Freedom of Information

[DaffyVina]

9:29
Let civilians and wounded soldiers leave Azovstal - Ukraine deputy PM
Ukraine's deputy prime minister has demanded that Russia allow an immediate humanitarian corridor for civilians to escape the steelworks in Mariupol where many are said to be hiding.

Iryna Vereshchuk was speaking after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces not to storm the Azovstal plant but to hermetically seal it instead so no-one can escape.

"There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today," Vereshchuk said on social media.

On Wednesday, a marine commander in the plant sent a message to the BBC saying that injured soldiers trapped there were "rotting", without medicine and other supplies.

He called for his men to be evacuated to a third country.

9:41
Fighters will be relieved, but supplies are running out
Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Just yesterday we heard from a Ukrainian marine commander saying he thought his men, inside the Azovstal steel plant complex, had days, if not hours, left.

So the news that the steel plant is not going to be stormed will be something of a relief, I think, to the men who have been defending it so determinedly.

But they are running out of ammunition and food supplies. So the question now is if they can hold out - not just militarily - but also just keeping themselves going.

If the Russians are able to seal off the entire Azovstal steelworks, then of course supplies will run out. But if the Russians use this as an opportunity to take some forces away, that may give the Ukrainian fighters an opportunity to break out.

We don't know how this is going to play out.

Analysis
Posted at 9:59
Kremlin PR machine in full swing for Mariupol announcement
Jenny Hill
BBC News, Moscow

The Kremlin’s PR machine is on vigorous form as President Putin appeared on state television with his defence minister Sergei Shoigu to announce that Russia had taken the city of Mariupol.

In reality, nothing has substantially changed over the last few days. Fighters are still in the Azovstal steelworks, but this is part of the ongoing Kremlin strategy to tell the Russian people that everything is going according to plan.

Every day State TV gives upbeat reports about the progress of Russian troops and told that they’re striking Ukrainian military targets and ‘liberating’ towns and areas.

But Sergei Shoigu hasn’t been seen much of late, leading some to speculate that he’d fallen from grace with Vladimir Putin over the apparent bungled invasion. But here he was, giving his boss some good news.

Analysis
Posted at 10:36
Why would Putin change his plans in Mariupol?

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

It should become quickly apparent if Russian forces switch from bombarding the Azovstal plant to simply blockading it - let’s believe what Vladimir Putin is saying when we actually see it.

But if his forces do follow through, why the change of plan?

The Russian president is anxious to get on with his offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The fight for Mariupol has drained vital resources and pinned down Russian troops who could be used to pursue wider objectives.

Separated from the centre of Mariupol by the Kal’mius River, the sprawling steel plant should be relatively easy to isolate, but if Putin wants to be sure that “not a fly gets through”, he will need to leave significant forces in place.

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to call off peace talks if the city’s last defenders are killed, it’s also possible that Putin wants to keep the diplomatic process - or at least the semblance of a process – alive.

There may even be an economic element to this.

Azovstal is one of Europe’s biggest steel works. Even after weeks of appalling destruction, Moscow may be hoping that there’s something of value to salvage.

Analysis
Posted at 11:0711:07
Moscow aims to starve out last Mariupol defenders
Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Taking the port city of Mariupol has long been seen as a crucial step in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - creating a land bridge between the eastern Donbas region and the annexed Crimea peninsular.

But weeks of determined resistance have led to continued frustration for Vladimir Putin and his generals.

More importantly, the constant shelling has caused immeasurable suffering to the people of the city, not to mention its almost total destruction.

Now, it seems Russia has decided it does not need to complete the conquest and will instead try to starve out the last Ukrainian defenders.

Whether this will lead to their slow surrender, or give them a chance to break out of the complex is going to be important, not just militarily but also for Ukrainian morale.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has called for an urgent humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians trapped in Mariupol. A similar plea yesterday for 6,000 people to be taken to safety resulted in just four buses leaving the city.

11:28
Steelworks battle was militarily irrelevant to Russia - former armed forces chief
We've been reporting today on Vladimir Putin saying Russia will no longer try to storm the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and will instead seek to blockade it.

General Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of UK Joint Forces Command's take on the news is that it's clear Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the plant would have been "really difficult" for Russia to defeat without an "enormous cost to both sides".

He says that battle is no longer "really relevant" to who controls the port city and the roads that run through it - which now connect Russia to Crimea.

Today's announcements from Russia on Mariupol were intended to show there had been "some success" on the eve of the Russian Orthodox Easter, Barrons says.

"And it allows the military not to expend much more resource on a battle for the steelworks which was military irrelevant and turn to what really matters now - the battle of the Donbas."

Asked who has the upper hand in the war right now, he says it's "very finely balanced indeed".

