More than 200 civilians are still holed up with fighters in a huge steel plant in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city's Mayor says.
Look back on Tuesday's updates as they happened in our live blog.
Key events
- Mariupol mayor says more than 200 civilians still in Ukrainian city's vast steel plant
- Ukraine's Ministry of Defence says Russia is working to replenish its military supplies
- The EU aims to pass new sanctions against Russia at the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting
- UK's Prime Minister to announce a new 300 million pound military package to Ukraine
- Moscow says 1,847 children are among thousands transported from Ukraine to Russia
- Mariupol evacuees arrive in Zaporizhzhia
- Key strategic Odesa bridge collapsed
- Teenager killed in attack on Odesa home
Live updates
By Shiloh Payne
That's all for the blog today
We are closing the Ukraine-Russia war blog for today.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest news online or on the ABC News app.
By Shiloh Payne
UK says Russian military 'significantly weaker'
The British military says it believes the Russian military is now "significantly weaker" after suffering losses in its war on Ukraine.
The British Defense Ministry made the comment Tuesday in its daily statement on Twitter regarding the war.
It said: "Russia's military is now significantly weaker, both materially and conceptually, as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Recovery from this will be exacerbated by sanctions. This will have a lasting impact on Russia's ability to deploy conventional military force."
The ministry added while Russia's defense budget has doubled from 2005 to 2018, the modernization program it undertook "has not enabled Russia to dominate Ukraine."
"Failures both in strategic planning and operational execution have left it unable to translate numerical strength into decisive advantage," the ministry said.
By Shiloh Payne
The EU is considering banning Russian oil. Here's why that matters
The European Union is preparing sanctions on Russian oil sales over its invasion of Ukraine after a major shift by Germany, Russia's biggest energy customer, that could deprive Moscow of a large revenue stream within days.
The European Commission is expected to propose a sixth package of EU sanctions this week against Russia over its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil.
Kyiv says Russia's energy exports to Europe, so far largely exempt from international sanctions, are funding the Kremlin war effort with millions of euros every day.
The EU sends $US450 million ($605 million) a day to Russia for oil and $US400 million per day for natural gas, according to calculations by analysts at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
"This package should include clear steps to block Russia's revenues from energy resources," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
You can continue reading this story here
By Shiloh Payne
Mariupol mayor says more than 200 civilians still in Ukrainian city's vast steel plant
More than 200 civilians are still holed up with fighters in a huge steel plant in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, city mayor Vadym Boychenko said.
He said a total of about 100,000 civilians were still in the southern Ukrainian city that has been occupied by Russian forces.
it comes after about 100 civilians were rescued from the Azovstal steel plant on Monday by the United Nations and International Red Cross while there was a ceasefire.
Russia declared victory in Mariupol on April 21 even though hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians remained in shelters in the Azovstal steel works, which has a network of bunkers and tunnels.
Shelling at the plant resumed moments after the civilians were taken to safety.
By Shiloh Payne
Pope says he wants to go to Moscow to meet Putin over Ukraine
Pope Francis said in an interview that he asked for a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war in Ukraine but has not received a response, Reuters is reporting.
Pope Francis, who made an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy when the war started, told the newspaper that about three weeks into the conflict, he asked the Vatican's top diplomat to send a message to Putin.
He said the message was "that I was willing to go to Moscow. Certainly, it was necessary for the Kremlin leader to allow an opening. We have not yet received a response and we are still insisting".
"I fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this time. But how can you not stop so much brutality?"
By Shiloh Payne
Three civilians killed in Russian shelling of Vuhledar in east Ukraine, president's office says
At least three civilians have been killed in Russian shelling of the city of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president's office said.
Reuters is reporting that some other areas of Donetsk were under constant fire and regional authorities were trying to evacuate civilians from frontline areas.
By Shiloh Payne
Fiji court rules Russian oligarch's $450m superyacht can be seized by US, but defence will apply for a stay order
Fiji's High Court has ruled in favour of a bid by the United States government and Fijian authorities to seize a Russian-owned superyacht.
The $450m luxury vessel was detained by Fijian authorities on arrival in Lautoka in mid-April, because its alleged owner Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov is the subject of sanctions by US and European authorities.
