Russia is in control of most of Severodonetsk following a month of intense fighting which has created "extensive collateral damage" in the key eastern city, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.

In its latest morning briefing, it also noted it was "highly unlikely Russia anticipated such robust opposition" or "slow, attritional conflict".

The update also touches on the plight of "several hundred civilians" who are sheltering in a chemical plants underground bunkers, along with Ukrainian soldiers.

Russia has said it will allow safe passage to the civilians today, and asked the soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender.

The MoD briefing suggests that if the fighters stay and continue to hold out in the Azot chemical plant, it will "temporarily prevent Russia from re-tasking these units for missions elsewhere".

For the first time, a humanitarian corridor is being opened in Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian city which is now bearing the brunt of the fighting.

The Russian army has said it will last for 12 hours from 08:00 Moscow time (05:00 GMT), with people taken north to the occupied territories.

The city has been effectively cut off from the rest of Ukraine since Russian troops blew up a number of key bridges.

Yet despite the loss of the bridges, Ukrainian forces say they are also still trying to evacuate civilians.

There are believed to be about 12,000 people remaining in the city, which is in the eastern Luhansk region. Before the war, it was home to 100,000.

Previous humanitarian corridors, attempted in places like the port city of Mariupol in the south, have struggled to stay open.

Image source, .

Welcome back to our live coverage of the Ukraine war, which is now in its 112th day. Here is a round-up of the latest developments:

• A humanitarian corridor is due to open this morning in Severodonetsk, the city in eastern Luhansk which has been encircled by Russian troops
• All civilians will be allowed to leave over the next 12 hours, Moscow has said, but can only go to Russian-backed areas

• Russia has also said it will give Ukrainian troops holed up in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk a chance to surrender on Wednesday if they lay down their arms from 08:00 Moscow time
• Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said defending the Donbas is "vital", as the outcome of the battle for the eastern region will indicate the course of the war
• He reiterated that Ukraine needs modern anti-missile weapons - saying there is no excuse for procrastination
• Nato is due to meet later today and is expected to discuss increasing weapons supply to Ukraine

Image source, Getty Images

We're pausing our live coverage shortly. Here's a look at the main developments in Ukraine today:

• Ukraine's president said defending the Donbas was vital and the outcome will indicate the course of the war
• Russia said it will give Ukrainian troops holed up in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk a chance to surrender on Wednesday if they lay down their arms from 08:00 Moscow time (06:00 BST)
• Ukraine said its troops were still holding out in Severodonetsk after the last bridge between the encircled city and Ukrainian-held territory was destroyed by Russia
• Russia banned 29 UK journalists from entering the country, including Clive Myrie and Orla Guerin from the BBC and others from major national newspapers
• UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the British government will do "whatever is necessary" to secure the release of two Britons given a death sentence by a Russian proxy court in Ukraine

Today's updates were brought to you by Marie Jackson, Owen Amos, Emma Owen, Claire Heald, Jeremy Gagahan, Alys Davies, Emily McGarvey, Victoria Lindrea, Alexandra Fouché, James Harness and Catherine Evans.

Do join us again tomorrow.

Image source, Kyiv City Ballet

Dancers from a Ukrainian ballet company stranded by the war fear they may never return home, the troupe's director says.

Kyiv City Ballet was performing in Paris when Russia invaded.

"We couldn't believe what was going on," said director Ivan Kozlov. "It was like a bad dream."

"Everyone had phones at the side of the stage, all you could see was phones blinking as dancers checked the news."

The ballet is currently in the UK for a one-off show, with the proceeds going to Unicef's Ukraine Appeal.

Kozlov said he did not know when the company would be able to return to Ukraine.

"To have it in your subconscious that you might have no home, to not know what will happen to your country and all the time to hear bad news is tough," he says.

Joel Gunter
in Kharkhiv, Ukraine

Image source, Joel Gunter/BBC

Karim Khan, the British barrister who was appointed prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last year, travelled to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday to inspect the damage wrought on the city since Russia invaded.

Khan visited several locations including the site of an air strike against government buildings and a residential neighbourhood that has been heavily shelled.

