The US says allies need to deliver more and heavier weapons to Kyiv as Russian forces rain fire on eastern and southern Ukraine amid new fears the fighting could spill over the country's borders.
Catch up on all of Wednesday's developments as they happened in our blog.
Key events
- Ukrainian presidential aide says blasts in Russia are 'karma'
- Bulgaria's PM accuses Russia of blackmail over gas supplies
- Russian forces attacking Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol
- Bulgaria says Russia halting gas supplies is a breach of contract
- Russia's military warns it could strike 'decision-making centres' in Kyiv
- The Australian Government has announced more military assistance for Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin and UN discuss proposals to evacuate Mariupol civilians
- Satellite photos show signs of a new mass grave near Mariupol
- Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, officials say
Live updates
By Kate Ainsworth
That's all for the blog today
Thanks for following along throughout the day.
We'll be back with the latest updates tomorrow but until then, you can stay up-to-date with the latest news online or on the ABC News app.
By Kate Ainsworth
Ukrainian presidential aide says blasts in Russia are 'karma'
A Ukrainian presidential aide has described explosions heard in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine as "karma" and payback for the war in Ukraine.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak made the comments on Telegram, but did not acknowledge that Ukraine was responsible for the incidents.
"The reasons for the destruction of the military infrastructure in [Russian] border areas can be quite varied," he wrote.
He said that "sooner or later the debts will have to be repaid" when one country decides to attack another country.
Earlier, a series of explosions were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on the Belgorod explosions.
By Kate Ainsworth
ICYMI: Germany agrees to send heavy weapons into Ukraine
In a major turnaround, Germany has agreed to send heavy weapons into Ukraine to help the military there repel Russia's invasion.
Europe correspondent Nick Dole reports from Bucha, near the capital Kyiv.
By Kate Ainsworth
EU officials in emergency talks over Russian gas supplies
European Union officials are holding emergency gas talks after Russia abruptly turned off its supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the announcement by Gazprom "is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail".
Ms Von der Leyen criticised the decision by Moscow, which she described as an "unjustified and unacceptable" move underlining "the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier".
She said a meeting of the gas coordination group was underway, adding that the region's 27 countries are prepared to weather Russia's cut-offs.
By Kate Ainsworth
International Energy Agency labels gas stoppage a 'weaponisation of energy supplies'
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency has labelled Russia's move to stop providing gas to Poland and Bulgaria a "weaponisation of energy supplies".
He wrote that Gazprom's move to completely shut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria showed that Europe needs to work faster to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
By Kate Ainsworth
Increased international artillery supplies crucial in fight for Donbas
Germany's pledge to give Ukraine new air defence tanks that would come in with air defence batteries could be significant in the fight for the Donbas.
Speaking to PM's Linda Mottram, National Security reporter at Foreign Policy magazine Jack Detsch said the air war is going to be obscured by cloud cover, and Ukraine needed every weapon it could get.
"Russian jets already have to fly significantly lower than they would usually, this potentially gives the Ukrainians the ability to pick them off, and not only with the stinger anti-aircraft missiles that have been provided by the United States, the UK and other allies ... but just another weapon in the arsenal against the Russians who are going to be facing a tough fight in the Donbas against a still very capable Ukrainian force," he said.
The US has also ramped up its military supplies to Ukraine.
"What's changed in the past couple of weeks in the United States is beginning to send in artillery batteries," he said.
"This is important because the Donbas, with that air cover and cloud cover coming in, could be much more of a knockdown, drag out slug fest between infantry forces, and the Ukrainians will certainly need as much ammunition as they can possibly have to force the Russians on their heel in the Donbas."
Specialised drones will also be important for hitting Russian stationary targets and would give Ukraine greater visibility.
Mr Detsch said there has been a significant change in the rhetoric from the United States in terms of how successful Ukraine could be.
"That's the fascinating change we've seen in the rhetoric from the United States in the past week," he said.
"The rhetoric has changed from just basically holding Russians back to making sure the Ukrainians can hold out to now ... American officials like (US Defence Secretary) Lloyd Austin talking about victory and a weakened Russia coming out of this conflict that can no longer threaten its neighbours like Georgia, like Ukraine and Moldova," he said.