The High Court granted the application to seize the vessel but also gave the defence time to apply for a stay order.
That means the yacht, called the Amadea, will remain in Fijian waters for now.
By Shiloh Payne
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence says Russia is working to replenish its military supplies
In its daily update, The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence says Russia is taking measures to replenish "significant loss of equipment".
The Ministry says in the city of Boguchar, Russia between April 27 and May 2, there have been a number of vehicles removed from storage, including:
- seventeen tanks
- sixty BMP-1 vehicles.
They were sent to the temporarily occupied Russian troops of Ukrainian territories, the Ministry says.
By Shiloh Payne
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shrugged off reports of assassination attempts: Here's what we know about alleged attempts on his life
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shrugged off reports that there have been multiple attempts on his life during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Asked about threats against him in recent interviews, Mr Zelenskyy has shifted the discussion to the plight of those still living in Ukraine.
Speaking recently with Time and 60 Minutes Australia, he said his personal situation was "not bad'" compared with many others in the country.
There were also reports of multiple assassination attempts against Mr Zelenskyy in the first week of Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.
You can read more on what we know about the reports of attempts against his life here.
By Shiloh Payne
Mariupol residents remaining in the port city
Russia claimed victory over Mariupol on April 21, but some Ukrainians have remained in the city.
Here's what it looks like.
By Shiloh Payne
Push to arm Ukraine putting strain on US weapons stockpile
The US has sent Javelins, Stingers, howitzers and other material to resupply Ukraine’s military in its fight against Russia, with planes taking off almost daily from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
But there are growing concerns that the US won't be able to sustain the cadence of shipping vast amounts of arms to Ukraine while maintaining a healthy stockpile if a new conflict erupts elsewhere.
Now, Taiwan's Defence Ministry is saying Stinger deliveries it was expecting from the US could be delayed.
The missiles are in hot demand in Ukraine, where they have successfully kept Russian aircraft at bay.
The United States approved the sale of 250 of Raytheon Technologies' Stinger missiles to Taiwan in 2019, with deliveries meant to be complete by 2026.
This is the second time this week the ministry has warned of delayed deliveries of US weapons.
The Biden administration says it has committed to sending about 5,500 to Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than two months ago, the Associated Press reports.
Analysists say that the US has sent about one quarter of its stockpile of Stinger missiles to Ukraine.
By Shiloh Payne
Almost 100 Ukrainian refugees are arriving at camps in Mexico every day
On a dusty field on the east side of Mexico's capital, some 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in large tents for the United States government to tell them they can enter.
The camp has only been open a week and 50 to 100 people are arriving every day.
Some have already been to the U.S. border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted.
Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancun, anywhere they could find a ticket from Europe.
Nearly 5.5 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded its smaller neighbor on Feb. 24, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Griorgi Mikaberidze, 19, said he is living in the camp on his own while awaiting entry into the US.
"I'm alone here, here are like very big families, five, eight members in families, small children, not only like me, average people, average children, babies. It's very difficult to wait. We don't know how the program will work," he said.
When the U.S. government announced in late March that it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, hundreds entered Mexico daily as tourists in Mexico City or Cancun and flew to Tijuana to wait for a few days to be admitted to the U.S. at a San Diego border crossing on humanitarian parole.
The Mexico City camp provides a safe place to wait, but refugees have been warned that while they are free to leave the complex, no one is responsible for their safety.
Iztapalapa, the capital's most populated borough, is also one of its most dangerous.
"It's more dangerous to go from village to the city and then out of cities than stay there, because it's like, you know, they're destroying 'targets' in the cars. But for them, it doesn't matter who is in the car," Mr Mikaberidze said.
By Shiloh Payne
The CIA tells Russians disaffected by the invasion of Ukraine to go to the darknet
Russians who are dissatisfied with Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine may be trying to get in touch with US intelligence, and the CIA wants them to go to the darknet.
The agency has begun a new push to promote its presence on a part of the internet accessible only through specialised tools that provide more anonymity.
The CIA has a darknet site that has the same features as its regular homepage but accessible only through the Tor internet browser, which has encryption features not available on most regular browsers.
Instructions in English and Russian on how to access the darknet site appeared Monday on the CIA's social media channels.
