Image source, State Emergency Service Of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast

As we've been reporting, Ukrainian officials say that eight people have been killed including an infant in Russian missile strikes on Odesa.

The strikes apparently targeted a military facility and two residential buildings in the southern port city.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, State Emergency Service Of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast

Image source, OLEKSANDR GIMANOV/AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Some UK supermarkets are setting limits on purchases of cooking oil, as supplies are hit by war in Ukraine.

Waitrose and Morrisons have limited shoppers to two items each. Tesco is allowing three items per customer.

Most of the UK's sunflower oil comes from Ukraine and disruption to exports has led to some shortages and an increased demand for alternatives.

The British Retail Consortium said the restrictions were a temporary measure "to ensure availability for everyone."

Analysis by retail research firm Assosia has also suggested that reduced supplies have caused sunflower oil prices to creep up.

Read more about the story here.

The UK's Defence Ministry has warned Moscow that any enlistment of Ukrainian civilians into the Russian military would be a violation of international law.

The UK intelligence update pointed to unverified accusations from Ukrainian officials that Russia was planning to conscript civilians in the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.

"This would follow similar prior conscription practices in the Russian-occupied Donbas and Crimea," the post said.

According to international law it is illegal for occupying powers to force civilians to serve as soldiers in their military, UK officials remarked.

Multiple international observers from the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been detained in Ukraine, the organisation says.

"The OSCE is extremely concerned that a number of SMM [Special Monitoring Mission] national mission members have been deprived of their liberty in Donetsk and Luhansk," the Vienna-based organisation said.

The organisation added that it was "using all available channels to facilitate the release of its staff," but provided no more details.

In a separate statement yesterday, the UK's mission to the OSCE condemned "alarming reports" that "Russian forces have taken SMM staff members captive".

The organisation says its observers there are a civilian mission to "observe and report in an impartial and objective way on the situation".

The OSCE deployed its mission in eastern Ukraine in 2014 but its mandate expired on 31 March this year after Russia accused it of bias and blocked its extension.

Turkey says it is closing its airspace to Russian civilian and military planes flying to Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says the ban will be effective for three months, according to local media.

The move undermines Russia's large-scale air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, forcing Russian planes to take longer routes. Turkey backs resistance groups in Syria opposed to President Assad.

Turkey, a Nato member, has refrained from the wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and US over its invasion of Ukraine. But it has blocked Russian warships from entering the Black Sea through its waters.

The Turkish government is trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine to bring about a ceasefire.

Millions of Russians go on holiday to Turkey annually, but the Ukraine conflict is expected to cause a big slump in visits by Russians and Ukrainians this year.

Image source, Reuters

More heavy Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv has killed two people and injured 19, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov says.

A warehouse for steel goods caught fire, and some cars were also wrecked in the attack on civilian areas, reports from the city say.

Nearly two months of Russian shelling have already heavily damaged Kharkiv’s infrastructure. The industrial northeastern city lies 42km (26 miles) from the Russian border. Most of its residents use Russian as their first language.

In his Telegram post, Governor Synehubov said Ukrainian forces counter-attacking north of the city drove Russian troops out of three villages - Bezruki, Slatine and Prudyanka. The BBC was unable to verify that claim.

Speaking just now at a press conference, Ukraine's president says he believes that Russia could deploy nuclear weapons in the course of the conflict

Zelensky added that he doesn't believe Russia would actually use them, however.

He made the remarks towards the end of a news conference he has been holding this evening in a Kyiv metro station.

Image source, .

If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here's a look at some of the latest developments in Ukraine.

• Officials say at least eight people, including a young baby, have died after a missile strike in Odesa
• At a press conference in the Kyiv metro, President Zelensky said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Washington's top diplomat, would visit Kyiv on Sunday. If the trip is confirmed it will be the first visit by a US official to Ukraine since the war began
• Zelensky also warned that Ukraine would withdraw from peace talks if its soldiers defending Mariupol's steel plant were killed or if Russia held any of its planned "pseudo-referendums" on independence in occupied Ukrainian areas
• Efforts to help civilians leave Mariupol were once again thwarted, with both sides blaming each other for breaking a deal to run a humanitarian corridor
• Earlier, a video from Ukraine's controversial Azov battalion appeared to show women and children sheltering inside Mariupol's vast Azovstal industrial complex, where the last Ukrainian forces continue to hold out
• New figures have given a sense of the civilian death toll in northern Ukraine. Officials in Bucha say 412 bodies have been recovered following the Russian occupation. And in Chernihiv, more than 700 civilians are said to have been killed when Russian troops took over earlier in the war

Eight people are now known to have been killed in the Russian missile strike on the southern city of Odesa, Zelensky said during his press conference.

The dead include a three-month old child, he said.