"This is an enormous shift to basically saying to Ukrainian officials 'we have your back, come hell or high water'."
By Kate Ainsworth
Bulgaria's PM accuses Russia of blackmail over gas supplies
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov says Russia's warning it was shutting off gas supplies to Bulgaria over demands to change the payment scheme is a grave breach of a current contract and amounts to blackmail.
Petkov said Bulgaria was currently reviewing all of its contracts with Gazprom, including for transit of Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary, because "one-sided blackmail was not acceptable".
Petkov has spoken to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had assured him the 27-member bloc would have a common response, he said.
Russian energy giant Gazprom says it has halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay in roubles.
By Kate Ainsworth
Russian forces attacking Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol
An aide to Mariupol's mayor says Russian forces have begun attacking the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where Ukrainian forces and around 1,000 civilians are sheltering.
Petro Andryushchenko says no agreements have been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.
Moscow has claimed that the entire southern port city of Mariupol is now under Russian control, with the exception of the steelworks.
On Tuesday (local time), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed "in principle" to UN and Red Cross involvement in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant.
Earlier, Putin had told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan there were no military operations underway in Mariupol and that Ukraine's government should "take responsibility" for the people holed up in the Azovstal plant.
Newly released satellite images of the plant show massive holes in roofs and other damage.
By Kate Ainsworth
Bulgaria says Russia halting gas supplies is a breach of contract
Bulgaria's energy minister says the country has paid for Russian gas deliveries for the month of April, meaning supplier Gazprom will be in breach of its current contract if it halts the flow.
Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov says the country would soon know if gas received via Turkey would be stopped, after Gazprom told Bulgarian state gas company Bulgargaz it would halt supplies as of Wednesday.
Nikolov said EU and NATO member Bulgaria would follow the European Commission's stance of urging countries not to pay for Russian gas in roubles, despite demands from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Because all trade and legal obligations are being observed, it is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war," Nikolov said.
The Balkan country meets more than 90 per cent of its gas needs with supplies from Russia under a long-term contract that will expire at the end of this year.
Nikolov says gas deliveries to consumers were still guaranteed for at least a month.
Bulgaria also transports Russian gas via an extension of the Turk Stream pipeline to neighbouring Serbia and Hungary. Nikolov said the country will review all of its current contracts with Gazprom.
"Bulgaria is a loyal partner to all neighbouring countries. Bulgaria is not Russia. When we can, we will help all of our neighbours," he said.
By Kate Ainsworth
Russia's speaker says Moscow should cut gas supplies to other 'unfriendly' countries
Russia's top lawmaker says gas giant Gazprom has made the right decision in fully suspending gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland,.
Vyacheslav Volodinm, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, said Moscow should do the same with other "unfriendly" countries in Europe.
"The same should be done with regard to other countries that are unfriendly to us," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
By Simon Smale
UK's Raab says Russia halting gas supply to Poland will add to its pariah status
Russia's decision to cut off gas supply to Poland will add to its status as an economic and political pariah, British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday.
"It [halting gas supply] will have a ... very damaging effect on Russia as well because it is becoming further and further, more and more, not just a political pariah, but an economic pariah," Raab told the UK's Sky News.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
Gas prices spike in Europe as cut off deadline passes
European gas prices have spiked by as much as 24 per cent following Gazprom's statement that it was suspending deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria starting Wednesday because it hasn’t received any payments from them since April 1.
The cutting of the countries gas supply is the Kremlin's toughest response yet to the crippling sanctions imposed by the West for the invasion of Ukraine.
Poland and Bulgaria are the first countries to have their gas cut off by Europe's main supplier.
"Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland) due to absence of payments in roubles," Gazprom said in a statement.
Gazprom also warned that transit via Poland and Bulgaria - which host pipelines supplying Germany, Hungary and Serbia - would be cut if gas was taken illegally.
Warsaw and Sofia said the halt to supplies was a breach of contract by Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas company.
