The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday, local time, that one serviceman was dead, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the flagship missile cruiser Moskva last week.
Look back on how Saturday's events unfolded in our blog.
Key events
Live updates
By Simon Smale
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By Simon Smale
Damage to the village of Borodianka
Borodianka, to the north west of Kyiv, has been pummelled by Russian forces.
By Simon Smale
Germany to host US-led defence meeting next week
The Pentagon says US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defence officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraine’s immediate and long-term defence needs.
The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, said Friday that about 40 nations, including NATO members, were invited and that responses are still arriving for the session to be held Tuesday at Ramstein air base.
He did not identify the nations that have agreed to attend but said more details will be provided in coming days.
The meeting comes as Russia gears up for what is expected to be a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
The agenda will include an updated assessment of the Ukraine battlefield as well as discussion of efforts to continue a steady flow of weapons and other military aid, Mr Kirby said.
It will include consultations on Ukraine’s post-war defence needs but is not expected to consider changes in the US military posture in Europe, he said.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
World witnessing 'biggest humanitarian catastrophe' in Mariupol: Ukraine PM
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday the world is witnessing the "biggest humanitarian catastrophe" in Mariupol.
Mr Shmyhal was speaking to reporters in Washington after concluding talks with US officials this week.
He is the most senior Ukrainian official to visit the US since the start of Russia's invasion and amid its ongoing military offensive in the eastern Donbas region of the country.
"We would like to finish this war. This is our position. We are fighting for our freedom, for democracy and for our territories," Mr Shmyjhal said.
"But Russia is fighting to conquer us, to make a genocide of Ukrainian people, so they should stop. And we agreed and we want stop this war."
Satellite images released Thursday showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, and local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians there in an effort to conceal the slaughter taking place in the siege of the port city.
Satellite image provider Maxar Technologies released the photos, which it said showed more than 200 mass graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
Moldovan government hits out at Russian military official
The Moldovan government strongly criticised comments Friday by a Russian military official suggesting that Russia's forces are aiming to take control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern Ukraine as well, creating “another way” to the region of Transnistria in Moldova.
Moldova's government on Friday called Rustam Minnekayev's comments “not only unacceptable but also unfounded."
The statement added that his words will “lead to increased tension and mistrust in society.”
Mr Minnekayev said at a defense industry event earlier Friday that broader control of Ukraine would open the way to Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria.
Transnistria broke away after a short civil war in the early 1990s and is unrecognized by most countries. An estimated 1,500 Russian soldiers have been stationed there since the civil war.
Since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine on February 24, fears have grown that Moldova could be next in Russia's crosshairs.
Moldova is not a member of the European Union or NATO.
The war has prompted Moldovan officials to try to speed up the country's bid to join the 27-nation EU, which it applied to do last month. The process, however, will likely take many years.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
Ukraine PM sure of victory soon
Ukraine will be victorious in its war against Russia very soon, its prime minister said on Friday, after Britain's Boris Johnson said it remained a realistic possibility Russia could still win.
"We are absolutely sure that Ukraine will win in this war and victory will be in (a) very short period," Denys Shmyhal told CNN, when asked about Johnson's comment.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
By Simon Smale
Russian OIympic swimming champion Evgeny Rylov banned for attending pro-Putin rally
The star of Russia's swim team at the Tokyo Olympics, Evgeny Rylov, is banned from competing for nine months by FINA for attending a Moscow rally in support of President Vladimir Putin.
By Simon Smale
UN Secretary-General to meet with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday
UN Secretary-General António Guterres plans to meet Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to press for fighting to stop in Ukraine.
The UN chief will travel to Moscow for conversations with Mr Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko said Friday.
She said discussions about a similar visit to Ukraine are under way.
“He wants to discuss with the leadership steps that can be taken right now in order to silence the guns, in order to help the people and in order to allow the people who need to get out” to do so safely, she said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Guterres is due to meet Tuesday with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that Mr Putin will also host the UN chief.
Mr Guterres asked to meet with both Mr Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in their respective capitals. Ukraine has welcomed the idea.
Mr Guterres had appealed for a four-day “humanitarian pause” in fighting leading up to Sunday, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
By Simon Smale
UN Human Rights Commission reveals violations against civilians
The United Nations Human Rights Commission says investigations in Ukraine have revealed a horror story of violations against civilians.
The commission says it has received more than 300 allegations of killings of civilians in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions, which were all under the control of Russian armed forces in late February and early March.
Matilda Bogner, who took part in the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, says such wilful killings amount to war crimes.
"We documented, for example, in a one-day trip just to Bucha, 50 unlawful killings, which included summary executions.
"There are bodies, there is clear evidence. People witnessed what happened.
"We have not yet collected all of it. There is a lot more to collect and we will be doing further visits."
Reporting by ABC Radio.
By Simon Smale
Inside the Azovstal steelworks exists Mariupol's last pocket of resistance against Russia
The sprawling Azovstal steelworks has become the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the southern port city of Mariupol.
Benay Ozdemir takes us inside the sprawling, 11 square-kilometre complex and its labyrinth of underground tunnels by talking to former employee, Kateryna Kitrish.
By Simon Smale
Russia offered surrender option to Mariupol steel plant defenders: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia gave Ukrainian forces inside the Mariupol steel plant the option to surrender, with guarantees to keep them alive on Friday.
The comments came during a phone call between Mr Putin and European Council President Charles Michel, according to a readout of the call provided by the Kremlin.
Mr Putin also said the Ukrainian forces were offered “decent treatment and medical care.”
“But the Kyiv regime does not allow them to take this opportunity,” Mr Putin said, according to the Kremlin.
Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city's highest point, its TV tower.
It also showed what it said was the main building at Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant in flames.
