Image source, Telegram

More now on reports that Ukrainian troops counter-attacking near the city of Kharkiv have reached the Russian border.

The Ukrainian defence ministry has published a video purportedly showing a number of soldiers from a territorial defence brigade at an unspecified location on the frontier.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Sinegubov, said troops had restored a sign marking the border.

"We are proud of the soldiers... who restored the border sign on the state border!" he wrote on Telegram.

"We thank everyone who, risking their lives, liberates Ukraine from Russian invaders," he added.

Russia has committed newly mobilised units from occupied Donetsk and Luhansk to Kharkiv, "further evidence of the inadequacy of Russia’s available reserves", the Institute for the Study of War think tank reports.

Ukrainian forces have been retaking territory in north-eastern areas in recent days, pushing the Russians out of artillery range of Kharkiv – which had endured weeks of bombardment. Russia has been continuing its offensive in the Donbas region further south.

Image source, .

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

Despite its rather cosy codename, Nato Exercise Hedgehog ('Siil' in Estonian) is taking place at a time of heightened tensions in the Baltics.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has convinced governments in the region that they need to seriously beef up their defences if they are to deter President Putin from further military aggression.

Latvia's defence minister told a Baltic security conference yesterday: "Nobody should trust Putin. We've been telling this to our partners for years".

Estonia's president accused Russia of having what he called "a mutated gene of aggression".

So the expected imminent addition of Finland and Sweden to Nato is being celebrated by its members in this region. In practical terms though, the alliance still has some worrying gaps in its defences.

Estonia lacks a credible air defence system, while western forces are heavily outnumbered by the Russian army on its side of the border.

Baltic defence chiefs take little comfort from the mauling the Russians are getting in Ukraine.

Estonia's permanent representative to Nato reminded the conference that despite Russia’s setbacks there, its forces still seized territory the size of the whole of Estonia on just day one.

We have more reaction from Moscow, which has previously said that Nato's expansion would be a mistake.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Finland and Sweden choosing to join Nato would have far-reaching consequences, Russian news agencies report.

He also said he saw the global situation changing radically as a result of the move.

Ryabkov said Finland and Sweden should have no illusions that Russia will simply put up with their decision, Interfax reports.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian troops defending the northern city of Kharkiv have reached the state border with Russia, the regional governor said on Monday.

Governor Oleh Sinegubov made the claims on the Telegram messaging service.

It is not yet possible to verify the claims and it's not immediately clear how many troops had reached the Russian border and where.

The Ukrainian defence ministry has published a video purportedly showing a number of soldiers from a territorial defence brigade at an unspecified location on the frontier.

"We have arrived, we are here," one of the soldiers says.

Ukraine has been driving Russian forces away from Kharkiv, the second-largest Ukrainian city.

Read more: Russia pushed back from Kharkiv - report from front line

Image source, .

Sweden and Finland joining Nato would increase the security of the Baltic region, Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets has said.

"When we see that in our neighbourhood also other democratic countries belong to Nato, it would mean that we could have broader joint exercises and also... more defence co-operation," she is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"It would mean that we would have more robust presence of land forces, but also air and maritime defence," she added.

Liimets was in Berlin for a meeting with Nato counterparts.

As we've been reporting, Sweden has confirmed the country will apply for Nato membership in a historic shift that comes as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson is due to go to parliament to secure support for an application, and will also chair a special cabinet meeting on the issue.

The move follows her Social Democratic party dropping its decades-long opposition to joining the alliance.

Andersson said on Sunday military non-alignment had served Sweden well in the past, but was unlikely to do so in the future.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine is preparing for a new Russian push in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

Since failing to take Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion in late February, control of Donbas has become one of Moscow's main objectives.

"We are preparing for new attempts by Russia to attack in Donbas, to somehow intensify its movement in the south of Ukraine," President Zelensky said in his nightly address.

"The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are in a dead-end and their so-called 'special operation' has already gone bankrupt," he added.

He once again called on the West to impose an oil embargo on Russia.

"We are also working to strengthen sanctions on Russia. Partners need to make decisions that limit Russia's ties to the world every week," he said.

"The occupiers must feel the rising cost of war for them, feel it constantly."

Belarus has announced the deployment of special operations forces along the Ukrainian border, the UK Ministry of Defence says in its latest intelligence update.

It has also deployed air defence, artillery and missile units to training ranges in the west of the country, it says.

"The presence of Belarusian forces near the border will likely fix Ukrainian troops, so they cannot deploy in support of operations in the Donbas," but adds, "to date Belarusian forces have not been directly involved in the conflict".

James Waterhouse
Reporting from Kyiv

The UK's Ministry of Defence estimates that Russia has lost about a third of its combat troops. That includes killed soldiers, injured soldiers, as well as damaged equipment.

Nato thinks Ukraine could eventually put itself in a position to fully push the Russians back and win this war. But President Zelensky, when asked about the issue of the besieged southern city of Mariupol, conceded that he didn’t have the military means to push the Russians out and to free that deadlock, as things stand.

A month ago the Pentagon made a similar conclusion, saying the Russians had lost about 25% of its invading forces. I think this has been the case for some time. These are the very reasons Russia has looked to shift things eastwards.

Today the Ukrainians are saying the Russians are trying to launch offensives all along the front line stretching from the east along and across this land corridor to the south. But they are sustaining heavy losses as well as continued morale issues.

