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[DaffyVina]

4:47
Russia announces ceasefire in surrounded Mariupol

The Russian defence ministry has announced a ceasefire in Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol - starting on Thursday morning - to allow civilians to be evacuated.

"For this humanitarian operation to succeed, we propose to carry it out with the direct participation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross," the ministry said in a statement quoted by Agence France-Press on Wednesday.

The humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia - through the Russian-controlled port town of Berdiansk - will open at 1000 local time (0700 GMT)

Ukraine has not commented on the announcement.

Previous attempts to establish a ceasefire in Mariupol have collapsed amid accusations of bad faith from both sides. Russia has also been accused of forcibly relocating thousands of civilians to Russia or Russian-controlled areas.

The announcement comes as new satellite photos showed the destruction caused by the shelling.

The images, released by the Earth observation company Maxar, showed that residential areas have been reduced to rubble and highlighted Russian artillery cannons in firing positions on the outskirts of the city.



5:05
Zelensky warns of new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is bracing for a new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, in a statement released late on Thursday.

"There is an accumulation of Russian troops for new strikes in Donbas. And we are preparing for this," he said in the statement.

He expressed skepticism at Russia’s statement in negotiations to scale down military operations around the capital, Kyiv, and another main city Chernihiv.

"We do not believe anyone - we do not trust any beautiful verbal constructions," Zelensky said.

He said there was no reason to believe Russia’s announcement that it would reduce military activity near those cities, given Russian forces had continued to pummel Kyiv and Chernihiv with strikes a day after making those pledges.

Deadly shelling was also reported in Irpin, along with intensified attacks in the Donbas region.

Zelensky also reaffirmed Ukraine's commitment to protecting their territory, saying "We will not give up anything. And we will fight for every metre of our land, for every person."



5:57
Why is Ukraine preparing for new strikes on the east?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cast doubt on Russia's claims it is de-escalating fighting in his country, calling it the precursor to "new strikes" in the eastern breakaway region of Donbas.

Five days earlier, Russia said that it had achieved the main objectives of its first stage of the invasion and would concentrate its main efforts on achieving its main goal: the liberation of Donbas.

The BBC's Diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams said at the time that the announcement was likely to mean a more concerted effort to push beyond the "line of contact" that separates Ukrainian government-held territory in the east of the country from the Russian backed separatist "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Moscow claims 93% of the Donbas region of Luhansk is under the control of Russian-backed separatists now, with 54% of the other part of Donbas, Donetsk, in their hands. More than a third of the entire area was under separatist control before the war began.

As many as 10 new battalion tactical groups are being generated and put into Russia's operations, especially in the Donbas, our correspondent said.



6:13
How Russian state TV is reporting the Ukraine war
BBC Monitoring - The world through its media

Ukraine and the "special military operation", as it must be called in Russia, remained the focus of the main evening TV news bulletins in the country on Wednesday.

Restrictions on reporting in the country are increasingly severe, and access to almost all independent outlets is blocked or limited - or they censor themselves.

Official state TV Rossiya 1, state-controlled Channel One and Gazprom Media's NTV carried lengthy and similar segments, with reports that reiterated long-running state narratives

Here's a roundup of their coverage:

A "planned regrouping" is taking place and the first phase of the operation has achieved its objective. The focus now is "complete liberation of Donbas".
On the latest round of talks in Istanbul, Ukraine had finally been made to accept demands that Russia had been pressing upon it for years.
Residential buildings had been destroyed and civilians killed in Donetsk and Luhansk by missile strikes to Ukrainian "neo-Nazis".
On the Western media's coverage of the war, they noted that a viral video apparently showing Russian POWs being shot has caused shock abroad. You can read more about that video here.

[DaffyVina]

6:28
Pictures show fires at Luhansk oil depot

Fires at an oil depot in Luhansk
Copyright: Луганська ОВА
These pictures show the destruction at an oil depot in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

They were published by the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration and claim to show the consequences of the shelling of the site in Lysychansk. The BBC has not been able to independently verify these pictures:

Fires at an oil depot in Luhansk
Copyright: Луганська ОВА

A firefighter walks past fires at an oil depot
Copyright: Луганська ОВА

Fires at an oil depot in Luhansk
Луганська ОВА


6:42
Mariupol's refugees carry wounds of battered city
Lucy Williamson - BBC News, Lviv

Natalia and Yevgen - Copyright: BBC
Image caption: Natalia and Yevgen escaped Mariupol with their son Alexander, fleeing to Lviv in western Ukraine

There is no humanitarian corridor now out of Mariupol.

