Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine via Reuters

Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities continue, with another round of missile and drone strikes across the country overnight.

One person has been killed in the southern port city of Odesa.

Another three people have been wounded by a drone crashing into a residential building after being shot down by Ukraine's air defences.

Three other deaths have been reported elsewhere in Ukraine.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

Image source, Ivan Topolenko/NSDCU

President Putin will try to “settle” the Ukraine issue this year, before the US Presidential election in November. That’s the warning from a top Ukrainian security official.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, told me the Russian leader would not want to risk leaving the question of Ukrainian territory until later “because no one knows how President Trump will behave.”

He emphasised that Ukraine believed the Russian leader would now deploy more forces and try to destabilise the country.

Russian troops are already advancing in eastern Ukraine, from several directions, exploiting delayed deliveries in Western military support, especially the 60 billion dollar security package now held up by political wrangling in the US Congress.

“The situation is difficult and complicated,” Danilov admitted. “Unfortunately we are somewhat hostage to the speed with which our partners help us and this is reflected directly on the front line.”

He recognised that Ukrainian soldiers were “really exhausted" and Ukraine would need to mobilise many more. But the main problem, he underlined, was “weapons, weapons, weapons.”

Image source, Ivan Topolenko/NSDCU

Image source, .

Fighting has been raging in Ukraine for two years since Russia's invasion, with Moscow's forces making an apparent breakthrough this week after months of virtual stalemate.

Here are the latest developments:

• Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the eastern town of Avdiivka in Russia's biggest victory since the fall of Bakhmut in May last year
• Russia has also been launching attacks around villages in the southern Zaporizhzhia region where Ukraine made some gains during its 2023 counter-offensive
• Ukraine has continued its attacks on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea - most recently claiming to have sunk the amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea

James Waterhouse
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

When he was appointed this month, Ukraine's new head of the armed forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he would "rather retreat than sacrifice lives", and that is what he has finally done with this eastern city.

Despite Russians suffering enormous losses, four months of relentless attacks have left Ukrainian troops there outnumbered, outgunned, and with dwindling ammunition.

It is Moscow's biggest victory since Ukraine's failed counter-offensive last year.

Stuttering Western help has directly contributed to this Ukrainian retreat in Avdiivka.

The US leads the way in providing weapons to Ukraine because of the scale and speed it can provide them.

With a $95bn package including aid for Ukraine still not approved in Washington, other allies are struggling to fill the gap.

It means the Ukrainians are having to ration ammunition and manage low morale.

And Avdiivka may not be the only withdrawal Kyiv is considering.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also still wants the whole of Ukraine, and it is still possible that he could take it.

That prospect could either restore Western unity in trying to prevent it, or fuel the scepticism that Ukraine was never able to win this war, despite the extraordinary defence it has displayed in Avdiivka and elsewhere.

• You can read the full story here

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Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine and Russia have a long, complicated history.

Ukraine became independent in 1991, following the fall of the USSR, and gradually grew closer to the European Union and the West.

Russia had long resisted Ukraine's move towards the EU and the West's defensive military alliance Nato.

For years, Putin denied Ukraine‘s statehood, culminating in a lengthy 2021 essay saying that Russians and Ukrainians were one people.

He frequently accused Ukraine of being taken over by extremists, ever since its pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in 2014 after months of protests against his rule.

At that time, Russia retaliated by seizing the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea.

An uprising in the east by Russian-backed separatists sparked a war that claimed some 14,000 lives.

In 2021, Putin began deploying large numbers of Russian troops close to Ukraine's borders. For months Putin denied he would invade his neighbour.

Announcing the invasion on 24 February 2022, he accused Nato of threatening Russia’s “historic future as a nation". The US had warned its European partners that military manoeuvres on Russia's borders were consistent with preparations for an attack on Ukraine but, until that day in 2022, few believed Russia would genuinely launch an invasion.

Yet, perhaps just as few thought Ukraine would be able to hold out for as long as it has.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, ITALIAN GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Three prime ministers - Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Belgium’s Alexander De Croo, as well as Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, have arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv today.

The four Western leaders travelled together by train overnight from Poland in a show of solidarity for Ukraine, the Italian government has said.

The visit comes two years to the day since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

• 02:30 (all times in GMT) In a televised speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin announces the launch of a “special military operation” in Ukraine
• 03:27 The first explosions are heard in Kyiv, and more blasts are reported across the country as Ukrainians wake up to war
• 04:58 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirms reports of nationwide missile strikes
• 11.56 Nato activates its defence plans, which include more than 100 jets on standby and 120 allied ships at sea, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean
• 12:03 The UK's then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, addresses the nation, saying:"Our worst fears have come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate. President Putin of Russia has unleashed war… without any provocation and any credible excuse."
• 18:50 There are reports that the port city of Mariupol has been coming under heavy fire
• 21:40 Almost 2,000 people are arrested at anti-war protests in 40 cities across Russia
• 22:59 Zelensky calls for general mobilisation and imposes martial law. He reports that 137 Ukrainians died on the first day of the assault

Nadia Ragozhina
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

It’s been two years since Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine in a full-scale invasion, bringing about what would become the biggest war in Europe since World War Two.

Ukrainian and Russian lives have been changed utterly by the bloodshed and loss.

Tens of thousands of troops have been killed, families have been torn apart, Ukrainian towns have been smashed to ruins and Russian troops have been accused of committing atrocities that have shocked the world.

Today, our team in London will be joined by correspondents in Ukraine and Russia, reporting the latest on the ground and sharing tales of the lives impacted by war.

You can find it all right here on this page, so stay with us.