Ukraine's military says it is continuing to hold off Russian attacks in the country's east, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vows to bring Russian soldiers to justice for war crimes committed during the invasion.
Look back on Thursday's events with our blog.
Key events
- Ukrainian army repels nine attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, military spokesman says
- Russian forces may be preparing to conscript Ukrainian citizens, says Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate
- The Luhansk governor says Russian forces now control 80 per cent of the region
- Zelenskyy promises to 'bring all guilty to account'
- Wimbledon bans players from Russia and Belarus over the Ukraine war
- About 1,000 civilians, soldiers remain trapped at a steel mill in Mariupol, Zelenksyy says
- More than five million people have fled Ukraine, UN says
Live updates
By Alexis Moran
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By Alexis Moran
British PM to focus on economic ties and the war in Ukraine during a long-delayed trip to India
Boris Johnson landed in the western state of Gujarat on Thursday, kicking off a two-day visit that will see him meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday.
Johnson hopes to strike new economic deals between Britain and its huge former colony, and to coax India away from Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Modi has called the situation in Ukraine "very worrying" and has appealed to both sides for peace. But India has stood back from international efforts to criticise President Vladimir Putin, abstaining when the UN General Assembly voted this month to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council.
Modi has so far responded coolly to pressure from US President Joe Biden and others to curb imports of Russian oil and gas.
India receives little of its oil from Russia, but has ramped up its purchases and bought 3 million barrels of crude last month, just as other democracies tried to isolate Putin with economic sanctions.
India is also a major customer for Russian weapons, and recently bought advanced Russian air defense systems.
AP
By Alexis Moran
Ukrainian army repels nine attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, military spokesman says
Ukraine's General Staff says it is holding off the Russian advance in the east, repelling nine attacks in Donetsk and Luhansk, Reuters reports.
Russia's defence ministry says its forces have hit dozens of military facilities in the east and have shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter near the village of Koroviy Yar.
None of the claims can be independently verified.
By Alexis Moran
World Bank president warns the international community needs to take important steps to address food shortage
Hundreds of millions could be pushed into poverty and malnutrition due to the rising cost of food and supply problems exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
David Malpass says the soaring cost of food is especially harming the world's poor.
"On a year over year basis we're looking at maybe 37 percent increase in food prices, that's huge and it's particularly from magnified for the poor because they spend more of their money, or what little money they may have, it goes to food."
By Alexis Moran
By Alexis Moran
In pictures: Latest scenes from the Chernihiv region
These images were taken by Reuters photographer Vladyslav Musiienko
By Alexis Moran
Children of Bucha struggle to recover after Russian occupation of Ukrainian city
The coffin was made from pieces of a cupboard.
In a darkened basement under a building shaking from the bombardment of war, there were few other options.
Six-year-old Vlad watched as his mother was carried out of the shelter last month and to the yard of a nearby home.
The burial was hurried and devastating.
Now, Russian forces have withdrawn from Bucha after a month-long occupation.
By Alexis Moran
The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia calls on the federal government to step up its support
Scott Morrison announced 20 Australian Bushmaster armoured vehicles would be sent to the Ukrainian forces earlier this month.
Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko says the vehicles are greatly appreciated, but Ukraine needs more.
"I think Australia can do much more. And it's of course not up to me but I'm pleading the Australian government to send more assistance.
"So more military equipment and weapons and this is what we need right now and we need it now, we need it badly."
By Alexis Moran
Ukrainian zoo workers found shot to death and dumped in barricaded room, say owners
The Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv said in a statement the worker's bodies were discovered "barricaded in the back room".
Kharkiv, in Ukraine's north-east near the Russia border, has been witness to some of the fiercest fighting in the war.
"When the war started, [the two employees] stayed in the Ecopark and helped to feed the animals," said the statement posted on social media and the park's website.
"We arrived at the Ecopark on March 7 and did not find them there.
"Until the last, we had been hoping that nothing irremediable had happened, and they were able to survive
"But yesterday we received confirmation that their bodies had been found.
"Our guys were shot by the enemies, and their bodies had been barricaded in the back room."
The ABC has not been able to independently verify the claims.
By Alexis Moran
Kharkiv residents adapt to living under attack
The people of Kharkiv are getting used to their new life in basements as Russian forces continue their offensive against Ukraine's second-largest city.
Those living in Kharkiv's outskirts left their apartments on the first day of the war in February and have been living in basements of residential buildings, schools or even gyms ever since.
Larisa said it would be "impossible" to stay in her eighth floor apartment, which has had its windows and doors blown out, as it would be too dangerous amid the ongoing attacks.