Just a trickle of people gambling on Russian military checkpoints - and Russian political whim.

But getting out of the besieged southern city is only the first challenge; the other is leaving it behind when you do.

Alexander was brought to an Israeli field hospital near Lviv last week, catatonic.

His 24-year-old brain was stuck on the horror he'd lived through: on the Russian rockets that hit the apartment block where he was staying with his parents; on the rubble and dead bodies they ran through, without even putting on their shoes.

"It was constant bombing," says his father, Yevgen. "Planes went past every 10 minutes and dropped bombs on Mariupol. People were falling and dying in front of my eyes. We buried people in gardens."

Some 160,000 people are thought to still be trapped inside the city.

France, Greece and Turkey have all tried to push for a pause in the attacks to get aid in and allow civilians to leave.

But Russia's President Putin has said Mariupol must surrender in order for the bombardment to stop.



6:54
Russian shelling on Chernihiv continues despite claims of scaling back - MoD
The damaged historical building of the Korolenko library in Chernihiv after shelling.
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: The historical building of the Korolenko library in Chernihiv was damaged during shelling of the city.

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has released its latest intelligence update on Russia's assault on Ukraine.

The MoD says despite Moscow saying it plans to scale back its military activity around the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, "significant Russian shelling and missile strikes have continued".

The update warns there is likely to be "heavy fighting" in the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the coming days as Russian troops maintain positions to the east and west of the city - although a limited number of units have withdrawn.

Heavy fighting is continuing in Mariupol, but Ukrainian forces are still in control of the city, the update added.

[DaffyVina]

7:11
Putin not being told the truth on Ukraine - UK intelligence agency
The head of the UK's cyber and security agency, GCHQ, believes Russia has massively misjudged the situation in Ukraine and some of Vladimir Putin’s advisers are not telling him the truth.

Sir Jeremy Fleming has given a rare speech during a visit to Australia in which he said that Russian soldiers – short of weapons and morale – had refused to carry out orders, sabotaged their own equipment and even accidentally shot down their own aircraft.

Putin's advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, he said, but what's going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.

"It all adds up to the strategic miscalculation that Western leaders warned Putin it would be. It's become his personal war, with the cost being paid by innocent people in Ukraine and, increasingly, by ordinary Russians too."

Sir Jeremy also said there were risks for China in being too closely aligned with Russia.

Beijing’s aspirations to become a leading player on the global stage would not be served by being associated with a regime in Moscow that had willfully and illegally ignored global rules, he said.



7:47
Kyiv is not the main Russian effort now - analyst
Emergency service member helps Vera, 67, as walks after she was evacuated from Irpin town, as Russia"s attack on Ukraine continues, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine March 30, 2022.
Copyright: re
Image caption: Some residents were evacuated from the town or Irpin, near Kyiv, on Wednesday

Dr Jack Watling, research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, has been giving regular assessments on Russian manoeuvres in Ukraine.

He says it is clear that the assault on Kyiv is now a secondary axis and not the main effort for Russian troops.

After pushing forward towards the capital in a bid to gain Russian troops were left exposed, giving the Ukrainians opportunities to attack and push back those troops.

He says they are now withdrawing to positions that are more defensible, more consolidated, but they will continue to use artillery to prevent those positions being attacked.

Russian units around Kyiv are unlikely to be sent directly to the Donbas as they will be very tired, he says.

Due to a lack of logistics when they came into Ukraine the Russians "really struggled to get a grip on the campaign" but that is now shifting, Watling says.

"We are seeing a significant increase in both Russian command and control, their ability to coordinate artillery accurately with their units.

And so it seems like they are getting a grip on where their people are and how to make sure they are equipped and supplied properly."



8:02
UK spy boss warns China on Russian alliance
More on the UK spy agency's assessment of the war, and it's head Sir Jeremy Fleming has warned China of the risks of being too closely aligned with Russia.

In a speech in Australia he said China's long-term interests are not well served by an alliance with a country that ignores the international "rules of the road".

But while he said the Kremlin views China as a market for its oil and gas and a way to circumvent sanctions, China's President Xi has a more nuanced view of the relationship.