Poland's state-owned PGNiG earlier said supplies from Russia's energy giant Gazprom - which covers about 50 per cent of its national consumption - would be cut at 8am local time on Wednesday, but Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76 per cent full.
Benchmark Dutch futures traded at one point around 125 euros per megawatt hour.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, tweeted Wednesday morning that his organization “stands firmly with Poland.”
“Gazprom’s move to completely shut off gas supplies to Poland is yet another sign of Russia’s politicisation of existing agreements & will only accelerate European efforts to move away from Russian energy supplies,” he wrote.
The spike comes even as the weather turns warmer in the Europe, lessening the demand for the natural gas for heating homes and businesses.
Reporting by wires
By Simon Smale
Swiss have frozen $9 billion in sanctioned Russian wealth reports Neue Zuercher Zeitung
The amount of Russian assets frozen under sanctions Switzerland has adopted has risen to around 9 billion Swiss francs ($13 billion), the Neue Zuercher Zeitung paper reported on Wednesday, without citing its sources.
That would be around 1.5 billion francs more than Swiss authorities had reported on April 7.
The government agency in charge of enforcing sanctions did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the report.
In a sharp deviation from the country's traditional neutrality, Switzerland has adopted European Union sanctions against Russians involved in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
'Ukraine is strengthening' after US and allies promise more heavy weaponry: Ukrainian presidential aide
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Wednesday welcomed promises by the United States and its allies to send more heavy weaponry to Ukraine following talks at Ramstein air base in Germany.
"One of Russia's odd demands at the start of the war was the 'full demilitarization' of Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter.
"After yesterday's epochal meeting of 40 defense ministers, I have bad news for Russia.
"Capacity, speed, simplified logistics, an expanded range of weapons - Ukraine is strengthening."
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
The village of Novyi Bykiv cleans up
People in Novyi Bykiv, 100km to the east of Kyiv, is clearing up after Russian forces briefly occupied the village.
By Simon Smale
Russian gas supply to Poland resumes; Ukraine condemns 'gas blackmail'
Russian gas supplies to Poland were halted briefly on Wednesday, data from the European Union gas transmission operators showed, raising fears Russia may turn off the gas taps to Ukraine's allies in what it calls "gas blackmail".
Both Poland and Bulgaria, both NATO and EU members, earlier said Russia would stop supplying gas to them on Wednesday, amid a deepening the rift between Europe and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies, as fighting heads into a third month.
Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria were flowing for the time being, Vladimir Malinov, executive director of Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz, told Reuters.
As well as Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria said gas supplies were normal.
Poland's state-owned PGNiG had earlier said supplies from Russia's energy giant Gazprom - which covers about 50 per cent of its national consumption - would be cut at 8am local time on Wednesday, but Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76 per cent full.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on "unfriendly" countries to pay for gas imports in roubles, a demand only a few buyers have implemented.
"The ultimate goal of Russia's leadership is not just to seize the territory of Ukraine, but to dismember the entire centre and east of Europe and deal a global blow to democracy," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Tuesday.
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Russia was "beginning the gas blackmail of Europe".
"Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies," Yermak said.
Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement.
It has held initial talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighbouring Turkey and Greece.
Gazprom said earlier Poland had to pay for gas in line with its new "order of payments".
It declined to comment regarding Bulgaria.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
Hundreds flee towards Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih
Hundreds of people, including children and the elderly, crowd around a worn community building every day in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.
Most of them are from nearby war-torn Kherson region and are hoping to register with the local authorities and collect some humanitarian aid like blankets and food before they depart for their next destination.
Kryvyi Rih, widely known as an industrial hub, is also the childhood home of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But in recent days, as Russian forces continue to advance in Kherson, the city has also become a hub for those fleeing the chaos.
The city’s deputy mayor, Sergiy Miliutin, said that the number of incoming displaced peoples from Kherson reaches up to 1,000 each day.
“We will take in as much as we can. We will do everything to help people,” said Mr Miliutin, who fled his home region of Donetsk in 2014 due to the conflict with Russian-backed separatists.
According to Mr Miliutin, most of them do not stay for the long-term, as many fear that Kryvyi Rih is right on the edge of the conflict.