He says focus will now switch to the Donbas - particularly the north-east of the region, where Russia will try to encircle the Ukrainian military and get behind their positions. If the Russians can do this, it will be a significant success for Moscow, he thinks.

But if the Ukrainians can hold them off it could result in a "very difficult stalemate".

[DaffyVina]

12:13
Kharkiv under fire and other developments in Ukraine
Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has mostly been focusing this morning on Mariupol, which Moscow today claimed had been "liberated".
Here are some of the other developments from around Ukraine:

Families in Bucha have been searching body bags in a morgue to find the remains of loved ones, AFP reports. Four hundred bodies have been discovered in the city, north-west of Kyiv, since Russian forces withdrew. Local police chief Vitaly Lobas told the news agency that about a quarter of them were still unidentified
Russia is "furiously bombing" Kharkiv, its mayor says. In a televised address, Ihor Terekhov said about one million people remain in the north-eastern city. Around 30% of the population has evacuated - mainly women, children and the elderly
Also in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine's military intelligence said occupying troops had imposed a ban on any evacuations or humanitarian aid from around the border town Velykyi Burluk. In a Telegram post, it said locals had been warned that any volunteers trying to get aid through will be executed

12:34
Terror of local people continues in Kherson - Ukraine military
Kherson
Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Russian forces seized control of Kherson soon after the invasion

In the southern city of Kherson, the Ukrainian military says Russian troops are planning to "forcibly mobilise" the local population to fight for Moscow.

Kherson, which has a population of 283,000, is one of the few Ukrainian cities to be occupied by Russian forces since the invasion.

"The Russian invaders plan to organise the forced mobilisation of the population for war with Ukraine," the Ukrainian military posted on social media this morning.

In one village, Russian representatives held a meeting with locals where they stated that there would be no more "green corridors" for civilians and forbade people from leaving, it said.

"At the same time, the Russian occupiers set a goal to completely stop the humanitarian support of the region from the Ukrainian authorities," the military added.

"The terror of the Ukrainian population by Russian occupiers continues."

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.

12:53
More than 1,000 civilian bodies in morgues surrounding Kyiv, official says
The bodies of 1,020 civilians are being stored in morgues in and around Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew from the region, a Ukrainian official has told the AFP news agency.

It comes after the bodies of nine civilians, some showing signs of torture, were found in the town of Borodyanka, near Kyiv, a senior police official told AFP.

"These people were killed by the occupiers and some show signs of torture. I want to emphasise that these people were civilians. The Russian military knowingly shot civilians who did not put up any resistance," the head of the police in the Kyiv region Andriy Niebytov said.

He said police had discovered two graves around Borodyanka.

Three people - including a 15-year-old girl - were discovered in one grave and a second grave held the bodies of six people, he said.

Russia has denied targeting civilians.

As Russian troops have retreated from areas surrounding Kyiv, evidence of atrocities have been uncovered, including the town of Bucha where at least 500 dead have been found since the Russians left.

[DaffyVina]

13:36
'Butcher of Bucha' targeted in fresh UK sanctions

Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov
Copyright: Rossiya-24

The so-called "Butcher of Bucha", Lt Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, has been targeted in a new wave of sanctions by the UK government.

Omurbekov led a unit that occupied the town, near Kyiv, where hundreds of bodies have since been discovered. He now faces a travel ban and asset freeze along with several fellow commanders.

Other supporters of Russia's invasion of Ukraine have also been hit, including Oleg Belozyorov, the CEO and chairman of logistics company Russian Railways.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "The depravity of Russia’s assault on the people of Ukraine is plain for all to see...Today’s new wave of sanctions hits the generals and defence companies that have blood on their hand."

Photo: Mass Grave in Bucha

13:53
The long wait for Mariupol evacuees
Samantha Granville
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia

Photo: Displaced people arriving in Zaporizhzhia from the surrounding region
Copyright: BBC

We’ve been waiting at the Epicentre supermarket in Zaporizhzhia for several hours now.

It's hoped a convoy will come from Mariupol, which in normal times is a four-hour journey. But since the start of the war, about 16 checkpoints have been put into place, which can make the journey take about 24 hours.

Four buses are expected to arrive sometime in the coming hours. This afternoon, about two dozen cars carrying displaced people arrived from the Zaporizhzhia region.
Volunteers rushed to the convoy of cars to take down names, gather information, and check the belongings in the cars.

We spoke to one woman, Yelena, who had travelled for hours with her husband, and four children — one of whom is nine months pregnant. Their whole life was packed into bags in the car. They are from the town of Tokmak which Russian soldiers seized nearly two months ago.

There’s a big tent set up here at the evacuation centre with volunteers inside, ready to feed and clothe people. Aid workers are searching for shelters and temporary homes for those arriving who don’t have family to pick them up.
There’s a tense feeling among those waiting for the buses to arrive from Mariupol. The regional government remains optimistic they will arrive, but the timing remains very unclear.