China has not condemned the invasion of Ukraine and Sir Jeremy said that with "an eye on retaking Taiwan", Xi would not want to do anything which might constrain his actions in future.

He may calculate that it actually helps him oppose the US, and Beijing is taking the opportunity to purchase cheap Russian hydrocarbons.

"Russia understands that, long term, China will become increasingly strong militarily and economically. Some of their interests conflict; Russia could be squeezed out of the equation," he said.

[DaffyVina]

Ukraine round-up: Russia sets gas deadline for West and troops leave Chernobyl
Published9 hours ago

More than five weeks into Russia's war on Ukraine, Moscow has threatened to cut off Western nations from natural gas supplies - something that could affect energy prices across Europe.

Vladimir Putin has followed through on weeks of threats by signing a decree that foreign countries they must start paying for gas in Russian roubles or it will halt supplies.

And those new rules start on Friday, meaning Western nations were effectively handed a midnight deadline to comply.

"Nobody sells us anything for free, and we are not going to do charity either - that is, existing contracts will be stopped," the Russian president said.

Many payments for April gas deliveries are reportedly not due until later in the month, so it is not thought that there is an immediate threat to supplies. It is also still unclear whether the new payment mechanism set out by Russia would fully ban euros.

But France and Germany condemned Mr Putin's demands as being akin to "blackmail".

Western companies and governments have previously rejected Russia's demands to pay for gas in roubles as a breach of existing contracts, which are set in euros or US dollars.

Yet the EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia, and there is no ready-to-go replacement. Notably, the EU did not enact sanctions on Russian fuel supplies - even though other Western nations such as the US and Canada did.

Mr Putin's demand to be paid in roubles is widely seen as an attempt to boost the currency, which has been hit by the wide range of international sanctions that followed the invasion of Ukraine.

'Most Russian troops' leaving Chernobyl, Ukraine says

Many Russian troops occupying the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl have left, Ukraine's state nuclear operator has said.

Energoatom said two columns of Russian forces had set off towards the Belarusian border on Thursday morning, leaving just a few soldiers at the site.

Several days ago the mayor of Slavutych, a nearby town housing workers at the plant, announced that Russian troops had also left the town.

The withdrawal follows reports that some Russian soldiers are being treated for radiation poisoning in Belarus after spending time in the most contaminated part of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was investigating the report.

Russia's occupation of the site since 24 February, the day of the invasion, has been dogged with concerns about power outages and problems for the staff, many of whom were trapped there for weeks and could not get home.

It is the site of what is considered to be the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, and while no longer a working power station, Chernobyl still requires constant management.

Russia "redeploying" not retreating
Troops leaving some occupied areas might sound like a win for Ukraine, but Western intelligence warns that Russia is redeploying, rather than retreating.

"Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce," Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

Russia said earlier this week that it was planning to "radically" reduce its military activity in some places - such as near the capital Kyiv or the city of Chernihiv - and concentrate on the eastern Donbas region.

Shelling continues on cities, including those Russia suggested it would reduce its assault on, but Mr Stoltenberg said Nato can see Russia re-positioning troops.

Echoing Mr Stoltenberg's remarks, the UK's Defence Secretary warned that Russia's change in tactics was "not a retreat", and that it was "changing its focus" after its first efforts were rebutted.

Are tech companies removing evidence of war crimes?

Social media companies are used to pulling down vast amounts of content that break the rules, erasing it from the internet. They're expected to do so, by governments and regulators.

But what happens when efficient artificial intelligence moderators are removing evidence of possible war crimes, sweeping it away from investigators' eyes?

TikTok, for example, does not allow "shock value" or violence, or anything that is "gratuitously" sadistic or gruesome.

But Ukrainians uploading videos from the ground could be generating more than "likes", BBC technology reporter James Clayton writes.

They may well be uploading a piece in a jigsaw of evidence that will one day be used to prosecute war crimes.

[DaffyVina]

Mariupol evacuation delayed, Red Cross says

The evacuation of thousands of civilians from the besieged south-eastern city of Mariupol has been delayed until Friday, the Red Cross has said.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said a convoy of 45 Ukrainian buses was on its way to the port city, but humanitarian officials said the operation had been delayed for security and logistical concerns.

