10:46
Russia seeks full control of Donbas, southern Ukraine - general
Russia is planning to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of its military operation in the country, a senior Russian military commander has reportedly said.
Russian news agencies quoted Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district, as saying Moscow also plans to forge a land corridor between Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He was quoted as saying: "Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which has already begun just two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea, as well as affect the vital facilities of the Ukrainian economy."
Minnekayev added that controlling southern Ukraine would also give access to Transnistria - a breakaway part of Moldova where Russian troops are already based.
The comments were reportedly made at a regional event, the annual meeting of the Union of Defence Industry Plants of Sverdlovsk Region.
The Russian Defence Ministry has been contacted by the BBC for a comment. It said it was "looking into this".
11:01
No respite for Easter holiday
Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv
Volunteers prepare Easter cakes in an old bakery which survived during Russia"s invasion in the town of Bucha
Copyright: Reuters
There had been hope for an Easter truce – a ceasefire to mark the Orthodox holiday that unites many Ukrainians and Russians.
It seems those hopes were in vain.
Speaking in his nightly address on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia, saying they "rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce".
"This shows very well how the leaders of this state actually treat the Christian faith, one of the most joyful and important holidays."
It will be seen as particularly bad news for civilians still trapped in the southern city of Mariupol.
Despite Russia's declaration of victory on Thursday, it's thought tens of thousands of civilians are still trying to get out of the city, with humanitarian corridors considered essential for their safe passage.
But, it seems those two will not take place, today at least. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk wrote on her Telegram channel: "Because of the danger on the routes, today, on 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors."
And so, even as Ukrainians go to their Easter services this weekend, they will find no respite from the continuing war.
11:28
Russia fines Google 11m roubles for 'fake' videos
A court in Moscow has fined Google's parent company Alphabet Inc for failing to remove contentious videos.
The US tech giant was handed two fines totalling 11m roubles ($135,000; £155,000) for "administrative violations". The Tagansky District Court in Moscow said the company had distributed inaccurate data about Russian troop losses and civilian casualties in Ukraine, according to TASS news agency.
One of the videos was said to show a phone conversation between Russian soldiers and their relatives back home. The troops were said to be complaining of casualties in their ranks.
Some foreign social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have been blocked in Russia. YouTube, however, remains available.
Russia's communications watchdog has previously said it would take steps to punish Google for "spreading fakes" on YouTube, and had warned the US company it would be fined if it failed to comply.
Google has faced action from Russia before. It was fined 7.2bn roubles ($90m; £70m) roubles in December 2021for failure to delete content deemed illegal in Russia.
12:55
Pope's meeting with Russian Orthodox leader called off
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis at a meeting in Havana in 2016
Copyright: Reuters
A planned meeting next month between Pope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox church has been suspended, the pope has said.
Speaking to an Argentine newspaper, the pope said Vatican diplomats had advised that such a meeting "could lend itself to much confusion at this moment".
The Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill has given his backing to Moscow's actions in Ukraine - a stance that has splintered the Orthodox Church abroad - while Francis has been critical of the war.
The meeting was reportedly being lined up for 14 June in Jerusalem, a day after the pope finished a trip to Lebanon.
The pair have only met on one previous occasion, in Havana in 2016.
13:14
Russia 'prepared to allow fighters to leave steelworks'
Russia is prepared to stop firing and allow fighters at the Azovstal steelworks in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol to leave the plant, along with any civilians that are still there, AFP reports, citing Russia's defence ministry.
Russia's defence ministry says it is ready for a humanitarian ceasefire at the steel plant - if Ukrainian soldiers surrender.
"We once again declare that Russia is ready at any moment to introduce a regime of silence and announce a humanitarian pause for the evacuation of civilians," the defence ministry is quoted as saying, adding that the ceasefire would start with the "raising of white flags" by Ukraine's forces.
Ukraine has so far not responded to the proposal.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to seal off a last group of fighters holed up there.
