Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in his nightly address that the situation in Donbas is difficult, and the Russians want to "destroy any life" in the region.
Re-cap the day's developments with our live blog.
Key events
- 'Our house was burned last night': Smaller villages evacuate to Kharkiv
- 'They hit so hard': Life in Kharkiv
- Ukraine has released a list of soldiers it accuses of war crimes in Bucha
- Russia 'days behind' in the east thanks to Ukrainian resistance
- Zelenskyy says Russia trying to 'destroy any life' in Donbas
- What's happening in Mariupol?
- Russia's made a late payment in dollars to avoid default
- Catch up with yesterday's blog
- 'It's brutality of the coldest and most depraved': Emotional statement from Pentagon spokesperson
Live updates
By Peta Fuller
That's all for today
We'll leave the blog here for today, but you can stay up-to-date with the latest news online or on the ABC News app.
By Peta Fuller
By Peta Fuller
'Our house was burned last night': Smaller villages evacuate to Kharkiv
Hundreds of people have been arriving in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after being evacuated from the nearby village of Ruska Lozova.
Interfax reported the key village on the highway was recently back under Ukrainian control, but this was unable to be independently verified.
The village had been under Russian occupation for more than a month.
A video posted by Ukraine's Azov battalion showed troops raising the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag over the government building in the center of the village, though fighting continued on the outskirts.
Tatiana Mirgorodskaya (below left) says her home in the village was destroyed:
"Our house was burned last night. The house burned and all that was inside. We have no place to stay. It is scary."
Ludmila Bocharnikova (below) described the conditions they faced there:
"We were hiding in the basement, it was horrific. The basement was shaking from the explosions, we were screaming, we were crying and we were praying to God."
By Peta Fuller
Civilian casualties pass 6,000, UN says true figure 'considerably higher'
The UN's Human Rights high commissioner says of the 6,134 recorded civilian casualties, 2,899 were killed and 3,235 injured since the war began in February.
It said most of the casualties were caused by explosive weapons, including heavy artillery shelling and missile strikes.
But the body believes the actual figure is far higher, with possible deaths and injuries in Mariupol, Izium (in the Kharkiv region), and Popasna (in the Luhansk region) yet to be included in the numbers.
By Peta Fuller
By Peta Fuller
Cyber attack on Romanian government sites blamed on Russia
Officials in Romania say the attack on sites, including the defence ministry, occurred because of Romania's support for Ukraine.
Romanian cybersecurity experts say a hacking group called Killnet that has been linked with Moscow has claimed responsibility.
Radio Romania reported sites for the border police, the passenger railway corporation CFR and the OTP Bank were hit.
Prague also accused pro-Russian hackers of attacks against Czech sites on April 21.
By Peta Fuller
'They hit so hard': Life in Kharkiv
Let's take a look at what's happening in some of the major conflict zones.
Kharkiv, a large city in the east, was home to around 1.4 million people in 2017 and has come under attack since the early days of the war.
Ukrainian fighters and residents spoke to the Associated Press about the attacks on the city.
This is Zoya:
Despite the absence of water, electricity, and other communications, some of the local residents remain in their apartments.
They gather outside multi-story buildings to cook on an open fire in the streets.
One reservist fighting in the city, Ihor, said they had no choice:
"When your city is being destroyed, when your close people are being killed, there is no other option, but to defend them."
He said the shelling tactics from the Russians haven't changed much and "it's constantly happening more or less at the same time. It varies between heavy and light shelling."
Another reservist who spoke to AP said people aren't just sheltering in basements, but are living in their apartments, despite the risk.
Kharkiv's Mayor Ihor Terekhov says about 20 per cent of the city's residential buildings have been so badly damaged that it will be impossible to restore them.
According to the Institute for the Study of War's latest report, the city won't become a site for a major counteroffensive in the coming days but Ukrainian resistance may force Russia to redeploy forces so they can hold their defensive positions.
By Peta Fuller
Ukraine has released a list of soldiers it accuses of war crimes in Bucha
Ukraine has announced a hunt for 10 Russian soldiers accused of war crimes in Bucha — a suburb north of Kyiv where at least 400 civilians were killed.
The Ministry of Defence shared pictures of the soldiers and called them the "despicable 10", saying "justice for war crimes is inevitable".
You can read more about those civilians who returned to (or survived) Bucha here, when the ABC's Sean Rubinsztein Dunlop went to the town.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are cracking down on people accused of helping Russian troops.
In the Kharkiv region alone, nearly 400 have been detained under anti-collaboration laws enacted after Moscow’s invasion.
By Peta Fuller
More than 1 million evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since February
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the 1.02 million includes 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics, which Russia recognised as independent just before launching its invasion.