14:13
Hundreds of civilians waiting for Mariupol evacuation - mayor

The mayor of Mariupol has just finished a news conference on the current situation in the city.

Vadym Boichenko says that around 200 people are waiting to evacuate the city but no buses have arrived as of mid-afternoon. Around 80 were evacuated on Wednesday, he says.

He says that around 100,000 people remain in the besieged city.

The mayor says it's difficult to calculate how many civilians are inside the Azovstal steel plant, where a last group of Ukrainian fighters is holding out, but put the number between 300 and 1,000.

There is no chance of civilian evacuations from the plant today, he adds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to seal off the plant so "not even a fly can escape". Putin also claimed Mariupol, which has been almost completely destroyed by Russian shelling, has been "liberated" by Moscow.

"Whatever statements are made, the city is, and remains, a Ukrainian city," Boichenko says.


14:52
Ukraine has 'offered all options' for Mariupol swap - Zelensky
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has "offered all options" to Russia to swap Mariupol citizens for Russian soldiers, and is awaiting Moscow's response, Reuters news agency is reporting.

He had previously suggested captured Russian soldiers could be exchanged for trapped civilians.

Responding to the Kremlin's claim its forces have "liberated" the port city, he said Russia controls most of Mariupol but Ukrainian forces remain in a part of it, according to Reuters.

As we have been reporting, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to seal off Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, where a last group of Ukrainian fighters is holding out, rather than to storm it.

Zelensky was also quoted as saying that 120,000 civilians were being blocked from leaving Mariupol.


18:51
In pictures: Mariupol evacuees make it to safety
Three school buses filled with people escaping from the besieged southern city of Mariupol have arrived in the city of Zaporizhzhia further west.

People from Mariupol gather after arriving on an evacuation bus to the evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on 21 April 2022
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: Only 79 people were able to travel on the convoy because of the difficulties in setting up humanitarian corridors, Ukrainian officials said

People from Mariupol arrive on an evacuation bus in Zaporizhzhia on 21 April 2022
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: People crossed through territory held by Russian forces to get to safety

People fleeing fighting in the southern city of Mariupol meet relatives and friends as they arrive in a small convoy that crossed through territory held by Russian forces, after the opening of a humanitarian corridor, at a registration center for internally displaced people in Zaporizhzhia on 21 April 2022
Copyright: AFP
Image caption: There were emotional scenes as people met relatives and friends at a registration centre for internally displaced people in Zaporizhzhia

A baby looks out the window of a van after a convoy of vehicles arrived at an evacuation point, carrying people from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns under Russian control on 21 April 2022 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
Copyright: Getty Images
Image Caption: The convoy was carrying people from Mariupol, Melitopol and surrounding towns under Russian control

[DaffyVina]

Mariupol: Satellite images suggest mass graves dug near besieged city
Published11 hours ago

A satellite image by Maxar purportedly showing four sections of linear rows of graves near Mariupol
IMAGE SOURCE,MAXAR


A US satellite firm says it has identified a mass burial site containing about 200 graves near Mariupol, a city Russian forces have been trying to wrest control of for weeks.

Maxar said its images showed an expansion of graves that began at the end of March.

Local Ukrainian officials accuse the Russians of burying Mariupol civilians killed by Russian troops there.

Moscow has not yet responded.

Russian troops control most of Mariupol after weeks of bombardment and fighting, but some Ukrainian forces remain in a sprawling steelworks in the city. President Putin has abandoned plans to storm the Azovstal plant and instead told troops to seal it off.

The alleged mass grave is near a village called Manhush about 20km (12 miles) west of Mariupol. Maxar said there were four sections of linear rows about 85m long.

The BBC has not independently verified the images.


Mariupol city council earlier issued its own statement accusing the Russians of burying civilians at the same location.

The council said the Russians were digging trenches and "using dump lorries to bring the bodies" and provided its own aerial image of the site, which it said was "already twice as large as the nearby cemetery".

The city's mayor Vadym Boichenko says tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in Mariupol

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations by Ukraine and its Western allies that Russian troops and top Kremlin politicians are responsible for mass killings of civilians.

Earlier this month, Maxar images of the town of Bucha outside Kyiv appeared to show bodies of civilians lying in the street nearly two weeks before the Russians left the town as part of a withdrawal from northern Ukraine.

The image from 19 March, first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by the BBC, contradicted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's claim that footage of bodies in Bucha had been "staged" after the Russians withdrew.

Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk has said that least 300 civilians were killed in the town.