We have spoken to one of the last Ukrainian defenders at the Azovstal plant - read the interview here.
13:44
European chief highlights Russian losses in Putin call
Nick Beake
Reporting from Brussels
The European Council President Charles Michel highlighted Russia's "miscalculations and losses" during the invasion in a telephone call with Vladimir Putin.
Michel said on Twitter he had asked the Russian president to grant Ukrainians immediate humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities.
He stressed it was even more appropriate to do so in light of the Orthodox Easter.
A source told the BBC Michel had presented the EU’s position to Putin in “a blunt and direct manner”, adding he was aiming to "penetrate the information vacuum" that may exist around him.
Michel this week joined the list of other European leaders to have visited Kyiv for talks with President Zelensky.
14:11
Horrors of Russian occupation haunt Kyiv suburbs
Joel Gunter
Reporting from Irpin
The fighting in Ukraine has moved to the east and south, and with it, the conversations around the capital Kyiv have turned to the situation in southern Mariupol and its remaining defenders' fate.
But in the suburbs west of Kyiv, people are still haunted by the massacres that took place under Russian occupation. There are more than a thousand bodies backed up in the few morgues that are still functioning. They are stacked up outside on the ground and piled high in refrigerator trucks.
Some are still being dug up. At a cemetery near the suburb of Irpin on Thursday, a mother and her young child were exhumed by police, a month after they were killed and burned in their car by Russian soldiers and hastily buried by the child’s father on a small empty plot.
A few feet away from their shallow grave, tank tracks were still visible where the Russians had driven through the middle of the cemetery, smashing graves and headstones as they went.
All across the region, people are trying to piece their lives back together with dignity. But they face tasks unimaginable to those who have not experienced them: helping to exhume the bodies of their closest loved ones; searching libraries of gruesome images for a face they recognise; cleaning the rubbish left behind by the Russian soldiers who lived in their homes.
At some point, the destruction here will be less visible, but the trauma of carrying out these tasks will remain.
Russia seeks full control of Donbas, southern Ukraine - general
Russia is planning to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of its military operation in the country, a senior Russian military commander has reportedly said.
Russian news agencies quoted Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district, as saying Moscow also plans to forge a land corridor between Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He was quoted as saying: "Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which has already begun just two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea, as well as affect the vital facilities of the Ukrainian economy."
Minnekayev added that controlling southern Ukraine would also give access to Transnistria - a breakaway part of Moldova where Russian troops are already based.
The comments were reportedly made at a regional event, the annual meeting of the Union of Defence Industry Plants of Sverdlovsk Region.
The Russian Defence Ministry has been contacted by the BBC for a comment. It said it was "looking into this".
11:01
No respite for Easter holiday
Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv
Volunteers prepare Easter cakes in an old bakery which survived during Russia"s invasion in the town of Bucha
Copyright: Reuters
There had been hope for an Easter truce – a ceasefire to mark the Orthodox holiday that unites many Ukrainians and Russians.
It seems those hopes were in vain.
Speaking in his nightly address on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia, saying they "rejected the proposal to establish an Easter truce".
"This shows very well how the leaders of this state actually treat the Christian faith, one of the most joyful and important holidays."
It will be seen as particularly bad news for civilians still trapped in the southern city of Mariupol.
Despite Russia's declaration of victory on Thursday, it's thought tens of thousands of civilians are still trying to get out of the city, with humanitarian corridors considered essential for their safe passage.
But, it seems those two will not take place, today at least. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk wrote on her Telegram channel: "Because of the danger on the routes, today, on 22 April, there will be no humanitarian corridors."
And so, even as Ukrainians go to their Easter services this weekend, they will find no respite from the continuing war.
11:28
Russia fines Google 11m roubles for 'fake' videos
A court in Moscow has fined Google's parent company Alphabet Inc for failing to remove contentious videos.
The US tech giant was handed two fines totalling 11m roubles ($135,000; £155,000) for "administrative violations". The Tagansky District Court in Moscow said the company had distributed inaccurate data about Russian troop losses and civilian casualties in Ukraine, according to TASS news agency.
