Russia is closing the Moscow bureau of Canadian public broadcaster CBC and withdrawing the accreditation of its journalists in Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says.

She says this is a response to "measures taken in practice in relation to Russian media, their transmission and broadcasts in Canada".

Canada banned TV service providers from distributing Russia state-owned channels RT and RT France back in March.

The UK has previously revoked RT's license to broadcast, after the channel had already disappeared from screens in the UK following a ban in the EU which affected satellite companies which provided streams to the UK.

Laura Bicker
BBC News, Dnipro

Katerina closes her eyes and takes a breath when I ask about her husband, a fighter, who is still thought to be in the maze of tunnels beneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

She's been calm and composed until now. She too spent more than two months, with her two sons, in one of the bunkers under the vast industrial facility, where the bombardment felt like it would never end.

"The missiles were so heavy it felt like the bunker walls were moving and the rooms themselves became smaller," she tells me.

"Sometimes there was a one-hour break and we hoped maybe that's it. Maybe that's the end of it. But no. They carried on."

Behind us, her two boys, aged 6 and 11, are playing with guns made from paper and duct tape. As the two boys duck and dive behind the trees in the park, they pretend they're fighting Russians. It's haunting to watch.

Katerina believes their father is still at the plant. "He is a very strong man, strong in spirit. He has been supporting me all my life," she says.

Read more from Laura's interview with Katerina here.

Ben Tobias
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters who have been holed up in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have been taken to Russian-controlled territory, Russia says.

What happens to them next is unclear, with Ukraine calling for a prisoner swap but some in Russia suggesting they should be put on trial.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the soldiers would be treated "in line with the relevant international laws", but there is concern over what will happen to them if they remain in Moscow's custody.

"Nazi criminals should not be exchanged," the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said on Tuesday. "We should do everything to ensure they are put on trial."

Russia claims, without any evidence, that Ukraine is a Nazi hotbed, and one of the key aims of its military operation in Ukraine is to "denazify" the country.

And the Azov Regiment - whose members are amongst those evacuated from Mariupol - is the most frequent target for Moscow's claim that it is fighting against Nazis.

The regiment once had links to the far right.

Ultimately, it is likely to be Putin who makes the final decision over what happens to the Azovstal fighters.

Read more here

Some 1,288 bodies of civilians have been found in the Kyiv region since the start of the Russian invasion, a police chief says.

"At present, we have bodies of 1,288 killed people. I emphasise, civilians," says Andriy Nyebytov, head of the Kyiv Region Police, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"Most of them were shot with automatic weapons," Nyebytov continues, saying police continue to find new burials of killed civilians in the region.

In late April, the equivalent figure was just over 1,000.

Paul Myers and the BBC Disinformation Team

Image source, .

Claims Ukraine's President Zelensky is actually Russian – casting doubt on his eligibility for the presidency – have been exposed as fake.

In April, an image of a Russian passport depicting a young Volodymyr Zelensky spread on the messaging app Telegram, along with false claims that, as a Russian citizen, Zelensky was ineligible for the Ukrainian presidency.

The story was picked up by at least two Russian media outlets.

However, there is no evidence Zelensky is a Russian citizen. The image of the passport is fake and the photo of Zelensky was doctored.

The BBC has analysed the image in the passport and found it is not a passport photo, but an old photograph which can be found on a Russian language website in an article about Zelenksy and his wife’s ‘love story’.

Open source investigator Max Bernhard has found further evidence, external the passport was fake.

Bernhard discovered that the issue date did not match the other information in the passport, and it appears to have been created using a piece of software which generates fake Russian passports.

Image source, Reuters

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are not progressing and they will most likely not resume after the "capitulation" of the Ukrainian military from Azovstal steelworks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said.

"Negotiations are really not progressing. We see a complete lack of desire among the Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

He said there was no question that the fighters who have left the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol had surrendered.

"The definition is unambiguous: those who took refuge, the soldiers who took refuge on the territory of Azovstal, they are laying down their weapons and are surrendering," he added, according to the Interfax.

Ukrainian authorities have said the fighters could be swapped for Russian prisoners, but no details of any agreement between the two sides has been made public. The fighters have been taken to Russian-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.

Peskov said the question of trying captured soldiers at a military tribunal - either for alleged war crimes or for being what Russia calls Nazis - was "a question for the military".

Lucy Manning
BBC News Special Correspondent

Twenty-six thousand Ukrainians have arrived in the UK on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Most of the matches have been a success, but there is now concern about the increasing number of sponsorships breaking down, leaving Ukrainians homeless with pressure on local councils to house them.

Olga and her three-year-old son Nikita came from war to a country she'd never been to, a language she doesn’t speak and a family she hadn’t met.

It hasn't worked out with her sponsors.

"Our kids were playing in the same room and my kid scared her older son and Nikita didn't want to let him out of the room."