Many of the recent arrivals from Kherson fled on their own, without any open humanitarian green corridors.
Ukrainian authorities have held negotiations with the Russians about opening up more corridors, but according to the head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration Oleksandr Vikul, they’ve failed to make any progress.
“There was one agreement [with the Russians] on a green corridor for evacuation. But the Russians completely thwarted this agreement….They fired at this humanitarian convoy and after that they began to fire at our troops, hiding behind the humanitarian convoy as a shield, realising that our soldiers would not shoot,” said Mr Vilkul, speaking from his office.
Mr Vilkul believes the Russians may be prepared to advance on Kryvyi Rih within the coming days, although so far only settlements on the outskirts of the city have been hit by grad rockets.
Local residents said they aren’t alarmed at the possibility of a Russian advance. Vadym Dynnyk, 26, said he didn’t think his city was a primary target just because it’s Mr Zelenskyy’s hometown.
“We can say that he [Zelenskyy] is a hero. And this is the city of our great hero. So to speak, the Iron Joker,” said Dynnyk.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 5 million Ukrainian have fled abroad since the start of the conflict in late February. Millions more are internally-displaced within the country.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
More blasts heard in Russia along Ukraine border
A series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said.
That is in addition to an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province, which caught fire around the same time.
Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a fire at the ammunition depot near the Staraya Nelidovka village had been extinguished and no civilians were injured.
Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.
The Belgorod province borders Ukraine's Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.
Separately, Roman Starovoyt, the Governor of Russia's Kursk province, which also borders Ukraine, said explosions had been heard in Kursk city early on Wednesday and they were most likely the sounds of air-defence systems firing.
In Voronezh, the administrative centre of another province adjacent to Ukraine, Russia's TASS news agency cited an emergencies ministry official as saying two blasts had been heard and authorities were investigating.
Reporting by Reuters
By Simon Smale
Britain says Ukraine controls majority of its airspace
Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace, Britain's defence ministry said on Wednesday, adding that Russia has failed to effectively destroy the country's air force or suppress its air defences.
"Russia has very limited air access to the north and west of Ukraine, limiting offensive actions to deep strikes with stand-off weapons," it said on Twitter.
"Russian air activity is primarily focused on southern and eastern Ukraine, providing support to Russian ground forces," the ministry added in a regular bulletin.
Russia continues to target Ukrainian military assets and logistics infrastructure nationwide, British military intelligence said in the update.
It flagged a higher risk of civilian casualties, saying most Russian air strikes in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol were probably using unguided free-falling bombs.
"These weapons reduce Russia’s ability to effectively discriminate when conducting strikes, increasing the risk of civilian casualties."
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
By Simon Smale
Ukrainian deminers training in Kosovo
Six Ukrainian women from the emergency services have started demining training in Kosovo to dispose of explosive ordnance in their war-torn country.
They are the first group of Ukrainian deminers to be trained by the MAT Kosovo, part of the Malta-based PCM Group of companies.
Instructors are teaching them how to dispose of unexploded ordnance, such as cluster munitions, minefields, booby traps and other explosive remnants.
Trainee Anastasiia Minchukova, 20, said she joined the training to help once the war was over.
"There is a huge demand on people who know how to do demining because the war will be over soon," she said.
"We believe there is so much work to be done. I think I will be helpful absolutely."
She said that she is missing "peace" and the "normal life that we will never go back to".
"I'm dreaming about peace, about sleeping in my bed not worried about going to bomb shelters all the time," she said.
The trainer on the course, Artur Tigani, said the firsthand experiences of those working at the centre helped in transferring that knowledge to others.
"[What] we have is still fresh in our memories, although it's passed about 23 years now," Mr Tigani said.
"It's still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we met when we started clearance in Kosovo. So the training center is built up on our experience and it's like firsthand experience."
Yuliia Katelik, 38, from Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine's east, said that as a mother of three she was aware of the problem that mines could cause.
"Now we are faced with a problem of high concentration of contamination with different types of explosive ordnances and once children encounter this problem it's like a safety and well being of children and all people."
Reporting with AP