There’s heavy fighting around the city of Izyum in the northeast, which the Russians now occupy but the Ukrainians are keen to disrupt things so to not have friendly troops trapped in the Donbas region, where we’re continuing to see heavy fighting.

Russian troops have likely given up on a "large-scale encirclement" of Ukrainian troops from Donetsk to Izyum city, also known as the gateway to the eastern Donbas region, according to military analysts., external

Russia is likely to prioritise completely seizing the Luhansk administrative region, says the latest assessment by US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Russian forces are likely to focus on capturing the city of Severodonetsk, going forward. It's important because controlling it would enable Russia to drive west and link up with its forces pushing south-east of Izyum.

The ISW also says Russia has likely run out of combat-ready reserve forces, forcing the military command to gather soldiers from different units including private military and proxy militias.

The Ukrainian general staff has reported that around 2,500 reservists are training in Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions. This number is unlikely to supplement Russian units that have reportedly lost 20% staffing in some areas, the ISW notes.

Meanwhile in southern Ukraine, Russian troops are digging in for the long haul, looking to establish permanent control in some areas in Mykolaiv and Kherson.

Russia continues to launch military, air and naval strikes on the Azovstal steelworks complex in the southern city of Mariupol, but defenders in the battered port city have maintained their positions, says the ISW.

Image source, ISW

Image source, Press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine/Reuters

Ukrainian servicemen trapped in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have very little food and drinking water left, the Ukrainian news agency Unian reports, citing the wives of the defenders.

They were speaking at a news conference, a video of which is available on YouTube.

"I spoke with my husband yesterday. He said that the bombing continues unabated, and that they almost never go to the surface," says Yuliya, the wife of serviceman Arseniy Fedosyuk.

"And when they do go outside, they try to find water and food.

"They are quite pessimistic. They are preparing for the final battle because they do not believe in a diplomatic solution to this issue.

"Most of the time they stay in the bunker because there is constant bombardment. These are three-tonne bombs, incessant air strikes, naval and ground artillery, as well as tanks. They may stay underground for many as three days in a row," Yuliya said.

According to the soldiers' wives, there is very little water at Azovstal and their husbands have to drink service water previously used for the plant's operation.

"We had a call a few hours ago. I was struck by the news that they [Russians] are dropping phosphorous bombs on Azovstal," says Kateryna, the wife of Azov regiment commander Denys Prokopenko.

The price of wheat on international markets has spiked after Indian banned the export of the cereal staple, the highest it has been in two months.

Wheat prices have soared by around 60% on world markets this year, pushing up the cost of everything from bread to noodles.

India is the world's second-largest producer of wheat but it has not previously been a major exporter as most of its crop is sold on domestic markets.

Government officials also said the ban was not permanent and could be revised.

This comes as Ukraine's wheat exports plunged after the Russian invasion.

And with droughts and floods threatening crops in other major producers, commodity traders were expecting supplies from India to make up for part of the shortfall.

Image source, Getty Images

Paul Adams
BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Less than three months into his invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is about to be rewarded with something he clearly did not plan for.

Finland and Sweden will soon be members of the very alliance he sought to contain.

Public opinion in Sweden and Finland, lukewarm about joining before the war, has been transformed by recent events.

In Sweden, the ruling Social Democrats dropped their long-standing opposition over the weekend.

The prime minister Magdalena Andersson is due to chair a special cabinet meeting today, with parliament also expected to have its say.

A similar process is going on in Finland. Formal applications are likely to follow this week, with the two countries coordinating closely. All thirty members of the alliance must then agree.

Despite reservations expressed by Turkey, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says he’s confident Nato will soon welcome its newest members.

In other Nato news, some of the biggest ever drills in the history of the Baltics by the military alliance are due to begin later today. They're codenamed Hedgehog.

The exercises will take place in Estonia over the next two weeks and involve 15,000 troops from ten countries, including the UK, US and current non-members Finland and Sweden.

Despite being planned well before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the drills are now taking place at a moment of significantly raised tension between Nato and Moscow.

In the context of the Russian invasion, the exercises are highly symbolic for the Baltic states, as they are intended to test their capacity to respond to a similar incursion by enemy forces.

Image source, Getty Images

Welcome back to our coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here are the latest updates:

Ukraine

• Russia's war is not going to plan, and Ukraine could win the conflict, Nato's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said
• "They failed to take Kyiv, they are pulling back from around Kharkiv, their major offensive in Donbas has stalled. Russia is not achieving its strategic objectives," Stoltenberg said
• The UK military has also confirmed that Russia's offensive in the eastern Donbas region has lost momentum, estimating that Russia has lost about a third of its ground combat force since the war began in February
• Senior Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak says Ukraine can defeat Russia by the end of the year but needs heavy weapons from the West and a "real oil embargo" on Russia

Diplomacy

• In a historic shift, both Sweden and Finland have confirmed they will apply for Nato membership
• Sweden's ruling party, the Social Democrats, has dropped its long opposition to joining Nato, and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said she will go to parliament on Monday to secure support for an application
• She said military non-alignment had served Sweden well in the past but was unlikely to do so in the future
• Finland's bid will also have to be discussed in parliament but the country's prime minister and president have spoken in favour of it
• Russia - which has cited Ukraine's intention to join Nato as one of the reasons for its invasion - has warned that further expansion of the military alliance would be a mistake
• Turkey has also expressed reservations, saying both countries harbour members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it says is a terrorist group

This is Tessa Wong in Singapore and Andrew Clarance in Delhi, stay with us as we continue to bring you the latest developments.