One of the videos was said to show a phone conversation between Russian soldiers and their relatives back home. The troops were said to be complaining of casualties in their ranks.
Some foreign social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have been blocked in Russia. YouTube, however, remains available.
Russia's communications watchdog has previously said it would take steps to punish Google for "spreading fakes" on YouTube, and had warned the US company it would be fined if it failed to comply.
Google has faced action from Russia before. It was fined 7.2bn roubles ($90m; £70m) roubles in December 2021for failure to delete content deemed illegal in Russia.
12:55
Pope's meeting with Russian Orthodox leader called off
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis at a meeting in Havana in 2016
Copyright: Reuters
A planned meeting next month between Pope Francis and the leader of the Russian Orthodox church has been suspended, the pope has said.
Speaking to an Argentine newspaper, the pope said Vatican diplomats had advised that such a meeting "could lend itself to much confusion at this moment".
The Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill has given his backing to Moscow's actions in Ukraine - a stance that has splintered the Orthodox Church abroad - while Francis has been critical of the war.
The meeting was reportedly being lined up for 14 June in Jerusalem, a day after the pope finished a trip to Lebanon.
The pair have only met on one previous occasion, in Havana in 2016.
13:14
Russia 'prepared to allow fighters to leave steelworks'
Russia is prepared to stop firing and allow fighters at the Azovstal steelworks in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol to leave the plant, along with any civilians that are still there, AFP reports, citing Russia's defence ministry.
Russia's defence ministry says it is ready for a humanitarian ceasefire at the steel plant - if Ukrainian soldiers surrender.
"We once again declare that Russia is ready at any moment to introduce a regime of silence and announce a humanitarian pause for the evacuation of civilians," the defence ministry is quoted as saying, adding that the ceasefire would start with the "raising of white flags" by Ukraine's forces.
Ukraine has so far not responded to the proposal.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to seal off a last group of fighters holed up there.
We have spoken to one of the last Ukrainian defenders at the Azovstal plant - read the interview here.
13:44
European chief highlights Russian losses in Putin call
Nick Beake
Reporting from Brussels
The European Council President Charles Michel highlighted Russia's "miscalculations and losses" during the invasion in a telephone call with Vladimir Putin.
Michel said on Twitter he had asked the Russian president to grant Ukrainians immediate humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities.
He stressed it was even more appropriate to do so in light of the Orthodox Easter.
A source told the BBC Michel had presented the EU’s position to Putin in “a blunt and direct manner”, adding he was aiming to "penetrate the information vacuum" that may exist around him.
Michel this week joined the list of other European leaders to have visited Kyiv for talks with President Zelensky.
14:11
Horrors of Russian occupation haunt Kyiv suburbs
Joel Gunter
Reporting from Irpin
The fighting in Ukraine has moved to the east and south, and with it, the conversations around the capital Kyiv have turned to the situation in southern Mariupol and its remaining defenders' fate.
But in the suburbs west of Kyiv, people are still haunted by the massacres that took place under Russian occupation. There are more than a thousand bodies backed up in the few morgues that are still functioning. They are stacked up outside on the ground and piled high in refrigerator trucks.
Some are still being dug up. At a cemetery near the suburb of Irpin on Thursday, a mother and her young child were exhumed by police, a month after they were killed and burned in their car by Russian soldiers and hastily buried by the child’s father on a small empty plot.
A few feet away from their shallow grave, tank tracks were still visible where the Russians had driven through the middle of the cemetery, smashing graves and headstones as they went.
All across the region, people are trying to piece their lives back together with dignity. But they face tasks unimaginable to those who have not experienced them: helping to exhume the bodies of their closest loved ones; searching libraries of gruesome images for a face they recognise; cleaning the rubbish left behind by the Russian soldiers who lived in their homes.
At some point, the destruction here will be less visible, but the trauma of carrying out these tasks will remain.
