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Russia's President Putin has sought to justify Moscow's invasion of Ukraine by saying his country is now trying to regain its "original territories", just as Russia's ruler Peter the Great did at the beginning of the 18th century.

"Peter the Great waged the Northern War for 21 years, and it would seem that he fought with Sweden and tore away something from it. But he didn't carve out anything! He was regaining [territory]," Putin told a meeting of young entrepreneurs in Moscow on Thursday, in remarks shown live on Rossiya 24 rolling news channel.

Noting that he was talking about the area on which the city of St Petersburg was founded, Putin added that none of the European countries at the time recognised this as Russian territory.

"Everyone recognised it as Sweden, and Slavs lived there from time immemorial along with the Finno-Ugric peoples. Moreover, this territory was under the control of the Russian state," Putin said.

"To all appearances, it is our lot as well to regain and strengthen.

"And if we proceed from the premise that these basic values are the foundation of our existence we will certainly succeed in solving the tasks we are facing," he said in an apparent reference to Moscow's current invasion of Ukraine.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here's the latest on the war in Ukraine:

Health warning in Mariupol

• The Russian-held city Mariupol is at risk of a major cholera outbreak, due to a lack of fresh water and medical supplies, says the UK's Ministry of Defence

• Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov, who is no longer in Mariupol, says health conditions are deteriorating for the 100,000 residents who remain in the occupied Ukrainian city
• Orlov calls it a humanitarian crisis

Fighting in the east and south-east

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his forces have made some gains in fighting in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region

• However, Zelensky says Ukrainian troops have come under sustained attack in the key eastern city of Severodonetsk - where firece street fighting is going on

• While the war rages between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers are dying each day, a senior adviser to Zelensky has told the BBC

Soldiers given death sentences

• Two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner have been sentenced to death alongside Moroccan national Brahim Saaudun
• They were convicted by a court which is not internationally recognised, in the pro-Russian, so-called Donetsk People's Republic

• British MP Robert Jenrick says he has been assured by Ukraine that the British men will be given priority in prisoner exchange negotiations

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We've been reporting this morning on warnings of a potential cholera outbreak in Mariupol - from the city's exiled deputy mayor and the UK's Ministry of Defence.

But how did we get here?

The port city in the south of Ukraine fell to Russian forces last month, after a long battle that ended with Ukrainian fighters spending weeks holed up in the city's Azovstal steelworks.

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian officials estimate that tens of thousands of people, including children, may have been killed in Mariupol. And more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers captured in the city have reportedly been transferred to Russia. Moscow claimed in May a total of 2,439 fighters had surrendered in the final days of the Azovstal defence.

Mariupol was where Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan national Brahim Saaudun - who were yesterday sentenced to death in a court run by pro-Russian rebels - were defending.

So why has this led to a risk of cholera?

Last month, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said 60% of buildings in Mariupol had been destroyed, of which 20% could not be rebuilt.

Image source, Reuters

But deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov says 100,000 residents are still living there.

Talk of a possible outbreak of cholera in the city has spread in recent days, with infection risk posed by the facts many bodies are still believed to be buried under the rubble, and sewage has reportedly contaminated main water supply chains.

Image source, Reuters

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city's mayor said on Ukrainian television on Monday the humanitarian situation in Mariupol was getting worse, with food and water shortages, and noted that shutting down the city was the "most cynical" way of tackling any epidemic.

In a Telegram post on Wednesday he said hundreds of bodies were being found by the occupying Russian forces in the debris of destroyed buildings in Mariupol, describing the situation as an "unending caravan of death".

But in a follow-up post yesterday, Andryushchenko said the searches in the Left Bank district had stopped, saying: "The occupiers finally switched to the practice of demolishing houses and refusing to search for the bodies of those killed under the rubble."

Image source, Reuters

He said it will never be known how many Mariupol residents died and are still under the debris - as they would be buried among rubbish in landfill sites. "No words. Only rage," he concluded.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Reuters

More now on the two Britons - Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner - who were both convicted in a Russian proxy court and given death sentences on Thursday.

The verdict was extensively covered in Thursday's evening news bulletins in Russia but is barely mentioned today on either TV or in the press.

"The reaction of the convicted men can be seen from their faces - downcast and bewildered," state-controlled Channel One said in its evening news bulletin.