[DaffyVina]

Mariupol steelworks: 'We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers'
By Rhodri Davies & Yaroslav Lukov
BBC News
Published8 hours ago

Media caption: Svyatoslav Palamar, from the controversial Azov regiment, says Mariupol was and will stay Ukrainian

One of the last Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol has told the BBC that the besieged steelworks where they are holed up is largely destroyed above ground and civilians are trapped under collapsed buildings.

Speaking from the Azovstal plant - the last part of Mariupol not under Russian control - Svyatoslav Palamar from the controversial Azov regiment said defenders had repelled waves of Russian attacks.

"I always say that as long as we are here, Mariupol remains under control of Ukraine," he said.

Earlier President Vladimir Putin called off a planned Russian assault on the steelworks - a maze of tunnels and workshops - and ordered his troops to seal it off instead.

"Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through," he said.

Much of Mariupol has been destroyed in weeks of heavy Russian bombardment and intense street fighting. Taking the Sea of Azov port is a key Russian war aim and would release more troops to join a Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

Capt Palamar said the Russians had fired on the steel plant from warships and dropped "bunker-busting" bombs on it.

The BBC has not been able to verify any of his account. But it tallies with testimony earlier this week from a Ukrainian marine commander also in the steelworks, who said fighters were outnumbered and running out of supplies.

"All the buildings in the territory of Azovstal are practically destroyed. They drop heavy bombs, bunker-busting bombs which cause huge destruction. We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians remain trapped under the collapsed buildings," Capt Palamar said.

The Azov regiment was originally a far-right neo-Nazi group that was later incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard. Its fighters along with a Marine brigade, border guards and police officers are the last Ukrainian defenders left in the city.

pic of steelworks
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption: Russia has not been able to take control of the Azovstal steelworks

When asked how many Ukrainian defenders remained in Mariupol, Capt Palamar answered simply "enough to repel attacks".

He said that civilians were in separate locations away from fighters. They were in basements containing 80-100 people each but it was unclear how many civilians there were in total as some buildings had been destroyed and fighters could not reach them because of shelling. Entrances to some of the bunkers were blocked by heavy concrete slabs that only heavy machinery could move, he said.

"We keep in touch with those civilians who stay in places that we can get to. We know that there are small children there as young as three months old," he said.

The fighter appealed for civilians to be given safe passage out of the steelworks and called for a third country or an international body to act as a guarantor for their safety.

"These people have got through a lot already, through war crimes. They don't trust Russians, and they are scared," he said, adding that they feared torture and murder at the hands of Russian troops or deportation to Russia through so-called filtration camps.

Elderly civilians in the steelworks were in need of medicine while there were also about 500 seriously wounded fighters who were not getting the care they needed - including major surgery such as amputations.

"After 52 days of blockade and heavy fighting we are running of medicines. And then we also keep unburied bodies of our fighters whom we need to bury with dignity in Ukraine-controlled territory," he said.

Capt Palamar said Ukrainian defenders also wanted to secure their own evacuation if possible - but there could be no question of surrender.

"As for surrender in exchange for the safe way out for civilians, I hope we all know whom we are dealing with. We definitely know that all guarantees, all statements of the Russian Federation are worth nothing."

Maps of Mariupol

He said many of the defenders left in Azovstal came from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, as well as the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He himself had been married there and his child had been born there.

"I witnessed how this city was developing. How this city became the pearl of Azov and it's a hometown for me as well," he said.

"Russia is not renewing or rebuilding anything. It aims to destroy and terrorise... If we fall this horde will go further and the whole civilised world will be in danger."

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of bombing civilian shelters and of using weapons banned or restricted by international law - including phosphorus bombs and cluster munitions - in attacks on Azovstal.

Ukraine as well as the US and UK have announced investigations into the possible use of chemical weapons in Mariupol, something Russia has denied. The BBC cannot independently confirm the allegations.

[DaffyVina]

Ukrainians injured or killed by unexploded ammunition
Published7 hours, BBC News

Video: Ukrainians injured or killed by unexploded ammunition

Across Ukraine’s Kyiv region, efforts have begun to clear the countless pieces of unexploded ammunition left behind after fierce fighting.
The main hospital there says it’s receiving increasing numbers of patients who’ve touched or stepped on mines and shells.
The State Emergency Service, police and army all have expert teams working on the ground to make the area safe.


Video Shows:
Dmytro Bedrych - Electrician
In the video he appears to have significant facial injuries which have now been treated and dressed and an NG tube is in place.
He says: I didn't really understand what was going on, there was a really loud noise in my head and ears and I fell.

Dmytro Berdych is one of an increasing number of Ukrainians who have touched or stepped on mines and unexploded shells. He was standing next to his work van when a colleague drove it over a mine.

Svetlana Bedrych - Dmytro's wife
She says: This is hard and really scary. We are scared for our kids, for our husbands, for our brothers. It's really scary.

Dmytro will need two years of facial surgery to repair the damage.