Asked if the ICC would go after high-profile Russian military figures and politicians, Khan told the BBC the court was gathering evidence and would follow it “to anyone”.

“Anyone who has a gun, anyone who has power, has certain responsibilities in a conflict. Nobody has a blank cheque to do what they want with impunity,” he said.

That may include Ukrainian troops. Khan said the ICC would “look at responsibility on all sides”.

“If people were killed, we have to know who killed them. If buildings were damaged, who damaged them. And whether it was justified by military necessity and proportionate.”

Ukraine now has nearly 16,000 open war crimes cases.

Its local prosecutors are being supported by expert teams from various nations including the UK, France, Slovakia and Lithuania.

The US – which is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which created the ICC, and which fell out with the court during the Trump administration over its investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan – is not currently supporting the effort.

Khan said the court was “talking with all sides and trying to get support from whoever is willing to give it”.

Image source, Facebook

We've just been hearing from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly address. Let's take a look at the key points he made:

• Defending the Donbas is "vital", he said, as the outcome of the battle for the eastern region will indicate the course of the war
• He reiterated that Ukraine needs modern anti-missile weapons - saying there is no excuse for procrastination
• Ukrainian forces were suffering "painful losses" fighting Russian troops in both the eastern city of Severodonetsk and the Kharkiv region
• Ukraine's forces are still trying to evacuate civilians from Severodonetsk after Russia destroyed the last bridge into the city
• He urged people to "hold strong" and "keep fighting, fighting hard"

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine has received just 10 per cent of the weapons pledged by the West and it should speed up its delivery schedule, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister says.

"No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of Western partners we will not be able to win this war", says Anna Malyar.

The defence minister calls for a "clear timeframe" for such deliveries as every delay costs Ukraine dearly and risks more territory falling into Russian hands.

"We can't wait very long, because the situation is very complicated," she adds, referring to Russian advances in the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow's forces are pushing for control over the entire Luhansk region.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again appealed for heavy weapons from the West. He criticised the "restrained behaviour" of some European leaders which he said had "slowed down arms supplies very much".

Zelensky told Danish media that the speed with which Ukraine was able to retake territory occupied by Russia "really depends on this aid and weapons".

"If there's no speeding-up of weapons deliveries... people will continue dying. If we are given weapons, we'll move forward.", says Zelensky.

Read more about pledges of military aid to Ukraine here.

Image source, Reuters

Russian and Belarusian tennis players will be allowed to compete in the US Open later this year after deciding not to follow Wimbledon's lead in banning them.

Players from the two nations will have to compete under a neutral flag at the final Grand Slam event of the season.

The United States Tennis Association said it "continues to condemn the unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine".

Russia was banned from many international sporting events after the country's invasion of Ukraine, which was supported by close ally Belarus.

There's more detail here.

Image source, Getty Images

In total, more than 13 million people have fled their homes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations (UN) says.

Almost five million have left for neighbouring countries, while eight million people are thought to be displaced inside Ukraine itself.

In updated figures, the UN says that as of 9 June, external more than 4.9 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe. More than 3.2 million have applied for temporary residence.

However, hundreds of thousands have returned to their home country - especially to cities like Kyiv.

Ukraine's border force said people were crossing back into the country at a rate of about 30,000 a day.

Some are returning to areas of Ukraine such as the capital Kyiv, which were threatened by Russian army advances at the start of the war, but which are now considered safer.

Read more about which countries Ukrainian refugees have moved to, and the help they are receiving, here.

Image source, Reuters

Russia's most prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been moved abruptly from the prison where he was being held to an unknown location.

Navalny had been in a prison around 60 miles (100km) east of Moscow for violating parole on old fraud charges in what his allies say is punishment for challenging the Kremlin.

A lawyer for the 46-year-old said officials at his prison reported he had been transferred to a strict-regime penal colony.

His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh expressed concern, tweeting that he was now alone within a system that had tried to kill him.

Russia denies poisoning Navalny with a military-grade nerve agent in August 2020. He recovered in a German hospital, but has been in prison since he returned to Russia in January last year.

More now on the Russian ban on a number of UK-based journalists.