One resident of the city, Yevgen, described the humanitarian disaster civilians have faced to the BBC.

"It was constant bombing," he said. "Planes went past every 10 minutes and dropped bombs on Mariupol. People were falling and dying in front of my eyes. We buried people in gardens."

Another resident, Natalia, said Russia soldiers have been infiltrating the city and offering food to civilians in a PR campaign.

"Some people couldn't resist taking them, because they hadn't eaten for several days," she said. "When you're suffering like that, you'll take anything."

[DaffyVina]

23:54 31 Mar
Russian economy to shrink by 10% - forecast

Russia's economy is set to shrink by 10% this year and Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 20% as the conflict results in "the greatest supply shock" for 50 years, according to a forecast by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Thursday.

Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the London-based bank had forecast Ukraine's GDP would expand by 3.5% this year and the Russian economy would grow by 3%.

The bank says its latest forecasts "assume that a ceasefire is brokered within a couple of months, followed soon after by the start of a major reconstruction effort in Ukraine."

Were this to play out, Ukraine's GDP should rebound by 23% next year, while sanctions-hit Russia would be set for zero growth.

Meanwhile, the lender says the global economy faces "the greatest supply shock since at least the early 1970s".

"Russia and Ukraine supply a disproportionately high share of commodities, including wheat, corn, fertiliser, titanium, and nickel."

The bank predicts higher prices for such commodities will have a "profound impact" on global economies, hitting lower-income nations particularly hard.

1/4/22 - 0:01
Putin's in a cage he built himself, says UK defence minister
Russia is now a "lesser country" as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, says UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

Speaking to Sky News, he added: "President Putin is not the force he used to be. He is now a man in a cage he built himself.

"His army is exhausted, he has suffered significant losses.

"The reputation of this great army of Russia has been trashed.

"He has not only got to live with the consequences of what he is doing to Ukraine, but he has also got to live with the consequences of what he has done to his own army."

Wallace says Russian forces appear to be regrouping and shifting their focus towards the south and east of Ukraine.

"We have seen it before. It always gets worse. It goes for more civilian attacks, more civilian areas."

He adds that international allies have agreed to supply more military equipment and "lethal aid" to Ukraine, including armoured vehicles and long-range artillery and ammunition.

[DaffyVina]

0:01
Russian forces building up near Mariupol, says Zelensky

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says the situation in the south and the Donbas region remains extremely difficult.

In a video address tonight, he reiterated that Russia was building up forces near the besieged city of Mariupol.

"There will be battles ahead. We still need to go down a very difficult path to get everything we want," he said.

Russia said earlier a humanitarian corridor would be opened on Friday to allow civilians out of the south eastern port city of Mariupol.

0:24
Pictures: Surviving in bombed out Mariupol
There are hopes that evacuation buses will finally reach the besieged port city of Mariupol on Friday, and rescue some of at least 100,000 residents stranded there.

Without water, power or heating, temperatures sometimes below zero, and food and medicine running out, those remaining have been largely living in basements and cooking what food they have on open fires.

Photos from the city tell a story of survival amidst the rubble, where even graves have had to be improvised.

A Mariupol resident sits outside a damaged building, 31 March
ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Residents cook in the stairwell of an apartment building, 28 March
ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Graves next to an apartment building in Mariupol, 31 March
ReutersCopyright: Reuters

A boy rides a bike past shell casings in Mariupol, 31 March
ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Residents site on a bench by a birdcage in Mariupol, 31 March
ReutersCopyright: Reuters

2:03
Drones capture Mariupol devastation
As we reported earlier, Ukraine is seeking to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the besieged south-eastern port city of Mariupol on Friday.

A convoy of 45 buses on its way to the city was held up by Russian forces on Thursday.

Some 100,000 people remain in the city, which has been under constant bombardment over the past five weeks.

Verified drone footage from inside Mariupol has captured the extent of its destruction.


7:10
Medical and humanitarian aid for Mariupol stranded in Zaporizhzhia
Wyre Davies - BBC News, Zaporizhzhia

A Red Cross (ICRC) convoy carrying humanitarian and medical aid into Mariupol is stranded in Zaporizhzhia as the required security guarantees for the team have not yet been received, on Friday.

The convoy of five support vehicles and two aid trucks would hopefully bring some relief to the besieged city where tens of thousands of people remain trapped.