Video of low aerial view of damaged suburbs of Kyiv.
The Russians have left, but the suburbs of Kyiv are still dangerous.
Video of Ukrainian worker in uniform.
Officers are working to clear towns like Horenka of mines and unexploded shells.
Some were used by Ukrainian soldiers for defence, but most were left by Russian forces.

Andriy Nyebytov - Chief of Kyiv Regional Police
He says: Right now this territory is really dangerous, because there are lots of unexploded objects; ammunition, weapons, and as we can see here, trip wires. So there are lots of unexploded surprises.

Video shows a group of uniformed workers remove explosives... We then see them piled up... and detonated.
The State Emergency Service, police, and National Guard have neutralised over 80,000 mines and unexploded shells.
Lt Col Mykola Muray - Head of Bomb Squad, Kyiv Regional Police
He says: From experience, a year of war is equal to 10 years of demining. So if we had intense fighting for one month, it means at least one year of demining.

Video shows an explosion with sound, next to a tree by the road.
Ukrainian officals say they are neutralising around 5000 dangerous items every day.

[DaffyVina]

Driving into the 'apocalypse' to save mum and dad
By Tom Bateman
Dnipro, Ukraine
Published5 hours ago

satellite image of burning apartment buildings in northeastern Mariupol, Ukraine, 19 march 2022
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

As Russian forces encircled Mariupol, a Ukrainian woman undertook an extraordinary journey into the besieged city to rescue her parents. She is among a small number of people who have braved the risk of attack or abduction to drive in through front lines and a blockade. She has told the BBC of the "apocalypse" she witnessed there.

Within days of Russia's invasion, Anastasia Pavlova understood what the war was going to mean for Ukraine. The 23-year-old escaped the bombardment of Kharkiv, a city where shelling of residential areas was "indiscriminate" - in the words of the local mayor - from the start. Anastasia and her fiance Abakelia went south, to the city of Dnipro. She felt safer here in the tower block apartment of Abakelia's family. But she agonised over the fate of her own parents, who lived on the outskirts of Mariupol.

Her mother, Oksana, had faith. She found peace in prayer, and tended the roses in their small brick-built bungalow in the Cheryomushki neighbourhood, an industrial suburb. For the 54-year-old religious studies teacher, the city is the country's most special. "It has a big name, Mariupol, named after the Virgin Mary," she explains.

But her prayers were being drowned out as Russian troops advanced.

Oksana at work as a religious studies teacher
IMAGE SOURCE,OKSANA PAVLOVA
Image caption, Before the war, Oksana taught religious studies - she says her students were safely evacuated.


"Day after day, shells of various calibres were flying over the roof of our small house," says Oksana. "On the fourth day of war I started to think: 'I am not going to get through this.'"

Mariupol quickly descended into what one aid agency described as "hell", as Moscow's forces besieged the city. Amid the fighting, civilians had to scavenge for food and water - running water and electricity were cut off and communications collapsed. Many thousands were killed. Military checkpoints controlled movement in and out. Soviet-era Grad missiles - rockets launched from the back of military trucks in what is sometimes described as a "hailstorm" - hit the district where Oksana and her husband Dmitry have their home. "I couldn't catch my breath," she recalls, describing the devastation in Biblical terms. It was a tempest, she says.

Media caption,
WATCH: Drone footage from March shows extensive Mariupol shelling damage

Oksana managed to speak to her daughter in one scratchy phone call. She warned Anastasia: "Do not come." But in late March, five weeks into the war, Anastasia decided to try to drive to Mariupol - a journey fraught with danger and exceptionally rare to attempt other than by official humanitarian groups. She hired a driver and van from aid volunteers who were also trying to help evacuate people from the city. They left from Zaporizhzhia, north-west of Mariupol, and the last relatively safe city before the front line.

"No-one wanted to be the lead vehicle," explains Anastasia. "They thought that should someone want to fire at the column, they are going to shoot at the lead vehicle first. My driver was very brave. He said: 'We are going to be the lead vehicle.' I held onto my seat and thought: 'Okay, that's it, I've made my mind up, come what may.'"

Anastasia smiling and making a peace sign
IMAGE SOURCE,ANASTASIA PAVLOVA
Image caption, Anastasia put on a brave face before driving to Mariupol


A photo was taken of them just before they set off. "I am smiling here," she says. "But I am frightened. I am as frightened as it's possible to be."

Anastasia felt increasingly anxious as they drove over 260km (160 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory, across front lines, navigating the first Russian checkpoint. She felt surprise at first, finding this manned by "skinny boys who were embarrassed to ask to open the car". As they moved further into Russian-occupied territory "more military" guards appeared, with DPR stripes on their uniforms from the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

"At one of the checkpoints, while checking the documents, the military aimed the barrel of a machine gun at our heads," Anastasia says. They demanded to know why they were travelling in. She explained she was going to help her parents and bring medicine to her father.