She said the sponsor, whom she describes as a good person, was worried her children would be traumatised by Nikita's behaviour so she asked them to leave. It's understood there was a safeguarding concern.

In tears Olga said: "I feel bad for my son... I don’t know how long it will take to find a new sponsor."

After the BBC contacted the local authorities, Rugby Borough Council found them a hostel to stay in.

The council says it will try and find another family to host them. For many the scheme is a lifeline and the government says only a small number of sponsorships are breaking down.

But due to its unregulated nature it's clear some matches are not working out, that there are risks and some Ukrainians are ending up without a place to stay.

Image source, Getty Images

On 23 February, Ivan Stanislavsky left his camera bag at the office. He was on his way to see the layout of his new book on Mariupol's Soviet-era murals at a colleague's house, and didn't want to lug the gear around. He could always pick it up the next day.

But the next day, as he stood in the street outside his locked and deserted office, he could hear thunderous sounds rolling in from the east. The city was under fire.

After almost three months of relentless assault by Russian forces, Mariupol seems to have fallen.

Ukraine's military says its combat mission in the besieged port is over.

More than any other Ukrainian city, Mariupol has come to symbolise the ferocious brutality of Russia's assault and the stubbornness of Ukraine's resistance.

Read more here

Image source, EPA

The EU can replace Russian fossil fuels with supplies from other countries, switching to clean power and by saving energy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says.

The EU will provide nearly €300bn to help Europe move away from Russian energy - about €72bn in grants and €225bn in loans, she says.

The investments will include €10bn for gas infrastructure, €2bn for oil, and the rest for clean energy, von der Leyen says.

The commission is proposing raising its target for energy from renewable sources by 2030 from 40% to 45%, von der Leyen adds.

She also proposes providing up to €9bn in further aid to Ukraine this year.

Von der Leyen also says it is time to think about rebuilding Ukraine whenever the war ends, adding the EU has "a strategic interest in leading this reconstruction effort" but that it should not be the only contributing party.

"That is why we propose a reconstruction platform as part of this plan jointly led by Ukraine and the commission and bringing together EU member states, other bilateral or international donors, international financial institutions, and other like-minded partners," she says.

Sarah Rainsford
Reporting from Kyiv

This is a tiny courtroom for a highly significant moment: the first trial of a Russian soldier for an alleged war crime.

Vadim Shishimarin, who is a very young looking 21-year-old, was brought into the room in handcuffs by heavily armed guards.

He looked nervous and often kept his headed bowed, listening intently to his translator through the glass.

Just a couple of metres from him, the widow of the man he killed was sitting. As the accused soldier entered court, she wiped tears from her eyes, then sat with hands clasped as the prosecutor set out his case, describing the moment Kateryna’s husband was shot in the head.

And for the first time, she heard the Russian soldier admit to the murder. Do you accept your guilt, the judge asked. Yes, Shishimarin replied. Totally? Yes, he replied quietly in his grey metal and glass cage.

I asked Kateryna, the victim's widow, how she was coping. She told me: "I feel very sorry for him. But for a crime like that - I can’t forgive him."

The trial has been adjourned until tomorrow so that a bigger courtroom can be found.

Earlier we reported that Russia is expelling 35 French diplomats. Now the country's foreign ministry has said it's also kicking out 24 Italian and 27 Spanish embassy workers.

The expulsions are the latest in a series of tit-for-tat moves, after European governments sent home more than 300 Russians last month.

Among them were 25 expelled from Spain, 30 from Italy and 35 from France.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi described Russia's latest move as a "hostile act".

"This absolutely must not lead to an interruption of diplomatic channels because it is through those channels that, if we succeed, peace will be achieved," Draghi said.

Thank you for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine,

Here's a quick round-up of what's happening to get you up to date this lunchtime:

• Russia says 694 Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have surrendered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total who have left the besieged plant since Monday to almost 1,000
• The fighters have been taken to Russian-controlled territory and it remains unclear what will happen to them
• Ukraine says they could be swapped for Russian prisoners, but Russia has called them "Nazis"
• Meanwhile a Russian soldier has admitted killing an unarmed civilian in the early days of the war. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is the first person the Ukrainian authorities have prosecuted in connection for alleged war crimes
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says negotiations with Ukraine are "really not progressing"
• Finland and Sweden have formally submitted their applications to join Nato. The two Nordic nations spent the decades of the Cold War not aligned with either bloc
• The European Commission has announced an energy plan to reduce EU countries' reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027

Image source, Reuters

A Russian soldier on trial for war crimes in Ukraine has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian.

Vadim Shishimarin is accused of gunning down an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in the days after the invasion began and faces life in prison.

Prosecutors say more trials could be forthcoming, after identifying thousands of potential crimes committed by Russian forces. Moscow has denied its troops have targeted civilians.

