The European Union's ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, accuses Russia of abducting Ukrainian children.
You can catch up on Saturday's news and updates below.
Key events
Live updates
By Caitlyn Davey
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By Caitlyn Davey
The aftermath of the Kharkiv attack
The attack that killed seven people in Kharkiv also wounded 34 caused significant damage in the city. AP photographer Felipe Dana captured these images.
By Caitlyn Davey
Woman accuses Ukraine security of torturing husband following treason charges
The wife of a Ukrainian politician held by Kyiv on a treason charge has accused Ukrainian security services of torturing her husband and fabricating his escape from house arrest in a press conference held in Moscow on Friday.
Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, referred to her husband as a “political prisoner,” and claimed that she does not know where he is.
Medvedchuk was detained on Tuesday in a special operation carried out by Ukraine’s state security service, or the SBU.
The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest several days before the hostilities broke out February 24 in Ukraine. He is facing between 15 years and a life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation for mediating coal purchases for the separatist, Russia-backed Donetsk republic in eastern Ukraine.
“I have no doubt that my husband was beaten within hours after his capture,” she said at the press conference.
“I am appealing for help in establishing (his) real whereabouts. I call for help to stop the physical and mental torture.”
She did not offer evidence to back up her claims, but referenced a televised statement made by Ukrainian officials on Wednesday, which said that Kyiv will aim to try Medvedchuk “as soon as possible, give him the appropriate sentence, obtain evidence from him and then exchange him” for Ukrainian captives held by Moscow.
AP
By Caitlyn Davey
350 bodies discovered in Bucha
Of the 900 bodies found in the Kyiv region, 350 of those were located in Bucha - the town that saw many civilians executed.
Here, a cemetary worker digs graves for those killed in Bucha.
By Caitlyn Davey
French embassy to return to Kyiv
The French embassy has announced it will relocate to Kyiv, after temporarily relocating to Lviv in March.
By Caitlyn Davey
Mariupol council says Russian troops removing bodies, prohibiting burials
Mariupol City Council said Friday that local residents report Russian troops are digging up bodies previously buried in residential courtyards and not allowing any new burials "of people killed by them".
“A watchman has been assigned to each courtyard and is not allowing Mariupol residents to lay to rest dead relatives or friends. Why the exhumation is being carried out and where the bodies will be taken is unknown,” according to a statement on the messaging app Telegram.
The claim could not be independently verified.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukraine's Prime Minister, finance officials to visit Washington
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and top Ukrainian finance officials will visit Washington next week during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, sources familiar with the plans say.
Shmyhal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko are slated to meet bilaterally with finance officials from the Group of Seven countries and others, and take part in a roundtable on Ukraine to be hosted by the World Bank on Thursday, according to Reuters.
By Caitlyn Davey
Zelenskyy asks Biden to declare Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked US President Biden to designate Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism," along with North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria, the Washington Post has said.
A White House spokesperson said, "We will continue to consider all options to increase the pressure on Putin."
By Caitlyn Davey
It's nearly 6am in Ukraine
- 900 bodies have been discovered in the region around Kyiv
- 37 people (including a baby) were killed in Khakiv shelling
- The battle in Mariupol continues with Ukrainian forces holding out in at least two pockets around the steel plant
- 120,000 people remain in Mariupol
- US officials believe Ukraine missiles did contribute to the sinking of the Moskva
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukrainian team readies for Invictus Games, but the effects of the war continue to mark their mark
Until a few days ago, Volodymyr Musyak was on the front lines defending Ukraine from Russia's devastating assault on his nation. Now he's preparing to pick up a bow and arrow in the Invictus Games archery competition.
The sporting event for active service personnel and veterans who are ill, injured or wounded opens Saturday and ends April 22 in this Dutch city that calls itself the global center of peace and justice.
Those concepts seem a world away to the team of 19 athletes from Ukraine and their supporters as they settle in The Hague for the games.
“I think that emotionally it’s something that requires time ... because we come from a very disturbed area as we come from the areas where the actual killings every day are happening, the shelling, the bombing, we hear sirens every day,” said Oksana Horbach, Ukraine’s Invictus Games National Coordinator.
One of the team, Taira Paievska, did not even make the trip after being taken hostage by Russian forces in Mariupol where she worked as a paramedic, Horbach said.
Four Ukrainians who were not due to participate in the games but were active in the worldwide community of injured servicemen and women died in March, two while on active duty and two in rocket attacks, Invictus Games organisers said on their website.
