As we've been reporting, EU leaders are due to meet later to discuss a ban on Russian oil imports. Ambassadors from EU countries have already been holding talks.

The proposed move would be part of the EU's sixth sanctions package imposed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.

One issue, however, has been the bloc's existing reliance on Russian supplies.

Russia supplies 40% of the EU's natural gas and 27% of its oil imports, for which EU nations pay roughly €400bn (£341bn) a year.

Reliance on these imports varies from country to country, with some like Germany and the Netherlands particularly heavy consumers of Russian oil and gas.

Want to know more? Read our explainer here.

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

The EU’s beleaguered oil sanctions ban wasn’t even officially up for discussion at this week’s summit of leaders. But, as the elephant in the room, it’s now marched its way onto the agenda.

A senior official said the European Council would now try to reach a “political agreement” on the issue.

The hope will be that such an agreement can hand ambassadors – who deal with the nitty, gritty detail – enough momentum to get over the remaining technical hurdles.

All eyes will now be on Hungary. Budapest has been vocally resisting the embargo for weeks and its Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, made it plain he doesn’t think the issue should be discussed at today’s summit.

This package, which does contain other measures, has been watered down. But officials are keen to point out that targeting seaborne supplies first (while leaving pipeline oil until later) still accounts for around two thirds of Russian oil imports.

Nevertheless, this last minute bid to get a political agreement from leaders may be seen as an attempt to save a summit that was being completely overshadowed by weeks of wrangling over the EU’s elusive sixth package of sanctions.

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Russian forces have entered the city of Severodonetsk as they continue their attempts to capture the eastern Donbas region.

A governor in the region has said the bombardment of the industrial centre is so intense that they have given up counting the casualties. It comes as President Zelensky visited Kharkiv to see the damage done to Ukraine’s second city.

Severodonetsk is now firmly in Russia’s sights.

If Russian forces take the city, they will almost have completed their conquest of the Luhansk Region – a major strategic aim. Maybe that’s why the Ukrainians are trying to hold their ground, despite fierce artillery barrages.

According to the regional governor, Russian troops are pushing toward the centre of the city. Serhiy Haidai said 60% of buildings in this once busy community were damaged beyond repair.

Like the battle for Mariupol before it, the fight for Severodonetsk is not simply a question of who holds the city when the guns have stopped, but what price they have paid for their victory.

Image source, .

We reported earlier on claims that Russian forces had advanced into the centre of Severodonetsk, where fighting has raged for days.

Now, the besieged city's district administration head, which sits in Luhansk, has given more detail. A Ukrainian news website quoted Roman Vlasenko as telling Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service:

"The enemy was able to enter from two directions, Novoaydar and Starobilsk. It is controlling a strip of around 100m. They could not advance much deeper, our guys are holding the line."

Vlasenko also said Russian offensives were under way in nearby Lysychansk, but he claimed they were still limited to the countryside. "The guys are holding their ground," he said.

The Lysychansk-Bakhmut motorway is under the control of the Ukrainian military, but it is being constantly shelled by Russian troops, Vlasenko said.

Laura Bicker
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

More now on the blast in the Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol, in which at least two people have been injured.

The local mayor, Ivan Fedorov, has told the BBC there are two possible reasons for the blast:

• Russian forces trying to kill Ukrainians resisting the occupation of the city, or
• Ukrainian secret services trying to kill Russian collaborators.

He said he knew the truth but was unwilling to share it at this time.

Russian forces met fierce resistance from residents when they arrived in Melitopol in February.

In the last few weeks, a Russian-armoured train was reportedly derailed and two Russian soldiers were found dead in the street. Last month, a bridge used to deliver supplies to the Russian army was blown up.

Another mass protest was held in the city yesterday.

Mr Fedorov said that "brave" locals had made their way to a city centre park "not at night, but in the middle of the day".

“They understand that it is dangerous," he said. "But they show that they don’t agree with the Russian occupation. You think the Russians can occupy our city for a long time? No. It’s impossible.”

The mayor also confirmed that around 30 T-62 tanks had arrived in Melitopol in the past week as Russia tries to shore up its defences in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

EU ambassadors have again not reached an agreement about sanctions on Russian oil imports, according to diplomatic sources.

They held a meeting in Brussels on Monday morning after failing to find a way forward on a sixth sanctions package on Sunday night.

Various options have been discussed in recent weeks - with the latest compromise plan looking at targeting seaborne oil first and leaving pipelines until later.

Officials had hoped to reach a deal by Monday afternoon, when EU leaders will gather in Brussels for an extraordinary summit.

While it’s thought leaders are unlikely to make progress on the very detailed, technical aspects of the proposals - and it’s not even specifically on the agenda - certain member states may well raise the issue, in the room or bilaterally.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky is also due to dial into the summit.

Last week, he expressed frustration at delays: “But where did those who block the sixth package get so much power?”