Alexander Schlichter
BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Belarussian leader Aleksander Lukashenko has signed a bill broadening the scope of the death penalty to include attempted acts of terrorism.

When Vladimir Putin launched his Ukraine invasion, Belarus was a critical element, providing a springboard for a lightning assault on the capital Kyiv.

But one thing he didn't count on was rail sabotage. From the word go, a clandestine network of railway workers, hackers and dissident security forces went into action to disrupt railway links, wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines.

Many Russian troops were left stranded on the front lines without food, fuel and ammunition. Now, alleged saboteurs in Belarus could face the firing squad, while the same law will apply to activists who organised the anti-Lukashenko protests a couple of years ago.

Image source, Reuters

We're turning now to Finland and Sweden's applications for Nato membership - and Turkey's objections to them joining the alliance.

President Erdogan said this morning that he expects Nato allies to understand Turkey's sensitivities about security.

In a speech to lawmakers from his ruling party, he also repeated his view that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to discuss the issues.

And he said Sweden should not expect Turkey to approve its Nato membership bid without returning "terrorists".

Turkey accuses the two Nordic nations of harbouring members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group it views as a terrorist organisation, and followers of Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

According to the official Turkish news agency, both Finland and Sweden have rejected dozens of requests to extradite Kurdish militants who Turkey describes as terrorists.

Without the support of all Nato members, Sweden and Finland cannot join the military alliance, although US President Joe Biden said yesterday he was confident consensus could be reached.

Russian forces have killed more than 270 "nationalists" and destroyed more Ukrainian military assets, including a battery of US-made M777 howitzers, the Defence Ministry in Moscow says in the latest update seen by BBC Monitoring.

While the BBC is unable to independently verify these claims, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says high-precision air-launched missiles have hit two command posts, including a territorial defence headquarters near Soledar in what Russia recognises as the Donetsk People's Republic.

Russia also says it hit 31 areas where Ukrainian military equipment and troops are stationed, including places where "foreign mercenaries from European countries" are based.

"As a result of air strikes, more than 270 nationalists were killed and 54 pieces of military equipment were disabled," Konashenkov says.

"Missile troops and artillery hit 76 command posts, 421 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment, as well as 147 artillery and mortar units in firing positions."

He says in total, since the beginning of the "special military operation", the following have been destroyed:

• 172 planes
• 125 helicopters
• 927 unmanned aerial vehicles
• 311 anti-aircraft missile systems
• 3,139 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles
• 389 multiple rocket launchers
• 1,548 field artillery guns and mortars
• 2,997 special military motor vehicles

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says 3,752 civilians, external have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.

A further 4,062 are known to have been injured, it says.

Most of the recorded civilian casualties were caused by shelling, missile and air strikes, it added.

The OHCHR says that it believes that the true figures for civilian deaths in the conflict are considerably higher.

Image source, EPA

Russia's Foreign Ministry has said it's kicking out 34 French diplomats in a tit-for-tat move. It's giving them two weeks to leave the country.

In April, France expelled 35 Russians with diplomatic status – it was part of a wave of expulsions from European capitals that saw more than 300 Russians being sent home

Later that month, France's foreign ministry declared six Russian agents posing as diplomats as "persona non grata" – which usually means their diplomatic status is revoked.

This was after French intelligence services conduced the Russians were working against French national interests.

Image source, Reuters

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed Finland and Sweden officially applying to join the Western military alliance as a "historic day".

Johnson tweeted, external: "This is an historic day for our alliance and the world. Not long ago nobody would have predicted this step, but (Vladimir) Putin's appalling ambitions have transformed the geopolitical contours of our continent.

"I look forward to welcoming Finland & Sweden into the Nato family very soon."

The decision by the two Nordic counties was prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's been welcomed by most of the 30 existing Nato nations, but Turkey is currently opposing their applications.

The UK agreed mutual security deals with Finland and Sweden last week.

Image source, Reuters

Russia has accused Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky of "lies and propaganda" over a statement describing the handover of fighters defending Mariupol to Russian forces as a "rescue" initiated by the Ukrainian side.

Moscow says nearly 1,000 fighters trapped in Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks have been evacuated to areas held by Russian-backed rebels.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tells Sputnik Radio, a Russian state-operated station, that Zelensky's statement is "a masterpiece that has come from the pen of those who create in the Kvartal 95 Studio" - a reference to a TV production company created by Zelensky before he become head of state.

"I'm left with the impression that they are writing a new series or a text for their next corporate event," she adds, claiming Russia is behind the plan to evacuate the Ukrainian fighters from the steelworks.

Zakharova says for the Ukrainian authorities to claim it's been a humanitarian operation organised by Kyiv "demonstrates their lies and propaganda based on the lies that they have been using all this time". She also claims Ukraine has "learned to lie" from "American and Nato specialists".