters

Sophie Williams
Reporting from Lviv

Image source, Oleh Synyehubov

Russian shelling has continued over the past 24 hours in the Kharkiv region.

According to the governor of Kharkiv region, a missile fell on the roof of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Museum – a museum dedicated to a Ukrainian philosopher.

According to Oleh Synyehubov, a 35-year-old man who was looking after the building was injured.

Images posted to telegram show the devastation caused to the building.

The exhibits had already been moved to a safe place, Synyehubov said on Telegram.

Image source, Oleh Synyehubov

Image source, EPA

Friday saw a further 50 civilians, including 11 children, evacuated from the beseiged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, in an operation co-ordinated by the UN and the Red Cross.

"We hope that soon they will be able to arrive in a safe area after two months of shelling, just underground," said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Earlier this week it was estimated that 200 civilians were still trapped inside the steel plant - the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the port city, which is now largely in the hands of Russian forces.

Zelensky said diplomatic efforts were afoot to get both the civilians and the remaining military personnel to safety - with evacuations expected to resume today.

He said his government was "working on diplomatic options to save our military who still remain at Azovstal".

"Influential mediators are involved," he added.

Russia had earlier announced a daytime ceasefire at the plant for three days, beginning on Thursday.

Image source, .

Saboteurs in Belarus played a significant role in forcing Russia to abandon its attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, according to the exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

She told the BBC that there had been 80 acts of sabotage against railways that were supplying Russian forces before they withdrew from northern Ukraine a month ago.

She also said activists were providing Ukraine with intelligence on troop movements and missile launches.

The vast majority - 86% - of Belarusians were against the war, she said.

Ms Tikhanovskaya said the fate of Ukraine and Belarus were interconnected and a Ukrainian victory could help Belarus free itself from the authoritarian rule of Alexander Lukashenko.

Some of Russia's invading forces entered Ukraine from Belarus, which is seen as a client state of Moscow.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Reuters

Italy has ordered the seizure of a $700m yacht linked to Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

The Scheherazade has been undergoing repairs at a port in Tuscany since September last year.

Italy's finance ministry said that the boat's owner had ties to "prominent elements of the Russian government".

It is being seized under EU sanctions brought in over Russia's invasion of Ukraine that have seen other vessels confiscated.

Read more here.

Image source, AFP

It's one of the most popular holidays of the year in Russia but this Victory Day (9 May), which falls on Monday and marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, will take on a special meaning with the country locked in a bloody war in Ukraine.

Russia now stands accused of being an invader and aggressor itself, waging war on the same territory Soviet forces liberated from Nazi invaders just over 75 years ago.

But President Vladimir Putin and his allies are expected to try to portray the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a new fight against fascism, accusing the Ukrainian government of neo-Nazi links - an allegation which Kyiv and its Western allies firmly deny.

Russians are taking no chances with Monday's spectacle so on Saturday a dress rehearsal for the parade is taking place.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

Image source, EP

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

Image source, Parade rehearsal in Moscow, 7 May

Image source, Getty Images

Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are reporting small-arms fighting in the suburbs of the government-held city of Severodonetsk.

Separatist forces were advancing but coming up against snipers and drones, a representative of the unrecognised separatist-run Luhansk People's Republic told Russian news agency Ria-Novosti.

It is believed that the city, which had a pre-invasion population of about 100,000, is close to being encircled.

New civilian deaths have been reported both in the government-held town of Bakhmut after a missile attack on a residential area and in the unrecognised Donetsk People's Republic where separatists say one civilian was killed and two were injured as a result of government shelling.

The focus of the war switched to the east of Ukraine last month after Russia pulled its troops back from around the capital Kyiv.

• Why Russia is trying to encircle Ukraine's east

Image source, .