Deprived of water, gas and electricity, residents collect rainwater or bring bottles filled in nearby springs and cook outside using debris from destroyed buildings.
Some in the Saltivka neighbourhood have been sheltering in a school basement, where they made beds out of school desks, tables, and chairs.
More than 300 people stayed in the shelter in the first days of the war, but most of them decided to move on to a safer place.
Now only a dozen people remain, having nowhere else to go.
AP
By Shiloh Payne
Daily life in wartorn Ukraine
These photos have been taken across Ukraine over the past two months.
By Shiloh Payne
Joe Biden will announce his new military package for Ukraine tomorrow, a US official says
The Associated Press says a US official confirmed Biden will announce the new package tomorrow in a morning address.
The package is expected to be a similar size to the $US800 million package Biden announced last week.
Helicopters, howitzers and armoured personnel carriers were all included in the last package.
The US has already provided $US2.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion began in January.
By Shiloh Payne
How to survive a tactical nuclear bomb? Defence experts explain
There has been widespread discussion of Russia's threat to use tactical nuclear weapons in its war on Ukraine.
Russia is estimated to have thousands of tactical nuclear weapons — possibly the world's largest stockpile — which could be deployed at any time.
The use of nuclear weapons is also embedded in Russian military doctrine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed to the rest of the world to take the threat seriously.
By Shiloh Payne
Ukrainian troops have started learning how to use US howitzers
A senior US defence official says Ukrainian troops have started learning how to use American 155mm howitzers.
The howitzers are long-ranged artillery that fire in a high arc like a mortar.
The Associated Press reports that the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the first of 18 howitzers arrived on cargo flights to Europe on Wednesday and more are on the way.
The personnel are being trained in a European country outside of Ukraine, the official said.
By Shiloh Payne
Estonia is prohibiting people from displaying Russian flags and military symbols on Victory Day
The Associated Press is reporting that Estonia will prohibit public meetings where people display Russian flags and military symbols on May 9.
Victory Day marks the Russian defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 at the end of WWII.
Ethnic Russians take up about 25 per cent of Estonia's population.
"The Estonian state has so far been tolerant of the events of May 9, but Russia's current activities in Ukraine preclude public meetings in Estonia expressing support for the aggressor state and displaying war symbols," Police and Border Guard chief Elmar Vaher said.
The banned symbols include:
- Soviet Union flags
- Russia flags
- USSR military uniforms
By Shiloh Payne
Putin's war in Ukraine opened a 76-year-old wound for Japan. This time, it isn't willing to appease Russia
In World War II Japan and the Soviet Union had a neutrality agreement until August 1945, when the Soviet Union saw an opportunity to attack a crippled and near-defeated Japan.
Moscow violated the neutrality pact and attacked Japanese positions, taking territory even after Tokyo announced its intention to surrender.
Four islands were seized and never returned: Etorofu, Kunashiri, Habomai and Shikotan.
Now, decades later, the islands have again become entangled in a conflict: Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow is using the islands as a pawn over Japanese sanctions.
By Shiloh Payne
A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor has died in a basement in Mariupol
The Auschwitz Memorial has announced the death of Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova.
She was 10 years old when the Nazis occupied Mariupol and killed thousands of Jews in a single day, including her mother.
She survived in a basement then, and died in a basement in the same city 81 years later.
Her daughter told Jewish organisation Chadbad.org Ms Obiedkova died on April 4, pleading for water in a freezing basement in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
By Shiloh Payne
Russian forces may be preparing to conscript Ukrainian citizens, says Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine says Russian military are preparing a number of "pseudo-referendums" in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
Ukrainian authorities say Russia could use the referendums to declare the towns "people's republics" and annexe them to Russia.
The Ukrainian Directorate thinks Russia could use this to declare a forced mobilisation and “throw ‘mobilised’ Ukrainians to the hottest parts of the front”.
"In the Kherson region, ballots, forms, brochures, posters and booklets have been printed for a ‘referendum’ on the creation of another pseudo-republic, the ‘Kherson People's Republic’, and recognition of the occupying power," the Directorate said.
But the Institute for the Study of War said this effort isn't likely to produce meaningful combat power and will provoke an uptick in protests and partisan action against Russian forces in these regions.
By Shiloh Payne
Where have the millions of refugees who have left Ukraine gone?
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since Russian troops began their invasion of the country on February 24, according to the UN refugee agency.
The United Nations Human Rights Council says they've fled through six countries who share their borders.
- Poland - 2,825,663
- Russia - 549,805
- Hungary - 471,080
- Moldova - 426,964
- Slovakia - 342,813
- Belarus - 23,759