Aslin was shown saying afterwards, voiced over into Russian: "I would like to apologise to the residents of Donetsk. I hoped that the sentence would be more just, taking into account that I cooperated with the investigation and that I surrendered voluntarily to the Donetsk People's Republic.

"I hoped for a different sentence. I shall face divine judgement when the time comes."

The UK is seeking the release of its citizens "but nobody from the British authorities has been in contact with the republic's leaders or law-enforcement agencies about the fate of the convicted mercenaries", state-owned Rossiya 1 reported.

Tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda writes that "the UK government has already promised that it will appeal the verdict, but there is a big problem, to whom it will make this appeal. To begin with, it will have to recognise the DPR as a sovereign independent state, so that the appeal is at least accepted for consideration".

This morning, rolling news channel Rossiya 24 reports that "the US got concerned about foreign mercenaries" after the trial of two Britons as there are allegedly many US "soldiers of fortune" in Ukraine.

The channel also claims that "foreign mercenaries have long been working in Ukraine" in recent years they have been providing military training to "nationalists" and also helped them conduct "punitive operations" in Donbas.

Most of them are said to have come from the US and the UK, and some used "humanitarian missions" as a cover, it says.

Let's turn to Mykolaiv now, as the mayor tells us the southern port city remains under daily shelling as Russian artillery pounds them from all directions.

The Russians lines are currently 20-30km (12-19 miles) from the city, Oleksandr Senkevych tells BBC Newsday.

He says a private port in the city, which is one of the largest grain ports in Ukraine, was recently hit by Russian shelling.

Its cargo district was damaged with four storage sites burnt out and all the grain inside lost.

He says the battle lines have been shifting a little forward and back, but his fellow Ukrainians only have enough equipment to defend the city, not to attack.

The Russians are also sitting in defence, so everyday it’s the same thing, he says.

Image source, .

Let's take a look at Severodonetsk, a strategically important city in the eastern Donbas region that has been under relentless bombardment by Russian forces.

"Fierce street fights" are taking place in the city, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai wrote on Telegram.

"We are exhausting the enemy," he said, adding that Ukrainian forces are still in control of the regional centre of Luhansk.

A strategic road linking Severodonetsk to nearby towns is still in Ukrainian hands, he said, stopping the invaders' attempts to encircle the city.

Capture of Severodonetsk and neighbouring Lysychansk would put all of Luhansk region under Russia's control. Luhansk makes up half of Donbas - the current focus of Russia's war effort.

Information about the picture on the ground has not been very clear.

Haidai said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops had been pushed back to the outskirts of the city.

The UK's Ministry of Defence said this morning Russia is in control of most of the city, but its forces have made little progress in attempts to encircle the wider area from the north and south.

More now on the death sentence given to British man Aiden Aslin by a Russian court which has not been internationally recognised.

A former US Army medic who met Aslin in Syria and worked alongside him in Ukraine, says the judgment is a "provocation".

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Brennan Phillips says: "I think it will invigorate people more than anything.

More reaction now to the trial and death sentences given to two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Robert Jenrick, an MP who represents the constituency of Aiden Aslin's family, has called the situation "completely outrageous".

Jenrick tells BBC Breakfast that the Ukrainian ambassador assured him negotiations for Aslin and Pinner to be part of a prisoner will be "given priority". However, says Jenrick, this relies on Russia "playing ball" and abiding by international law.

Criticising the treatment of the captured Britons, he says under the Geneva Convention they are members of the Ukrainian armed forces so should be looked after and not "put on a show trial or sentenced to death in this way".

"These two British nationals have been hooked out of that normal process and essentially used as hostages to make a point", says Jenrick.

Sympathising with the families of the two Britons, Jenrick says it's enormously stressful for them who have watched their relatives be put on trial, and now risk execution.

Ukrainian aircraft delivered a "series of strikes on enemy bases, places of accumulation of equipment and personnel, and field depots" in five different areas of the Kherson Region yesterday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff says in its morning update.

Troops repelled seven Russian attacks in Donbas and destroyed a range of Russian vehicles and equipment, including 10 tanks and ammunition depot, while air defence units shot down five Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles, the General Staff says on Facebook.

Image source, .

"The enemy tries unsuccessfully to establish full control over the city of Severodonetsk, and fighting continues," it says.