While landlocked countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic have asked for longer phase-out periods, due to their dependence on Russian pipeline oil, Hungary is widely seen as the main obstacle to a deal.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, wrote to the European Council last week saying he thought oil sanctions should not even be discussed by leaders as it would only highlight divisions.

The Hungarian government has compared an oil ban to dropping a nuclear bomb on its economy.

Russia has accused Ukrainian troops of "outrageous" attacks on civilian infrastructure while fighting in Donbas, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Ukraine is striking targets which include "children's institutions", adding that it was this kind of attack that Russian troops were fighting to prevent in the eastern region of Ukraine.

He says: "And it is precisely this - protecting people from these neo-Nazis who do this - this is precisely the main goal that is being pursued during the special military operation."

Peskov's comments come amid fierce fighting in Donbas, with Russian and Ukrainian troops both launching their own offensives and counter-offensives to secure territory, that has been heavily contested, lost over the past three months.

Russia has ramped up its accusations against Ukraine in recent days, with separatist authorities also accusing them of a "terrorist attack" on Monday, after allegedly detonating a car bomb in the Kremlin-controlled city of Melitopol.

The BBC has been unable to independently verify any of these claims.

Image source, Reuters

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is due to visit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Monday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the foreign ministry has said in a statement.

"The minister wants to show France's solidarity with the Ukrainian people and its full determination to reinforce its support... from a humanitarian and financial point of view, as well as in terms of supplying defence equipment," it said.

The newly appointed minister will be the highest-ranking French official to visit Kyiv since the beginning of Russia's invasion. She is also due to visit the town of Bucha, where Russian troops have been accused of committing war crimes against civilians.

Image source, Getty Images

In an interview with French TV channel TF1, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed rumours that President Vladimir Putin was unwell.

Lavrov said that considering Putin regularly made public appearances, "I don't think sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment". Putin turns 70 in October.

British intelligence sources were quoted telling media outlets that the Russian president was seriously ill in the last week amid increasing unconfirmed speculation that he may be suffering from ill health, possibly cancer.

However, rumours about Putin's wellbeing have surfaced periodically for years.

Read more here.

It's nearly 100 days since the start of the war in Ukraine and Russia is focusing its offensive on the Donbas region in the east of the country. Here's the latest so far today:

Russian advances: Moscow's troops are closing in on the centre of Severodonetsk, a key city in Donbas, according to the governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai. He described the situation there as very difficult.

There has been intense fighting for weeks around Severodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of about 101,000, and neighbouring Lysychansk as Russia battles for control of the entire Luhansk region.

Civilian deaths: Two people were killed and five wounded by shelling as Russian troops entered the outskirts of Severodonetsk, Haidai said.

Evacuations: Lysychansk remains under Ukrainian control, and evacuations are being carried out to help people leave the city.

Blast in Russian-controlled city: The Russian-appointed leaders of Melitopol says there has been a powerful explosion in the south-eastern city, injuring two people. Russian forces took over the city early on in the war, but there has been fierce resistance.

Counter-offensive: The Ukrainian military says it has launched a counter-attack in a bid to reclaim land taken by Russia around the southern city of Kherson.

Image source, .

An explosion has injured two people in the Russian-controlled city of Melitopol, local pro-Moscow authorities say.

The separatist leaders of the city in south-eastern Ukraine, installed by the Kremlin after it fell in the early days of the war, are blaming Ukraine's government for what they called a "terrorist attack".

Melitopol's authorities say the attack was "aimed at destabilising the peaceful life of the city".

According to the authorities, a car loaded with explosives detonated in the city centre, injuring two people - a 28-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man working as "humanitarian aid" volunteers.

Ukraine's government "continues its war on the civilian population and the infrastructure of cities," their statement says.

Clouds of black smoke were billowing above the city following the explosion, which reportedly shook the windows and walls of buildings in the area.

Some reports suggested the blast occurred near the home of the Russia-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky.

Last week, the Russian-backed mayor of Enerhodar, another city in the Zaporizhzhia region under the Kremlin's authority, was injured in an explosion.

Image source, Getty Images

In Kherson, the Ukrainian military says it has launched a counter-offensive in a bid to reclaim land taken by Russia, perhaps heralding a new stage of the fighting.

"Kherson hold on, we're close!" the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine tweeted on Sunday. The port city in southern Ukraine was the first major area to fall after Russian forces invaded in February.

Russia has been scrambling to build defensive walls in the city, but it was not immediately clear if troops were prepared for the Ukrainian counter-attack.

Ukraine's military headquarters claimed in a statement that its forces had broken through a Russian line of defence and pushed its forces into less favourable terrain. Its troops were also hoping to threaten Russia’s supply routes on bridges over the Dnipro River, it said.

Image source, .

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

European Union ambassadors are seeking a breakthrough on plans to ban Russian oil imports, an issue that is likely to overshadow a leaders' summit that begins later today.

Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian supplies, has continued to oppose such a move and has likened the potential measure to dropping a nuclear bomb on its economy.

But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told broadcaster France Info earlier: "I think that this afternoon, we will be able to offer to the heads of the member states an agreement."

Various compromises have been discussed; the latest is to target seaborne supplies first and leave pipeline oil until later.

Technical talks have resumed but some diplomats are doubtful there’ll be a breakthrough in time for the leaders’ summit which starts this afternoon.

The impasse paves the way for potentially heated exchanges later with more hard-line member states, such as Poland, likely to voice frustration at the delay in approving the bloc’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia.

We have more from Ukrainian defence adviser Yuriy Sak who has been talking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

On the question of expected deliveries of heavy weaponry and heavy artillery from the West, he says the Ukrainian armed forces have received some in the last month but still need more.

"The most pressing need at the moment is the so-called multi-launch rocket systems, the MLRS, because they have a longer fire range than what we have at the moment, and they will allow us to redress the imbalance in artillery in the east, and of course this will be a game changer," he says.

Asked about the suggestion Ukraine could surrender the Donbas to Russia to bring the war to an end, he says: "Ukraine will never agree to any end of this war which will suppose ceding some territories."

"We need military support in order to achieve our goals, to restore our territorial integrity at least to the level of before 24 February [when Russia invaded Ukraine]."

More now on the fierce fighting taking place in the eastern Donbas region. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister, has told the BBC that Russia is "trying to encircle and destroy small pockets" of Ukrainian troops.

"The situation seems to have been stabilised by the Ukrainian armed forces, they are defending the areas [they hold]," he says.

"The Russian aggressors have much more fire power, much more heavy artillery; they're pummelling those areas 24/7 without stopping, and of course they're hitting civilian houses, civilian infrastructure as well as the Ukrainian army," Sak says.

"The situation is very, very serious - and of course the Ukrainian armed forces continue to expect the delivery of more heavy weaponry which we have been requesting from the West for a long time now."

Image source, AFP

The weapon Ukraine most needs is long-range Western artillery - howitzers - which would travel further than Russian artillery, a defence analyst says.

"The Russians rely tremendously on artillery, more than troops and tanks, so if Ukraine can outrange them they can hold Russian artillery back," Prof Michael Clarke told the BBC earlier.

He said they are in particular need of US and German howtizers. "Basically they need longer range weaponry which so far the West has been reluctant to give," he said.

The US government appears close to sending a long-range multiple-rocket system (MLRS) to Ukraine, with a potential announcement expected soon.

Russia sees such deliveries of heavy weapons as a provocative escalation.

Image source, AFP

Kalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian band which won this year's Eurovision Song Contest, have sold their trophy for $900,000 (£712,000; €838,000) to raise money for the war in Ukraine.

The crystal microphone was auctioned on Facebook, with the aim of buying drones for Ukraine's military.

The sale coincided with the band's appearance at a charity concert at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. It aimed to raise money for medical care and supplies.

Speaking at the concert, band member Oleh Psiuk appealed for people not to get used to the war.

"I think it should be on the front pages always, until peace comes," said Psiuk.

Ukrainian TV presenter Serhiy Prytula said the money raised from the sale of the trophy would be used to purchase three Ukrainian-made PD-2 drones, Reuters news agency reports.

Read more about this story here.

The Russian-appointed head of Melitopol says there has been a powerful explosion in the south-eastern city on Monday morning.

Plumes of black smoke are visible in the centre of the city, Vladimir Rogov said on the Telegram messaging app, external. The explosion shook the walls and windows of buildings on several streets, he added.

According to some reports, the blast occurred in the area where the Russian-appointed "head of the Zaporizhzhia region" Yevgeny Balitsky is located.

Russian forces took over the city early on in the war, back in February. But there has been fierce resistance from residents ever since.

The Russians have thrown everything at the offensive in Luhansk, particularly in Severodonetsk, but are not quite succeeding, a defence and security analyst says.

Prof Michael Clarke told the BBC that Ukrainian forces face a crucial decision about whether to try and save Severodonetsk - which he said would soon be surrounded on all sides - or withdraw to safer ground further west.

"They seem to want to fight it out," he said, adding that the battle over the city is dominated by its river which runs to the west.

"West of that river the Ukrainians have about four brigades," he said. "The Russians are trying to get in behind them. If they do, those brigades will be in serious trouble."

"Those four brigades can keep Severodonetsk just about supplied," Prof Clarke said.

Image source, .

Taking control of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine is an "unconditional priority" for Russia, the country's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview.

Referring to Russia's attack as a "liberation", Lavrov defended the invasion which was launched three months ago.

Donbas is a mining belt made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have historically had strong ties to Russia.

Mr Lavrov told TF1 that taking control of "the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority".

Read more here.

Image source, .