The Guardian's editor-in-chief Katharine Viner is among the 29-strong list of people who will be barred entry to Russia, as well as journalists Shaun Walker, Peter Beaumont, Luke Harding and Emma Graham-Harrison.

A statement from The Guardian said:

Read more on this story, here.

Dramatic video released by the National Police of Ukraine is said to show an evacuation of civilians in Pryvillia, 15 miles (25km) north-west of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region.

Police help civilians, including elderly people, out of a basement shelter. Shells explode nearby while the evacuees rush to vehicles, before they are driven away.

A description accompanying the video on the National Police of Ukraine's Facebook page said officers managed to evacuate 32 civilians in three waves during one day.

The video was released on 13 June, but the BBC cannot verify the date the video was recorded.

Image source, Getty Images

The US women's basketball player, Brittney Griner, has had her pre-trial detention in Russia extended until 2 July, according to local state media., external

Griner, 31, has been in custody since February after Moscow airport officials allegedly found cannabis oil in her luggage.

She was returning to the US after playing in Russia, just before the invasion of Ukraine, as the US urged its citizens to come home.

Griner - regarded as one of the world's best female players - faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The US says she has been wrongly imprisoned.

Image source, Getty Images

We've just had a short statement from the BBC after seven of its journalists were banned from entering Russia.

A spokesperson from the broadcaster said: "We will continue to report independently and fairly."

BBC journalists Nick Robinson, Orla Guerin, Clive Myrie and Nick Beake were among those on the list of 29 UK-based journalists banned over what Russia said was "internationally spreading deceitful and one-sided information about Russia".

Read more in our full story here.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has slammed the imperialist ambitions of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“Russia's invasion is what happens when big powers decide that their imperial appetites matter more than the rights of their peaceful neighbors," he wrote on Twitter.

"And it’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”

The defence secretary is currently in Brussels, where he is hosting a meeting of Ukraine Defense Contract Group before attending a meeting of the Nato ministers of defence on Wednesday and Thursday.

More now on the 29 British-based journalists banned from entering Russia. Some have taken to social media reacting to the news.

Guardian journalist Shaun Walker tweeted it was a "very strange" and "sad" feeling to be put on Russia's sanctions list.

"I lived in Russia for more than a decade and have been at least once every year since 2000," he wrote.

Emma Graham-Harrison, also of the Guardian, tweeted: "Surprised probably doesn’t cover how I feel about being sanctioned/banned by a country I’ve only visited once."

Political analyst Mark Galeotti, also on the list, said it's a "shame" he's been banned from the country. He added that he still thinks of himself as "a friend of Russia the country".

People have gathered in Kharkiv for the funeral of Evgeny Khrapko, a well-known medic who is said to have saved hundreds of lives during the war.

Described by local media as a pioneer of tactical medicine, he died during a mission.

Announcing his death on social media, external, Karazin Kharkiv National University said it was very painful to lose such a young, energetic and talented person.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

A British man fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine was killed after being struck by mortar fire, an inquest has heard.

Scott Sibley, 36, from North Lincolnshire, was killed on 22 April after his position came under artillery fire in Ukraine's Mykolaiv region.

He died from "penetrating fragment injuries" to the chest and abdomen, Oxfordshire Coroners' Court was told.

Mr Sibley, who left the British military about five years ago, travelled to Ukraine in March. He was the first Briton confirmed to have died in the conflict since the invasion began.

A full inquest is due to take place on 15 November.

Read our story here.

More now on the 29 British-based journalists Russia has banned from entering the country.

Its foreign ministry accused the sanctioned journalists of "intentionally spreading deceitful and one-sided information about Russia and the events in Ukraine and Donbas".

The statement also said they "contribute to fuelling Russophobia in British society".

As well as the 29 journalists, 20 "individuals linked with the defence industry" in the UK have been banned.

The Chief of Naval Staff Ben Key and senior figures at defence and aerospace firms BAE Systems and Thales UK are among those listed.

Russia's foreign ministry said the list was drawn up in response to "the anti-Russian actions by the British government, which imposed personal sanctions against leading journalists from our country and heads of companies in the Russian defence industry".