Amid some confusion, the Red Cross team was also hoping to supervise the extraction of hundreds of civilians from Mariupol on buses provided by the Ukrainian government. Those buses, more than 40 in number, travelled ahead of the ICRC team on Thursday but, according to Ukrainian sources, were stopped at the town of Berdyansk in Russian-held territory.

According to reports, some of the buses were looted by Russian soldiers of some of the aid they were carrying. A small number of buses were able to return independently to Zaporizhzhia with civilians on board who were fleeing fighting in other Russian-controlled areas.

The Red Cross team are unlikely to proceed without the necessary security guarantees (a ceasefire) from all sides. How the 30 remaining buses, still believed to be delayed in Berdyansk, proceed either with or without ICRC supervision is also unclear.


7:55
'Very dangerous' to leave Mariupol - mayor's aide
An aide to the mayor of Mariupol has said the besieged southern Ukrainian city remained closed for anyone trying to enter and was "very dangerous" for anyone trying to leave, Reuters news agency reports.

Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces had been preventing humanitarian supplies reaching trapped residents, making clear a planned "humanitarian corridor" had not been opened.

We reported earlier that a Red Cross convoy carrying medical aid to the port city has been delayed.

[DaffyVina]

0:50
Zelensky fires 'traitors'

There was a rare glimpse of internal dissent in President Zelensky's nightly video address.

He announced he had sacked two senior members of the Ukrainian national security service on the grounds they were “traitors”.

"Today another decision was made regarding anti-heroes” he said. “I do not have time to deal with all the traitors, but they will gradually all be punished.”

He named the two top officials, adding that those "who break the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people... will inevitably be deprived of high military ranks".

“Random generals are out of our way!” he added.

1:37
Zelensky: Invaders are 'hellish chimeras'
In his video address, Zelensky also used some colourful imagery to depict the Russian forces as "evil".

He said "the invaders have been trying to break in and get a foothold in our house from different directions – from the ground, from the sky, from the sea.

"They crawl, fly, sail. They have so much evil, so much thirst for destruction that it reminds us not of people, but of something otherworldly.

"Monsters who burn and plunder, who attack and are bent on murder. Some hellish chimeras."

1:17
UK: Russia redeploying troops from Georgia

The UK's Ministry of Defence says some Russian forces currently deployed in Georgia will be sent to reinforce troops in Ukraine.

It's the latest sign that Moscow's game plan on the ground is changing, five weeks into a largely stalled invasion.

The move is "indicative of the unexpected losses it has sustained during the invasion", the ministry said.

It added that some of the redeployed forces are expected to be reorganised into three battalion tactical groups for combat.

2:59
Kyiv crisis reportedly easing

BBC Russian reports that the situation around Kyiv appears to be improving.

It cites Mykola Zhirnov, the head of the Kyiv military administration, as saying that companies and services in the city are operating normally.

"The day in Kyiv passed peacefully," Zhirnov said.

However, fighting is still going on in the outskirts of the capital.

Russian forces shelled the towns of Irpin and Makariv on Thursday, while battles were also reported around Hostomel and Brovary in the suburbs.

Local authorities say residents should remain cautious.

3:53
Australia to send Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his country will send some armoured Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine, following an address by President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Australian Parliament.

In his address on Thursday night, President Zelensky had said Ukraine was in desperate need of military aid.

The number of vehicles to be transferred was not immediately known, although Defence Minister Peter Dutton earlier said only four could be transported at a time on Australian military planes.

Canberra has previously used the vehicles in warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq.

4:13
European Parliament President to visit Ukraine
The president of the European Parliament is set to travel to Ukraine.

"On my way to Kyiv," Roberta Metsola wrote in a post on Twitter on Thursday.

Details of Metsola's trip and who she will meet with have not been revealed "due to security concerns", according to a parliament official.

Earlier this week, the president said it was "important for the European Parliament to support Ukraine’s aspiration to be a candidate country for accession".

[DaffyVina]

5:00
Russian UN rep dismisses Crimea proposal in BBC interview
Nada Tawfik - BBC News, New York

At the last round of peace talks in Istanbul, Ukraine proposed abandoning its NATO ambitions and becoming a neutral state in exchange for security guarantees and freezing the status of occupied Crimea for 15 years.

But Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy has poured cold water on that proposal.