There were unsuccessful Russian attacks near Nyrkove, Mykolayivka, Nahirne and Berestove, it says, but Russian troops are advancing in the direction of Vozdvyzhenka-Roty and have "partial success".

In Kharkiv Region, the Russians are trying to prevent a Ukrainian advance to the border, it says.

"It became known that due to the losses received during the fighting with Ukrainian defenders in Kharkiv Region, the entire motorised infantry unit of the 1st Army Corps refused to participate in hostilities," the General Staff says.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, two Britons - Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner - were both convicted in a Russian proxy court and given death sentences. The court is not internationally recognised.

Who are the captured Britons?

Aiden Aslin

Aiden Aslin, 28, is a former care worker from Nottinghamshire, England. He previously fought with Kurdish armed units in Syria against the so-called Islamic State.

Aslin has a Ukrainian fiancée and he has dual citizenship, after moving to Ukraine in 2018.

He passed out as a marine with the Ukrainian military in 2018. His family understand his unit is the 36th Marine Brigade.

In April this year, Aslin appeared with Shaun Pinner on Russian television, which was criticised by the UK's Prime Minister as a "flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention"

At the time, Aslin's family released a statement through their MP Robert Jenrick onTwitter, external.

Shaun Pinner

Shaun Pinner, 48, originally from Bedfordshire in England, was a soldier in the British Army before he moved to Ukraine.

Pinner has lived in the country since 2018 and his wife is Ukrainian.

According to his family, Pinner's three-year contract with the Ukrainian Marines was due to expire at the end of this year and he was planning to enter a humanitarian role in the country.

At the time of his capture, and appearance on Russian television, his family released a statement.

Image source, Reuters

The death sentences given to Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun are "grotesque", says Nina Navid, of human rights organisation Amnesty International.

"What's really important is that what's happened is a breach of the Geneva Convention, which Russia is a signatory to," Navid tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Now we've had this death sentence - which should be completely off the table.

"The Geneva Conventions and their original protocols are at the core of international humanitarian law which is fundamental to protecting people around the world by limiting suffering caused by war.

"We're really going into dangerous territory when states are starting to go renegade on these.

"It seems that because Aidan and Shaun are British nationals and because of the UK's support to Ukraine in this conflict, perhaps this is being utilised as a kind of cruel diplomatic tool."

Russia should let international observers into the war zones so they can monitor processes taking place, she says.

The men must be treated humanely and have access to food, water shelter and fair and humane conditions of detention, she says.

Image source, Ukrainian Presidency

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his forces have made some gains in fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, and further north around the country's second city, Kharkiv.

"We have some positive news in the Zaporizhzhia region where it is possible to thwart the plans of the occupiers", says Zelensky. "We are gradually advancing in the Kharkiv region. We are holding defence in the Mykolaiv axis."

Zelensky says Ukrainian troops have again come under sustained attack in Severodonetsk, which he says is developing into the most difficult battle of the campaign so far.

"Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and other cities of Donbas, which the occupiers now consider to be the primary targets, still stand", says the president.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

The deputy mayor of Mariupol says health conditions in the occupied Ukrainian city are deteriorating.

Serhiy Orlov, who's no longer in Mariupol, tells the BBC the 100,000 residents still in the city were at a growing risk of diseases including cholera.

"We think that it's absolutely possible with all these conditions, a non-working centralised water sanitary system, a lot of corpses unfortunately in the ruins and a lack of medical help in the city at the moment," he says.

"Russia still blocks everything, any efforts from Ukrainian administration to reach somehow with humanitarian help.

"Any humanitarian organisation does not work there, Red Cross or World Health Organisation or United Nations.

"So, our citizens receive a little humanitarian help from Russian occupiers but it's too little in our estimation, it's one tenth of necessary amount of food and water.

"Together with finishing their stocks of food, their stocks of money without work, it's a humanitarian crisis at the moment."

Image source, .

Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population in the territories it occupies, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD).

In its daily intelligence update, external, the MoD says access to safe drinking water has been inconsistent, while major disruption to telephone and internet services continues.

There's a critical shortage of medicines in Kherson, it says, while Mariupol is at risk of a major cholera outbreak, with isolated cases already reported since last month. "Medical services in Mariupol are likely already near collapse: a major cholera outbreak in Mariupol will exacerbate this further," the MoD says.