According to data from the United Nations, more than 5.4 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
Mr Lavrov, in comments to China's official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian foreign ministry's website, said 2.8 million people in Ukraine have asked to be evacuated into Russia.
Ukraine has said that Moscow has forcefully deported thousands of people to Russia.
Reuters
By Peta Fuller
Australia's Olympic boss says committee will support Ukrainian athletes to resettle here
The outgoing Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates says the body will help those who want to come to Australia on humanitarian grounds.
Mr Coates told today's annual general meeting in Sydney that it was "sad" that young Ukrainian athletes were swapping sports equipment to take up arms against Russia's forces.
Retiring as AOC president after 32 years, Mr Coates used his final address to the annual meeting to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying:
"They have lost their right to membership of the international Olympic community. There are no stadiums for their colours, no poles for their flags, no music for their songs and no dais for their athletes," he said.
"That is the position of the IOC and the AOC. A position which remains until such time as there is cause to change."
He added that the AOC would contribute $100,000 to the IOC's "Solidarity Fund" for the Ukrainian Olympic community.
By Peta Fuller
Russia says its submarines hit Ukraine with cruise missiles
The Russian Defence Ministry released this video (below) showing a volley of Kalibr missiles emerging from the Black Sea and soaring off into the horizon — to what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets.
This is the first time that Russia's military has reported using submarine strikes against Ukrainian targets, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
By Peta Fuller
By Peta Fuller
By Peta Fuller
Ukraine war will become more violent, Australian expert says
An Australian military expert has warned that the conflict in Ukraine is only going to become more violent, with Ukrainian forces being bolstered by foreign equipment in the face of further Russian assaults.
Retired Australian army general Mick Ryan says western military aid is getting through and having an impact.
"We've seen the arrival in theatre of American howitzers, javelin missiles, stinger missiles, even the Australian bush masters are now being used by the Ukrainians on the ground. It is helping, but at the same time the Russians are concentrating a very large force in the east, so we should expect an increase in violence and casualties."
You can watch his comments above.
By Peta Fuller
Russia 'days behind' in the east thanks to Ukrainian resistance
A senior US defense official says the Russian offensive is going much slower than planned, in part because of the strength of the Ukrainian resistance.
He said the US believed the Russians were "at least several days behind where they wanted to be" as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east.
“We also assess that, because of this slow and uneven progress, again — without perfect knowledge of every aspect of the Russian plan — we do believe and assess that they are behind schedule in what they were trying to accomplish in Donbas,” the official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the US military’s assessment.
According to the latest from the Institute for the Study of War, the Russians had secured only minor advances west of Severodonetsk and did not advance on the Izyum front in the past 24 hours.
By Peta Fuller
By Peta Fuller
'If I died, I'd die with a full stomach': Lidia Zaika outlasted the Russian invaders
The ABC's correspondent Nick Dole has interviewed great-grandmother Lidia Zaika, who was holed up in her basement outside Kyiv for a month — and when she got out, was horrified by what she found.
Almost every house around Ms Zaika's home was destroyed or badly damaged.
"After a month, I came out of hiding. I saw the houses around me were bombed and burnt. The fire was spreading from one house to another," she told the ABC.
"And then I realised I was all alone."
Unbeknownst to her, almost everyone in the town of Moschun (below) had already fled, so Ms Zaika was forced to survey the damage on her own.
You can read more here.
By Peta Fuller
Zelenskyy: High risk peace talks will collapse
In comments to journalists in Poland, President Zelenskyy expressed pessimism over the prospect of continued negotiations with Russia, blaming public anger with what he said were Russian atrocities.
"The risks that the talks will end are high because of what they (the Russians) have left behind them, the impression that they have a playbook on murdering people," Interfax quoted Mr Zelenskyy telling Polish journalists.
Ukraine and Russia have not held face-to-face peace talks since March 29, and the atmosphere has soured over Ukrainian allegations that Russian troops carried out atrocities as they withdrew from areas near Kyiv.
Moscow has denied the claims. The two sides have since held talks by video link.
Reuters
By Peta Fuller
Evacuations from the east
Children and the elderly packed into an evacuation bus in the eastern Ukrainian town of Lyman on Friday, local time, as Russia stepped up its assault in the east of the country.
A railway station in the village (which is in the Donetsk region, one of two that make up Donbas), was hit by a shell on Thursday.
Ukraine has acknowledged losing control of some towns and villages there since the assault began last week, but says Moscow's gains have come at a massive cost to a Russian force already worn down from its earlier defeat near the capital.
Ukraine's military said Russia was preparing for offensives in the areas of Lyman in Donetsk and Severodonetsk and Popasna in Luhansk. In the south, Russia was "continuing to regroup, increase fire effectiveness and improve position," it added.