She couldn't shake off the fear. "It feels like they are about to take your vehicle away or to shoot you, rape you. You constantly expect this to happen. It's scary. You realise that none of your rights are observed here," she says.

Meanwhile Oksana and her husband Dmitry were sleeping on the floor under blankets and pillows to survive in Mariupol. The house was shaking under shelling and blast waves. Her neighbour chopped wood to cook on a stove outdoors.

"Even in the shelling we realised that this connection between humans," says Oksana. "This help was like the saying they have in war - salvation is found in mercy, in mutual help. Somebody has a decent stove, we had some buckwheat. Others have some water left. We visited an elderly man in the neighbourhood. We were comforting each other, and that made me feel not so scared."

Driving to Mariupol
IMAGE SOURCE,ANASTASIA PAVLOVA
Image caption, On the road to Mariupol

Anastasia didn't know if she would find her parents alive. They travelled for nine hours, arriving in a devastated city. She speaks of appalling journeys along mined roads, passing shallow graves through streets strewn with rubbish, which had been picked up by the wind.

They entered Mariupol shortly before curfew. Anastasia says it felt "like the end of the world".

"Around you are burning cars, tanks, holes in houses, black buildings with collapsed roofs. Crowds of very dirty people with empty eyes follow [our vehicles] along the mined road. Everything was taken away from them, relatives died.

"Initially, you are looking at the graves, and you are frightened and confused. But once you see about 10 of those, 20, you are just passing by. Maybe it's just me, but somehow it feels like you quickly become accustomed to these atrocities."

2022/03/26: A freshly dug grave next to two bombed out residential buildings in the besieged city of Mariupol.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Anastasia saw many graves in the city of Mariupol

They tried to get through the downtown area in the centre of the city but the fighting was intense. At a checkpoint there, Anastasia says they were dangerously close to shelling. Troops told them they had two minutes to move or they would fire on them. Instead, they decided to circle around part of the city further west. A night-time, curfew was approaching and they made their way to the western suburb of Volodarske, where they had heard a school was repurposed as a refugee camp.

"This was probably the second scariest experience," says Anastasia. "It was a pain to witness - as painful as those blackened buildings in Mariupol - the people in this refugee camp." She said the civilians inside were due to be taken by Moscow's forces the Rostov region in Russia and to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. This process is referred to by Ukraine as "filtration" and condemned by the West as deportation. Moscow describes it as a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians. "There are people who have lost everything. They know that no-one will come after them. The camp is their only chance to survive," Anastasia says.

"What I saw inside made me very sick. On the floor and in the corridors, in the classrooms and the gym, people lie almost on top of each other. Everything is mixed - grandparents, women, children. It's hard to breathe there, and people had not had access to running water for a month," she says. "Terrible stories can be heard in the queue [for food]. One grandmother said she spent 10 days in the basement without food. She drank only one raw egg each day. After [hearing] these words, I began to cry," she says.

Anastasia says she witnessed an "apocalypse" that night in Mariupol. "I felt like everything collapsed inside of me. It seemed as if everything we believed in, everything good, my perception of people, the idea that we are living in civilised society... all of this [had been] wrong. [It was as if] I had been wrong all my life, that people are in fact barbaric and human life is not worth anything. And I dwelled on this that whole night and morning."

Anastasia reached her parents on the second day. "I could not rejoice, but I could not cry either," she says. She told her parents: "We will cry on Ukrainian territory."

Her mother Oksana calls Anastasia "a hero". Residents on the street were stunned that she had made it to Mariupol, and Anastasia says no-one knew what to take with them. She told her mother to fetch her favourite clothes. They managed to evacuate several of their neighbours. "On the bus we took out eight people."

Anastasia handed the van back to a volunteer after returning safely
IMAGE SOURCE,ANASTASIA PAVLOVA

But Anastasia still thinks of those who can't get out. "They have to try to stay alive, even if Mariupol is occupied. They are under fire every day. Many do not want to leave, they don't want to leave their homes, or the grave of a husband or wife."

Now her parents are in a safer city to the west of Ukraine, while Anastasia remains in Dnipro with her fiancé Abakelia. She carries guilt over the rescue, she says, because she got her parents to safety while others remain. "Every day I keep finding out that some of my classmates, some of my relatives, either get killed there or get injured," says Anastasia.

Dmitri, Oksana - with her cat - and Anastasia Pavlova after the rescue from Mariupol


Her mother Oksana reflects on Mariupol's nightmare. "Every crime comes with a punishment," she says. "The chalice of anger fills up… and there is God's rage." But she remains hopeful because, she says, salvation came from her daughter. "She's a role model to many people," says Oksana. "How to believe in the chance of being rescued - that to stay brave, you need to believe."

