Televisions in Russia were hacked on Victory Day with messages reading "There is blood on your hands of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children. TV and government are lying — say no to war".
Take a look back at Monday's updates in our blog.
Key events
- Zelenskyy calls to end blockades of ports to prevent food crisis
- Russian TVs hacked to read 'there is blood on your hands from Ukrainians'
- Russian negotiator says peace talks are still underway
- Putin: NATO countries 'did not want to listen'
- Vladimir Putin is speaking at the Victory Day Parade in Moscow
- Russia celebrates Victory Day
- Japan to ban Russian oil imports 'in principle'
- Last wave of Azovstal plant evacuees reaches Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia
- Dozens feared dead in bombing of Ukrainian school
- Zelenskyy says 'evil has returned' to Ukraine
Live updates
By Caitlyn Davey
That's all for the blog
We'll be back with more updates tomorrow.
Stay safe.
By Caitlyn Davey
Shelling continues in Kharkiv
People are sheltering in metro stations from shelling in Kharkiv.
By Caitlyn Davey
Zelenskyy calls to end blockades of ports to prevent food crisis
Ukraine's president called on the international community on Monday to take immediate steps to end a Russian blockade of his country's ports to allow wheat exports and prevent a global food crisis.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his comments in an online post after speaking to European Council President Charles Michel who was visiting the city of Odesa, a major Black Sea port for exporting agricultural products.
"It is important to prevent a food crisis in the world caused by Russia's aggressive actions," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
"Immediate measures must be taken to unblock Ukrainian ports for wheat exports."
By Caitlyn Davey
Serbs stage pro-Russia marches amid V-Day ceremonies
Pro-Russia marches were staged in Serbia and the Serb-run entity in Bosnia — both traditional allies of Moscow in the Balkans — amid ceremonies Monday to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Serbia organised military jet flyovers and officials laid wreaths as part of the celebrations. A Serbian cabinet minister and Russia’s ambassador to Serbia joined dozens of people in the Moscow-backed march in Belgrade, an annual event mirroring the one held in Russia to honor WWII victims.
Marchers carried a cardboard figure of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a big ‘Z’ sign symbolizing support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia’s minister without portfolio, Nenad Popovic, who is openly pro-Russian, said Serbia and Russia “always have been on the right side of history,” as he joined in the march where people carry portraits of relatives who died fighting Axis forces.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukraine requests special session of UN Human Rights Council
Ukraine has requested a special session be held by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva regarding crimes committed during the conflict in Ukraine.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukraine reaction by Asian countries warns off Russia and China
The reaction of Asian countries to the Ukraine crisis helps show Russia and China that they cannot act with impunity when launching a war, the US ambassador to Japan says.
Rahm Emanuel made the comment in an online event hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Japan's ambassador to the United States Tomita Koji told the event that US President Joe Biden's planned visit to Japan this month would send a signal that Washington was still focused on the Indo-Pacific even as Russia conducts a war in Ukraine.
By Caitlyn Davey
Belarusian President accuses west of 'supporting Nazi ideas'
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Moscow, on Monday accused the West of supporting Nazi ideas and of being "at war with Russia" in Ukraine.
"Followers of the Nazis are obsessed with the idea of revenge, but they are not ready to fight openly against the heirs of the Soviet people," Lukashenko said at a speech on Victory Day, an annual holiday in Russia and other ex-Soviet countries to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
"That's why they are flooding Ukraine with weapons, waging war on memorials, symbols and veterans," he said.
Lukashenko accused "Western elites" of elevating "Nazism to the rank of state ideology".
"It's no secret that the whole Western world is at war with Russia in Ukraine," said 67-year-old Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994.
Lukashenko also slammed Western sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus since the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine.
"Nobody abroad cares that the Belarusian army is not involved in the fighting," he said, adding that these "attempt to suffocate" Belarus "will only make it stronger".
"Belarusians are not aggressors, but remaining an ally and a strategic partner of our fraternal Russia, we will support it in every possible way," Lukashenko said.
By Caitlyn Davey
Patron's recognition for service - the bomb-sniffing dog
By Caitlyn Davey
European Council President forced to break off meeting due to missile strike
European Council President Charles Michel, who made a surprise visit to Odesa today, was forced to break off a meeting and take cover when missiles again struck the southern Ukrainian city, an EU official said.
The strike took place as he held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. "During the meeting with the PM, the participants needed to interrupt the meeting to take shelter as missiles struck again the region of Odesa," the official said.