Earlier Ukrainian military officials announced that two missiles had struck a military facility and two residential buildings in the city.

Asked about military aid from the UK, Zelensky said he was "satisfied" with what Ukraine had received and added that he was particularly grateful for aid from the US as well.

"We want more than we're being given but we're satisfied," he said.

"We cannot refuse or reject anything during the war from the biggest military aid, which is coming from the US and the UK."

Earlier the UK said it would provide more aid including drones, anti-tank weapons, and protected mobility vehicles.

In a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, the UK PM Boris Johnson also confirmed that the British embassy in Kyiv would be reopening next week, according to a British readout of the call.

Zelensky has also been talking about Russian plans to hold an independence referendum in the occupied city of Kherson.

Peace talks will be off if it goes ahead, he says, and such a move would also complicate any move to end the war.

It would mean talks until now had been merely political theatre, he says, "and by the way with really bad actors".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Kyiv on Sunday, Zelensky says.

The visit, which will also include US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, will be the first official trip by US government officials since Russia began its invasion in February.

"Tomorrow, the American officials are coming to visit us," Zelensky told reporters.

The Ukrainian leader is calling for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war.

"I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelensky said at the news conference he is continuing to hold in Kyiv.

He added that he was "not afraid to meet" Putin if it meant reaching a peace settlement between the two nations.

Kyiv's negotiators will pull out of peace talks with Moscow if Russia kills the Ukrainian forces still holding out in Mariupol's vast Azovstal steelworks, the Ukrainian president says.

"If our men are killed in Mariupol," Zelensky told journalists, "Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process".

The defenders - made up of marines, members of the controversial Azov regiment, border guards and police officers - are the last Ukrainian forces left in Mariupol, which has been battered by Russia for weeks.

There are also reportedly civilians sheltering in the steelworks.

In a video released by the Azov regiment - which began as a far right group and was later incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard - women and children in a crowded room can be heard saying they are running out of food and water, and pleading to be evacuated.

Read more - Video appears to show children in Azovstal bunker

Image source, EBU

Let's go to Kyiv now, where President Volodmyr Zelensky has been holding a news conference in a metro station.

We'll bring you some of what he has been saying shortly.

As we've been reporting, officials in Odesa say at least six people have died after several missiles rained down on the port city. An apartment block was allegedly hit, among other buildings.

Russia has now confirmed that it carried out strikes in the area.

A Ukrainian logistics base was disabled at a military airfield near Odesa, according to Russian defence ministry comments cited by the TASS news agency. High-precision missiles were used.

TASS made no mention of a strike on a residential building, and Moscow has previously denied deliberately targeting civilians.

Ukraine's emergency services have tweeted footage which they say shows the rescue operation after a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Odesa.

They say six people are now known to have died in the strike.

Russia has still not commented yet on the alleged attack.

Image source, Andryushchenko/Telegram

Two young girl actresses who were performing at Mariupol’s theatre before the devastating Russian bombardment of their city have died, mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenko says.

“War takes away the best. Two girls, two charming little actresses Elizaveta and Sonya, died in Mariupol,” he said on the Telegram messaging service.

They had both played Lucy, a character in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the classic children’s tales in CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.

A Russian air strike on 16 March destroyed the theatre – an incident widely condemned as a war crime. Up to 300 civilians died, as hundreds – mainly women and children - were sheltering in the basement at the time.

It is not clear if the two actresses died in that attack.

Russia denies targeting civilians and claims – without evidence - that Ukraine fabricated that and other incidents. Most of Mariupol lies in ruins after weeks of Russian shelling.

Andryushchenko describes as “sad symbolism” the fact that Lewis set The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe against the background of the 1940 German bombing of London – the Blitz.

“We will never forget the talented angels,” Andryushchenko wrote, calling for revenge against the “occupiers”.

Image source, Getty Images

The Ukrainian military claims to have "eliminated" two more Russian generals during fighting in the south-eastern Kherson region.

A third general from Russia's 49th General Army was said to have been seriously wounded, and a mobile command centre was destroyed, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence's intelligence update.

Western experts say more Russian generals have been killed in action in Ukraine than in any other conflict since World War II, reflecting a lack of preparation that may require senior officers to put themselves in harm's way.

Earlier, the UK's own defence intelligence suggested that Ukrainian forces were making successful counter attacks, and continuing to frustrate Russian advances in eastern areas.

Turning now to the devastated southern city of Mariupol - and officials there say Saturday's planned evacuation of civilians via a humanitarian corridor has not taken place.

Some 200 people had gathered at a meeting point in the city to be evacuated by bus to Zaporizhzhia, an aide to the city's mayor said on Telegram.

But they were dispersed by Russian forces, who warned them of impending shelling.