[DaffyVina]

3:55
Lives in Mariupol are in Putin's hands - city's mayor
In an interview with Reuters news agency, Mariupol's mayor Vadym Boychenko said the lives of people stuck in the shattered city are in Vladimir Putin's hands.
Boychenko expressed his frustration at the rate of the evacuation from Mariupol since the beginning of the war.
He said that Russia has "undermined this evacuation", which they started in "the first days of March".
"They asked us to give them a map of where the evacuation will start from - we gave them the map.
"(They asked) how many buses do you have? We gave the number of buses.

"And they destroyed and demolished all of those places, the destroyed our buses."

Boychenko said that there are still 100,000 people stuck in the city and the soldiers in the Azovstal steel plant are not going to surrender.
He added: "It's important to understand that the lives that are still there, they are in the hands of just one person - Vladimir Putin."


4:03
World Bank estimates $60 billion damage to Ukraine's infrastructure
The World Bank has said that an early estimate shows physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from the war had reached roughly $60 billion.

The estimate does not include growing economic costs of the war. The amount will continue to rise as the war goes on, World Bank President David Malpass said at a conference on Thursday.

In his virtual address to the conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that the country needed an estimated $7 billion per month to make up for its economic losses now and "hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later."

Zelensky asked countries that have imposed sanctions and freezes on Russian assets to use that money to help rebuild Ukraine after the war and to pay for losses suffered by other countries.


Posted at 4:09
The latest headlines
As Ukraine enters the early hours of Friday morning, here's what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

[*]Physical damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure from Russia's invasion has reached roughly $60bn, said World Bank President David Malpass
[*]Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a meeting of the World Bank and IMF that Ukraine now needs about $7bn (£5.4bn) per month in assistance
[*]Ukraine says that Russia rejected a request for a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday
[*]Mariupol's city council have released aerial images that appear to show that Russian forces are burying Ukrainian citizens in nearby mass graves. The BBC hasn't independently verified the claim, and Russia hasn't spoken publicly on the issue
[*]Biden announced another $800m (£610m) military aid package for Ukraine, which will include heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, ammunition and tactical drones.


6:32
Ukraine needs $7bn in aid a month, Zelensky says

Damaged building in Ukraine.
Copyright: Getty Images

Ukraine's president has told the world's finance ministers that his country needs $7bn (£5.4bn) every month until the summer to keep functioning.
Volodymyr Zelensky also said "we will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later".

He was addressing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conference via video link from Kyiv.
Mr Zelensky also said the global community needed to exclude Russia immediately from international financial institutions, including the World Bank, IMF and others.
All countries "must immediately be prepared to break up all relations with Russia," he added.

Asked whether the IMF would be able to secure the immediate funding that Ukraine needs, the organisation's managing director Kristalina Georgieva told BBC economics editor Faisal Islam: "We found it for the first and second month.
"We believe that over time this amount is going to go down as the Ukrainian economy in the parts of the country that are not under occupation picks up, and as remittances from those who now work somewhere else start flowing.


7:08
Russian troops continue to block Kharkiv - Ukraine forces
Russian forces are continuing to partially block Kharkiv, the Ukrainian army has said in its daily update on Friday.

Russian units were trying to break further south from the city of Izyum in Kharkiv province, to surround the grouping of Ukrainian troops in Donbass region, it said.

Ukraine has also repelled 10 attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Thursday, the army added.

In all the eastern parts of the front, Russians troops intensified attacks in the past 24 hours, particularly in the areas of Zarechny, Rubezhny, Popasnaya, Novotoshkovsky and Marinka, it said.

Ukraine said it had shot down 15 Russian aircrafts in the past 24 hours.

The BBC is unable to independently verify these statements.


7:17
Russian gains to the east are temporary - Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Russia its recent gains in the east of the country are only temporary and its troops will be forced back across the border.

He made the comments in his latest video message to the nation.

"In the south and east of our country, the occupiers continue to do everything to have a reason to talk about at least some victories. They are accumulating forces, driving new battalion tactical groups to our land. They are even trying to start the so-called mobilisation in the occupied regions of Ukraine.

"None of these steps will help Russia in the war against our state. They can only delay the inevitable - the time when the invaders will have to leave our territory. In particular Mariupol - a city that continues to resist Russia, despite everything the occupiers say."

Russian forces captured 42 villages in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, but Ukraine might take them back, an aide to the chief of staff to Zelensky said on national television.


7:34
Russia blockaded steel plant to contain Ukraine resistance - UK MoD
Map of Mariupol steel plant
Copyright: BBC

In its latest intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, the UK's Ministry of Defence says Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant likely indicates a desire to contain resistance in the southern city of Mariupol and free up forces to be deployed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.