Russian forces have pummelled an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters holed up inside the sprawling Azovstal plant, the last known pocket of resistance in the strategic southern port city, the mayor’s office reported.
“Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor.
“Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.”
Ukraine said Russia has shifted a dozen crack military units from the shattered port of Mariupol to eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin has thrown over 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
Mr Danilov reported that some 12 to 14 of Russia’s elite military units have, in fact, left Mariupol and begun moving to the east to take part in the fighting there.
“It will now be difficult for our forces, because our guys in Mariupol were taking (those units) on themselves. It is their courage and feat,” he said.
Mr Danilov also said Kyiv managed to deliver weapons via helicopter at great risk under cover of night to the Mariupol steelworks, which have been bombarded for weeks.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
'Hope dies last' in Kharkiv
Russian forces continue to pound away at Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, with a Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesperson saying residential areas were being targeted.
A team of Associated Press journalists had to duck for cover as they tried to film the aftermath of the attacks.
Residents hiding in basements and other makeshift shelters used brief lulls in the violence to move out in the open.
One of them said life in the city was "terrible" and admitted she was desperate to leave.
Only the fact she owned some animals kept her in Kharkiv, she explained.
"I was hoping [it will be ok]. Hope dies last," she added.
Another resident expressed hope that Europe would send more military aid to Ukraine.
"Because we are suffering for two months. One more day of this and I will go crazy," she said.
Kharkiv lies outside the Donbas, the industrial region in the east that the Kremlin has declared the new, main theatre of war.
But it is seen as one of the gateways the Russians intend to use to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Donbas from the north.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine may deliver his worst nightmare: The expansion of NATO
A seismic shift has taken place in Finland since the invasion of Ukraine, which could lead to its possible ascension into NATO.
It would deliver a significant blow to the Russian President by potentially bringing the West right to his doorstep.
By Simon Smale
Ukraine security chief: Main battles taking place in Donbas
Ukraine’s security chief said on Friday, local time, that the main battles in Ukraine were taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russians deploying more and more troops every day.
Oleksiy Danilov — secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council — told The Associated Press that more than 100,000 soldiers were fighting for Russia in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya. He said more troops keep coming in.
“We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” Danilov said.
He called the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions the main hot spots of the fighting. Battles were also being fought in the south of Ukraine, but at a lower intensity, he said.
Some 12 to 14 of Russia’s elite military units have left the strategic port city of Mariupol, which was declared “liberated” by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.
“It will now be difficult for our forces, because our guys in Mariupol were taking (those units) on themselves, it is their courage and feat,” Danilov said.
He said Ukraine was able to deliver weapons to Azovstal, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, by helicopters at night.
“They went there at night at great risk,” Danilov said.
“When these flights departed and they asked them what to fill the helicopters with … they answered - fully load them with weapons.”
Danilov urged Western nations to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country, because “of course, we can’t be compared to Russia in terms of strength." He said supplies should be increased so that “we could end this war on our territory as soon as possible.”
If the war continues, Ukraine can mobilize 2.5 million to 3 million people to fight, Danilov said. "If needed, our people will be joining the army and taking up arms,” he said.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
More evidence of graves being dug outside Mariupol
Another mass grave has been found outside Mariupol, the city council and an adviser to the mayor said Friday.
The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 metres by 25 metres that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.
It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is roughly 10km east of Mariupol.
Images from Maxar Technologies also appeared to show new excavations at Vynohradne, that it says consist of 40-metre long parallel trenches.
Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.
Maxar says the new trenches at Vynohradne were dug at approximately the same time that new graves were first being established in Manhush.
The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.
Reporting by AP/Maxar Technologies
By Simon Smale
Civilians killed, injured in Donetsk
At least three civilians died and seven more were injured in shelling attacks in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Friday, as Russian forces continue to roll into the country’s industrial east, the governor of the region said in a Telegram post.
Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko blamed the deaths of “three more peaceful residents” in a small town and two villages on Russian shelling.
In a separate Telegram post earlier, Kyrylenko said that, as of Friday afternoon, local time, Russians had opened fire at 20 settlements in the region and destroyed or damaged 34 civilian infrastructure facilities.
Also on Friday, the local prosecutor’s office in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post that the charred bodies of two residents were discovered near the city of Izyum that same day.
The post accused Russian soldiers of torturing the residents and burning their bodies.
Reporting by AP
By Simon Smale
Russia opens criminal case against activist over 'fake' news on Ukraine says Lawyer
Russia has opened a criminal case against a prominent opposition activist on suspicion of spreading false information about Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Friday.
Vladimir Kara-Murza was detained outside his home in Moscow on April 11, hours after CNN aired an interview in which he criticised Russia's actions in Ukraine.
He was later sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying police orders upon being detained, his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, said at the time.
A Moscow court on Friday announced that Mr Kara-Murza would stay in detention until June 12 at the request of the investigator handling the case, Interfax news agency reported.
Mr Kara-Murza has not been formally charged and Mr Prokhorov denies his client broke the law.
"Vladimir Kara-Murza is now at the main investigation Department of Russia's Investigative Committee," Prokhorov wrote on Facebook.
"A criminal case has been opened … for 'public dissemination of deliberately false information about Russia's armed forces'."
Prokhorov did not say when precisely the case had been opened.
Separately on Friday, Russia's Justice Ministry added Kara-Murza to a list of "foreign agents", meaning he is subject to stringent financial reporting requirements and must preface anything he publishes with a disclaimer. The ministry listed him as a Ukrainian agent.
The Investigative Committee, the state body that probes major crimes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia's parliament last month passed a law that provides for jail terms of up to 15 years for those convicted of intentionally spreading "fake" news about what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
Russian officials said the new law was needed to protect its military and combat misinformation about its military campaign in Ukraine.
Reporting by Reuters