The MoD also looks at the situation in Severodonetsk, saying Russia is in control of most of the city, but its forces have made little progress in attempts to encircle the wider area from the north and south.

Image source, .

Good morning. We're resuming our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here's a look at some of the latest developments:

On the ground: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says in his nightly address that his forces have made some gains in fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, and further north around the country's second city, Kharkiv. But Ukrainian troops have again come under sustained attack in Severodonetsk

Death sentences: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will speak with her Ukrainian counterpart about two Britons handed death sentences by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine. Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were convicted and sentenced yesterday along with Brahim Saaudun from Morocco, in a court in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic after being captured while fighting for Ukraine. The court is not internationally recognised

Image source, Supreme Court of Donetsk People's Republic via Reuters

Death toll: Between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers are dying each day, Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelensky, says. Meanwhile, a senior Western official has told BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale he believes 20,000 Russian soldiers have probably been killed since the invasion began in February

We're pausing our live coverage now until tomorrow.

Today's updates were brought to you by Jeremy Gahagan, Heather Sharp, Nathan Williams, Claire Heald, Malu Cursino, Sam Hancock, Alexandra Fouché, James Clarke, Jo Couzens, Charley Adams and Francesca Gillett.

You can read more about the main developments in Ukraine today here, or for the full details on the three captured men sentenced to death by a pro-Russian court, read here.

Join us again tomorrow morning for more live updates.

Image source, Telegram

Here are the main developments in the war in Ukraine today:

• Two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Brahim Saaudun from Morocco, have been sentenced to death by a court in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic after being captured while fighting for Ukraine
• The court is not internationally recognised and is run by pro-Russian rebels. Russian news agency Tass quoted the men's lawyer as saying they intend to appeal
• UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss denounced it as a "sham judgement with absolutely no legitimacy". Ukraine's prosecutor general said was a "violation and mockery" of international humanitarian law

• Ukrainian military casualties are now between 100 and 200 a day across the country, a senior adviser to President Zelensky told the BBC
• Intense fighting continues in the eastern city of Severodonetsk, the regional governor says. Reports suggest Russia now holds much of the city. One Western official said Russia is "now likely in control" of it

• The Western official also said Russia may have lost as many as 20,000 soldiers in the conflict

Image source, EPA

We've been closely following the situation in Severodonetsk - a city in the east of Ukraine that has seen intense battles in recent days.

Capture of the city and neighbouring Lysychansk would put all of Luhansk region under Russia's control.

Information about the picture on the ground has not been very clear, but what we've heard today suggests much of the city is now under Russian control.

This morning regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops had been pushed back to the outskirts of the city. This evening he said on Telegram that fierce fighting was continuing inside the city, and that some Russian forces had retreated, but gave no details.

Earlier today, the head of Severodonetsk's military administration said the industrial zone of the city was still held by Ukrainian troops.

One Ukrainian commander said that yesterday defending forces had managed to push the Russians back by "one or two blocks" in some areas, and "literally by one or two houses" in others.

Meanwhile a Western official said Severodonetsk was "now likely" under Russia control.

Lysychansk - which is across the river from Severodonetsk - remains out of Moscow's hands. In the last few hours, however, Haidai has said on Telegram that the Russians are powerfully shelling Lysychansk.

The BBC hasn't been able to independently verify these claims.

• Read more: Why Putin wants the Donbas

It's been 106 days since Russia's February invasion began. Intense fighting continues in the east of the country, as Russian forces try to expand their control in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Meanwhile, concerns continue over global food security, with Russia accused of creating a crisis by blocking Black Sea ports from exporting grain and sunflower oil from Ukraine.Here are some images from around Ukraine today.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The "phony sentencing" of the three men who were fighting with the Ukrainian military is "a violation and mockery" of international humanitarian and human rights law, Ukraine's prosecutor general has said.

Irina Venediktova said that, as prisoners of war, the men sentenced to death in a court in Donetsk "enjoy combatant immunity" and cannot be prosecuted for taking a direct part in hostilities.

"Russia once again displays its alienation from the rules-based system and a blatant disregard of the very core of the rule of law," she said in a statement to the BBC.

In Europe today, the death penalty is regarded as an unacceptable form of punishment which is incompatible with fundamental rights such as the right to life, she added.

Venediktova said Ukraine had launched an investigation and would take steps to ensure those involved in "this illegal action" were held responsible.