"A full ground assault by Russia on the plant would likely incur significant Russian casualties, further decreasing their overall combat effectiveness," the MoD said in its latest update.

"In the eastern Donbas, heavy shelling and fighting continues as Russia seeks to advance further towards settlements including Krasnyy Lyman, Buhayikva, Barvinkove, Lyman and Popasna as part of their plans for the region.

"Despite Russia's renewed focus they are still suffering from losses sustained earlier in the conflict. In order to try and reconstitute their depleted forces, they have resorted to transiting inoperable equipment back to Russia for repair."


7:45
No civilian evacuations in Ukraine on Friday - Kyiv
Ukraine will not attempt to establish any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians on Friday as the situation on the roads is too dangerous, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

"Due to the danger along the routes today, 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors," she said on social media.

"To all those waiting to be evacuated: be patient, please hold on!"


8:12
'It's the killing of a nation' - Kharkiv mayor
Damaged market after shelling in Kharkiv
Copyright: EPA

As we've been reporting, Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkhiv, in the north east of the county, has come under intense bombardment by Russian forces.

Footage from the area shows the remnants of several buildings destroyed by missile strikes.

Its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, told the BBC that around 30% of the population had left the city but one million people remained, with some not wanting to leave their homes.

He said the Russians were shelling residential areas, causing civilian casualties and leaving many injured. He added: "This is not a war of soldiers against soldiers, it is the killing of a nation."


8:21
Mayor calls for Mariupol's 'full evacuation'
Russian convoy
Copyright: Reuters
Image caption: An armoured convoy of pro-Russian troops moves along a road in Mariupol

Meanwhile, the mayor of Mariupol has issued a new appeal on Friday for the "full evacuation" of the southern city which President Vladimir Putin says is now mostly controlled by Russian forces.

"We need only one thing - the full evacuation of the population. About 100,000 people remain in Mariupol," Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on national television, Reuters reports.

On Thursday, Putin ordered his troops to seal off a last group of fighters holed up in steel works in the south-east of the city.

We have spoken to one of the last Ukrainian defenders at the Azovstal plant - read the interview here.

Mariupol has endured two months of heavy bombardment and severe deprivation as Russia cut off food, water and energy supplies.

[DaffyVina]

9:12
Heavy shelling in residential streets of eastern Ukraine

Jonathan Beale
Reporting from Sloviansk

The war in eastern Ukraine is still largely an artillery battle. Overnight, there was more heavy shelling.

We stayed the night in Slovyansk, more than 20km (12 miles) from the front line. We thought we’d be relatively safe in a residential area. But at just after 01:00 (23:00 GMT) we woke to a sudden and very loud burst of Russian shelling. We took refuge in a bunker.

In the morning, once the curfew was lifted, we surveyed the damage. The strikes were just 200m from where we were staying. There were small craters in the pavement along with smashed glass from the windows of nearby apartment blocks.

The power lines were down and there was no electricity. This is now the scene in many cities and towns in the Donbas. Those who remain try to literally pick up the pieces and continue their lives.


9:24
Ukrainian plane crashes in south of country - local authorities say
A Ukrainian plane has crashed during a "technical flight" in southern Ukraine and there are casualties, local authorities have said.

The AN-26 plane, a military transport aircraft operated by the Ukrainian armed forces, crashed on Friday morning in the Vilnia district in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said.

The circumstances of the crash are being verified and there will be more information later, the authorities added.


9:58
Russia says it hit 58 military targets in Ukraine overnight
Russia says it struck 58 military targets in Ukraine overnight, including sites where troops, fuel depots and military equipment were concentrated, according to the latest update from Russia's defence ministry.

It also said it struck three targets using high-precision missiles, including a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and a large concentration of Ukrainian troops with their equipment.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the report.

[DaffyVina]

10:22
War in Ukraine a 'horror story of rights violations' - UN
Imogen Foulkes
Reporting from Geneva

Forensic technicians exhume the bodies of civilians who Ukrainian officials say were killed during Russia's invasion and then buried in a mass grave in the town of Bucha
Copyright: Reuters

The UN Human Rights Office has described the war in Ukraine as a "horror story of violations against civilians", in which respect for international law has been "tossed aside".

The UN monitoring mission in Ukraine has documented the unlawful killing of 50 people in Bucha, and such wilful killings amount to war crimes, the office said in a statement, adding that UN investigations show Bucha is not an isolated incident.

The monitoring mission has received allegations of more than 300 unlawful killings in Ukraine.

Other clear violations documented by the monitoring mission include evidence of sexual violence, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and infrastructure, and the detention, ill treatment, torture and even killing of both civilians and prisoners of war by all parties to the conflict.

The UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet made an urgent appeal to all those fighting to ensure international law is respected, and to investigate all allegations of violations.