By Caitlyn Davey
French President says it's Europe's duty to 'stand by Ukraine'
It is up to Ukraine alone to define the conditions for any negotiations with Russia, says French President Emmanuel Macron, who added it was "our European duty to stand by Ukraine."
"We will be there to rebuild Ukraine as Europeans, for always," Macron told an European Union event in Strasbourg.
By Caitlyn Davey
More missile strikes 'than usual' in Mykolaiv
The Governor of Mykolaiv in southwest Ukraine, Vitaliy Kim, says his region saw "more (missile) strikes than usual" overnight, adding that an unspecified number of people had been killed and wounded.
By Caitlyn Davey
Protesters target Russian envoy in Warsaw
Protesters threw what appeared to be red paint, to symbolise blood, at the Russian ambassador as he arrived at a cemetery in Warsaw to pay respects to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II.
Ambassador Ambassador Sergey Andreev came to the Soviet soldiers cemetery to lay flowers, where a group of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine were waiting for him.
The protesters carried Ukrainian flags, while some were dressed in white sheets smeared with a red colour, symbolising the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s war. Other men in his entourage were also seen splattered with what appeared to be red paint.
By Caitlyn Davey
Wounded woman in Luhansk escapes rubble, loses her children
The Medicines Sans Frontiers in Ukraine says it responded to a request to help seven patients injured in an explosion in Luhansk on Sunday, but one injured woman says she lost her children in the explosion.
By Caitlyn Davey
Russia conducting 'storming operations' on Azovstal Steel plant in Mariupol
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry's spokesperson says Russia is conducting 'storming operations' on the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol in an effort to overpower the last troops in the plant.
The ministry says the attacks are underway with the use of tanks and artillery fire.
By Caitlyn Davey
Russia's ambassador to Poland has red paint thrown on him
Russia's ambassador to Poland was splattered by red paint thrown at him by protesters opposed to the war in Ukraine, preventing him from paying respects on Monday at a Warsaw cemetery to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II.
Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet soldiers cemetery to lay flowers on Victory Day, which marks the the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies. The holiday was celebrated with pomp in a parade at Red Square in Moscow.
As he arrived at the Soviet Soldiers Cemetery in the Polish capital, Andreev was met by hundreds of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Video footage shows red paint being thrown from behind Andreev before a protester standing beside him throws a big blob of it in his face.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukraine claims to destroy Russian tank
Ukraine's armed forces has released footage said to show a Russian T-90 battle tank that was allegedly destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
The T-90 is a third-generation Russian battle tank, an advanced version of the T-series of Russian tanks designed in the Soviet Union.
The Victory Day parade held in Moscow on Monday included the T-90 and some of the weaponry now used on the battlefield against Ukraine.
By Caitlyn Davey
Jill Biden pays surprise visit to Ukraine, meets first lady
Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine, holding a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions.
She became the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during the war, while Zalenska’s public appearance was her first since since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day,” the US first lady told Zelenska.
“I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.”
Dr Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, traveling by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian border village where she had toured a border processing facility.
By Caitlyn Davey
More on those messages on Russian television
Russian satellite television menus were altered on Monday to show viewers in Moscow messages about the war in Ukraine: "You have blood on your hands", according to screenshots obtained by Reuters.
The photographs showed Moscow satellite television menus on Victory Day, when Russia celebrated the 77th anniversary of Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, with every channel showing anti-war slogans.
"You have the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of dead children on your hands," said one slogan.
"The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war."
The slogans appeared just before the Victory Day parade on Red Square at which President Vladimir Putin compared the war in Ukraine to the Soviet battle to defeat Adolf Hitler in World War Two.
It was not immediately clear how the slogans appeared. Interfax news agency said the slogans appeared on cable television too after they were hacked.
A Russian news website also showed anti-war material that was deeply critical of Putin. It was not immediately clear how the negative articles appeared. They swiftly disappeared.
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukrainian fighters at besieged Azovstal plant vow to fight till the end
Those stranded in Mariupol's steel plant have vowed to fight until the end on a video.
Azov regiment captain Sviatoslav Palamar says: "We will always continue to fight for as long as we are alive for justice, to repel the Russian occupiers and to bring out civilians and wounded soldiers."
Regiment fighter Illia Samoilenko says the fighters are relieved the civilians have been evacuated. "Some of the people (in bunkers) were so terrified. These are the people that we evacuated in the last couple of weeks. They were so terrified that we were basically trying to take them out of the bunkers. We were begging them to leave.
"See the situation from a military perspective - a civilian factor for the military is always a restricting factor. If there are no civilians in the city, it will be just a plain battlefield, with no restrictions, no limitations."