The agency hopes Russians living abroad can share the instructions with contacts inside the country.
"Our global mission demands that individuals can contact us securely from anywhere," the agency said in a statement.
While many Russians appear to support what the Kremlin officially calls a "special military operation," longtime Russia watchers think Putin's management of the war may push away some powerful people who disagree with him.
Even with immense capabilities to capture communications and satellite imagery, it's critical for Western intelligence agencies to recruit human sources who can offer insight into the Kremlin and conditions inside Russia.
By Shiloh Payne
Moscow says 57 people from Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant chose to stay Russian-controlled areas
The Russian military says 69 people who came out of the the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Sunday chose to be evacuated to Ukraine-controlled territories and 57 others who left the plant and the surrounding areas asked to stay in the areas under Russian control.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that on Saturday, 21 people left the plant and 25 more left their homes in the neighboring areas; all of them "voluntarily decided to stay" in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic run by Russia-backed separatists.
The Ministry said that on May 1, 80 more people left the plant, and 11 "remained in the Donetsk Republic."
It said 69 others decided to "leave for the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime."
The Ukrainian authorities have not yet confirmed this data, and it couldn't be independently verified by the Associated Press.
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
The EU aims to pass new sanctions against Russia at the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting
The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell says the bloc hopes to curb Russia's energy exports as part of its efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission is expected to propose the package of EU sanctions this week, including a potential embargo on buying Russian oil — a measure that Reuters says would deprive Moscow of a large revenue stream, a decision that has so far divided EU countries.
Mr Borrell, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Council meetings, says he hopes the EU will be able to take "measures to significantly limit these imports" but says so far there is no agreement from all the members.
"But I am confident that, at least with regard to oil imports, this agreement will be possible between now and the next Council meeting," he said.
The Council has meetings scheduled for May 10 and May 16 later this month.
By Shiloh Payne
UK's Prime Minister to announce a new 300 million pound military package to Ukraine
Boris Johnson is set to address Ukraine's Parliament today and announce a new package that is worth about $530 million of military aid to Ukraine.
Mr Johnson's office says the new package includes:
- electronic warfare equipment
- a counter battery radar system
- GPS jamming equipment
- thousands of night vision devices.
Mr Johnson is set to recall a speech said by Winston Churchill in WWII during his address.
“The British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour. This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come," he is expected to say.
Ukrainian President Volydymyr Zelenskyy addressed Britain’s Parliament on March 8, and also likened his country’s struggle to Britain’s fight against the Nazis.
Mr Johnson visited Kyiv on April 9.
By Shiloh Payne
If you missed it yesterday, about 100 civilians were evacuated from Azovstal plant in Mariupol
About 100 civilians were rescued from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol yesterday after the United Nations and the International Red Cross made a deal to rescue women and children from the plant.
The evacuees arrived in the Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia yesterday.
Up to 1,000 civilians remain in bunkers beneath the steel plant with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and little food, water or medicine.
It’s the only part of Mariupol that Russia is not in control of.
Russia declared victory in Mariupol on April 21 even as hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians took shelter in the Azovstal steel works, which has a network of bunkers and tunnels.
Yesterday, there were reports that Russia continued shelling the plant moments after the civilians were taken to safety.
By Shiloh Payne
People flee from Russia's invasion in Zaporizhzhia
Here are some more photos of people arriving at a registration centre for internally displaced people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia.
Many refugees evacuated from Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant have been taken to these centres.
By Shiloh Payne
Russia must be held accountable for its troops committing sex crimes, Ukrainian official says
Yulia Kovaliv, Ukraine's ambassador-designate to Canada, has told a Canadian House of Commons committee that Russia is using sexual violence as a weapon of war and said rape and sexual assault must be investigated as war crimes.
She said Russia has also kidnapped Ukrainian children and taken them to Russian-occupied territories.
Ukraine is working with partners to find the children and bring them back.
"Russians, a few days ago, killed a young mother and taped her living child to her body and attached a mine between them,″ the ambassador said.
She said the mine detonated.
All of Russian society, and not just President Vladimir Putin "and his proxies," should bear responsibility for the war on Ukraine because more than 70 per cent of Russians support the invasion, Ms Kovaliv said.