He told me that while it was too early to determine the specifics of a peace agreement, returning control of Crimea and the Donbas region to Ukraine was off the table.

“Crimea is part of the Russian Federation, I think this issue is closed so there’s nothing to consult about," he said.

The unlawful annexation is not internationally recognized.

But he was less definitive, however, about whether Russia would accept Ukraine joining the European Union, saying there were different ideas about it in Moscow.

Weeks in, the deputy ambassador says his country’s military operation is going to plan and that suggestions by the White House that President Putin is being misled are “ridiculous.”

He responds to most questions by trying to undermine the facts that underpin them or by deflecting away from them:

Russia shelling civilians and committing crimes against humanity? Fake news, he says
Russia blocking humanitarian access? Ukrainian nationals are at fault, not Russia, he alleges
Russian generals being killed in high numbers? That was debunked, he claims

The trouble is, if the UN General Assembly’s voting record is any indication, very few nations believe Moscow’s propaganda.

5:29
Navigating landmines on the highway outside of Kyiv
This is some precise driving.

This video, appearing to show cars carefully driving around landmines in the road, has emerged on social media. It's believed to be the E373 highway near the village of Potashnya, north-west of Kyiv.

The BBC cannot independently verify this video, or confirm who placed the mines or why.

A former British Army tank commander said they appear to be soviet era TM-62M anti-tank mines, carrying around 7.5kg (16.5lbs) of explosives, which explode only when subjected to significant pressure.

Justin Crump said both sides are using mines in this area to prevent battlefield movement, and added it was a "highly ineffective minefield, placed out mainly for effect".

6:27
Civilian vehicles and property looted by Russian forces - Ukraine

Ukrainian forces say the partial withdrawal of Russian forces from northern Kyiv toward the border with Belarus is continuing. Here's what else it said in its daily military update:

These columns of military and civilian vehicles include buses, trucks and vans, which were stolen by Russian forces
Russian forces also took looted property with them
In some areas which were occupied by Russian forces, Ukrainian businesses were asked to deal in Russian roubles.
Ukrainian forces destroyed three tanks, two armoured vehicles, two vehicles and two artillery systems. They also took down an 'Orlan-10' unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
The BBC has not independently verified these claims.


6:59
Ukraine retakes villages between Chernihiv and Kyiv - UK MoD
It's now just past 9:00am in Kyiv, and the UK Ministry of Defence has published its latest daily intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine. Here's what they've said:

Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka to the south of Chernihiv and located along one of the main supply routes between that city and Kyiv.
Ukraine continues to make successful but limited counterattacks to the east and north-east of Kyiv.
Both Chernihiv and Kyiv have faced continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing military activity in these areas.
This comes as Nato's general secretary Jens Stoltenberg said Russian forces in Ukraine are regrouping to double down on their attacks in the east of the country

[DaffyVina]

5:43
BREAKING
Russian governor accuses Ukraine of attacking oil depot
The regional governor of the Russian city of Belgorod has accused Ukrainian military helicopters of attacking an oil depot in the city.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel that the fire, which broke out on Friday morning, was caused by air strikes from two Ukrainian helicopters.

He had earlier said that two were injured, but not in any life-threatening danger. Residents of nearby streets were evacuated as firefighters tackle the blaze, he said.

It comes just two days after the region also saw explosions at an arms storage building. Belgorod sits just north of the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any of the blasts.

6:11
Where is the city of Belgorod?
A video showing what is allegedly an oil depot on fire in the Russian city of Belgorod is being widely shared on social media.

Huge plumes of smoke can be seen rising up into the sky, in this tweet by Belarusian media outlet Nexta.

Belgorod's regional governor has accused Ukrainian military helicopters of being behind the attack. Ukraine has not claimed any responsbility.

Belgorod is located about 30km (18mi) from the Ukrainian border and 60 km from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which has been bombed by Russian troops since the start of the war.

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

7:28
Eight fuel tanks on fire in Belgorod - state media
Eight tanks of fuel are on fire at the oil depot in Belgorod in Russia and there is a threat of the fire moving to eight more, Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti is reporting emergency services as saying.

The agency says that residents of nearby streets are being evacuated but mayor Anton Ivanov has said that two workers at the depot were not injured.

The regional governor earlier said the fire was a result of a strike by two Ukrainian military helicopters. Ukraine has not claimed the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify the claims.