Ukraine round-up: Dire warnings over grain blockage and fuel 'gold rush'

Ukraine fears a big harvest shortfall if its stockpiles cannot be shipped abroad

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that the war in Ukraine threatens to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution around the world.

Accessing Ukraine's stockpiled grain has become urgent internationally: millions of tonnes are exported annually to Africa and the Middle East.

But it cannot be shipped now from Ukraine's Black Sea ports because of Russia's naval blockade.

There's more on the UN chief's comments here.

Russia is exporting grain from Ukraine via Crimea, Russian-appointed officials in occupied southern Ukraine say. But it is not clear how much is leaving the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The claim - which the BBC has not been able to verify - comes as Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of stealing about 600,000 tonnes of its grain and exporting some of it. Russia denies it is stealing grain.

Russia has held talks with Turkey, which is trying to broker safe maritime corridors in the Black Sea.

The BBC's Laurence Peter explains here what is at stake.

Russia's reign of terror in Irpin

Many homes in Irpin were taken over by Russia's occupying forces and destroyed

Irpin was a quiet, leafy neighbourhood near Kyiv before the Russian invasion. But the month-long occupation inflicted a reign of terror there.

The BBC's Zhanna Bezpiatchuk spoke to survivors in Irpin, where the bodies of 290 civilian victims have been found.

A disproportionate number of victims were women. Dozens are yet to be identified.

In one narrow quarter of the suburb the Russians set up at least two fortified checkpoints and two bases, one at a former children's sanatorium.

Many homes were burned to the ground, civilians suffered constant shelling, there were shootings and summary executions.

Witnesses told our reporter of bodies left lying in the streets for weeks, while others were left in cars that had been riddled with bullets.

Read the report in full here.

Uber platform helps UN aid deliveries

Uber has built a customised version of its tech platform to help the United Nations deliver food and water supplies to war-torn areas of Ukraine.

The firm is enabling the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) to co-ordinate a fleet of vehicles smaller than heavy delivery trucks, because the latter face more risk of attack and breakdown on damaged roads.

The WFP is hand-picking its own drivers and vehicles, but some are former Uber drivers who worked in Ukraine before the Russian invasion.

Read more details here from the BBC's Zoe Kleinman.

Fossil fuel 'gold rush'

Diversifying from Russian gas has meant investment in new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

The world is witnessing a "gold rush" for new fossil fuel projects, according to a new report by leading climate change researchers.

Soaring energy prices spurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led to new investment in oil and gas.

A report by Climate Action Tracker says the world risks being locked into "irreversible warming".

There is broad consensus that the emission of gases produced by fossil fuels must be dramatically cut by 2030.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher explains here how the Ukraine war is undermining global efforts to combat climate change.