AP
By Caitlyn Davey
Polish mercinaries killed says Russia
Russia's defence ministry says it has killed up to 30 Polish mercenaries fighting for Ukraine in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
It says strategic rocket forces "eliminated up to 30 Polish mercenaries" in a strike on the village of Izyumskoe, near the city of Kharkiv.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukrainians mourn loved ones
The sister and mother mourn the death of Anatoliy Kolesnikov, 30, a territorial defence soldier who was killed by Russian, in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
In Lviv, a funeral service was held for troops killed in combat.
By Caitlyn Davey
US says Russian warning means efforts are having impact
The US says a formal warning from Russia about providing further aid to Ukraine is an admission American and NATO efforts are having an impact.
The two page diplomatic message forwarded to the US State Department from the Russian embassy in Washington DC warns that US and NATO weapons shipments are adding fuel to the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to what the Russian diplomats refer to as "unpredictable consequences".
It was sent on Tuesday just as word of a new US aid package to Ukraine had started to leak out. A senior US administration official says the warning could be seen as an admission by Russia that US and NATO military assistance to Ukraine was proving effective.
The warning came as the US announced another package of military aid for Ukraine including drones, artillery, armoured vehicles and helicopters.
By Caitlyn Davey
Germans should save energy to put pressure on Russia, says minister
German's Minister for Economy, Robert Habeck, says Germans should start saving energy to reduce the country's dependence on Russian energy as the nation looks to cut gas and oil imports.
Haback says Germany could become less dependent if citizens reduce their energy consumption, using the train or cycling instead of driving wherever possible.
"Every kilometre not driven is a contribution to making it easier to get away from Russian energy supplies. We are also protecting the climate," Habeck said in an interview with Funke Media Group.
Habeck said cutting 10 per cent of individual energy consumption was possible, adding that employers could contribute by offering workers the option to work from home wherever possible.
"Wherever possible, one could work from home one or two days a week again - initially on a voluntary basis," he said.
By Caitlyn Davey
Why does Russia keep poisoning people? The wild history of Moscow's chemical assassination plots
In a war marked by unexpected humiliations, surprising new heroes and shocking atrocities, the rumoured poisoning of Roman Abramovich still remains one of the more unusual twists of the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian billionaire was in Kyiv in early March to help efforts to negotiate a peace settlement with Ukrainian envoys when he started displaying symptoms.
Why a man who has been shunned and sanctioned by the West for having "clear connections" to Vladimir Putin's regime was trying to end Putin's war is still unclear.
But stranger than his abrupt transformation was the possibility that this high-powered Russian could have been the victim of an age-old Kremlin trick.
Abramovich and several others who had been in the meeting suddenly experienced red, streaming eyes and peeling skin on their faces and hands, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
He even reportedly lost the ability to see for several hours, and the symptoms were so severe that Abramovich asked the scientist examining him: "Are we dying?"
Some Western officials believe Abramovich's symptoms were simply caused by "environmental factors" — perhaps allergies that triggered psychosomatic symptoms in a man familiar with Russian poison plots.
But several officials and experts believe the envoys were attacked.
By Caitlyn Davey
Zelenskyy estimates 2,500-3,000 troops have died
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he believes between 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the war, and an additional 10,000 have been injured.
The estimated civilian death toll is unverified as exhumation efforts are underway, but authorities estimate it to be in the tens of thousands.
By Caitlyn Davey
Russian warship Moskva has 'sunk' off Ukraine: Here's what we know
Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, has sunk during the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Russia's defence ministry said it sank as it was towed back to port in stormy weather following an explosion.
Earlier, Russian officials claimed the damage was the result of a fire on board, while a Ukrainian official said it was a result of a Ukrainian missile strike.
The ship was thought to be located in the Black Sea somewhere off the Ukrainian port of Odesa at the time of the explosion.
The Moskva would be the biggest Russian warship damaged by enemy fire since 1941, when German dive bombers crippled Soviet battleship Marat in Kronshtadt harbour, according to military analysts.
By Caitlyn Davey
EU gas, oil embargo will take 'months' say officials
The European Union is working on broadening sanctions on Russia to include oil and gas embargoes but such measures will take "several months", European officials tell AFP.
Russian energy exports are Moscow's main hard currency earner, and its oil and gas sales to the EU account for between a quarter of a billion to a billion euros per day, per different estimates.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukrainehas called for sweeping embargos on Russian energy sources.
By Caitlyn Davey
By Caitlyn Davey
Russian officials accuse Ukraine of sending helicopters across border to bomb township
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of sending two helicopters across the border to bomb a town in Russia's southern Bryansk region, wounding eight people.
Ukraine has denied the accusations.
