The UN humanitarian chief says a new convoy is on its way to the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol
There are thought to be about 200 civilians, including at least 20 children, stuck in the steel plant
Vladimir Putin says Ukraine should order its fighters remaining in the Azovstal complex to surrender
Capturing the whole of Mariupol would be symbolic for Moscow ahead of its annual 9 May Victory Day celebration
Meanwhile, international donors have pledged $6.5bn to support Ukraine during a conference in Poland
Thanks for joining us for today's coverage from Ukraine.
We're ending our live posts on this page now, but we'll pick things up again in a few hours.
Our writers today were Alys Davies, Alexandra Fouche, Sofia Ferreira Santos, Emily McGarvey and Leo Sands.
The editors were Chris Giles, Jeremy Gahagan, Emma Owen and Andrew Humphrey.
You can find any major developing stories and in depth coverage on the BBC News home page.
Goodnight.
Drone footage shows damaged Azovstal steelworks where civilians still remain
Just before we go, we wanted to share this drone footage showing the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. It gives an indication of how vast the complex is, and the devastation the industrial works has suffered.
As we've been reporting, the UN and Red Cross will attempt to evacuate the civilians still trapped there tomorrow.
Once again, the plight of those in Mariupol was the focus of our coverage for much of the day. We'll be pausing our coverage shortly, so here's a recap of what's happened today.
In Mariupol...
Internationally...
On Putin...
The UN has documented 180 cases of civilians, journalists, and local politicians being arbitrarily detained or disappeared in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine.
Michelle Bachelet, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, said her office had also found eight similar cases in Ukrainian-controlled territory of possible enforced disappearances of pro-Russian individuals.
"In areas around Kyiv, from late February for about five weeks, Russian forces targeted male civilians who they considered suspicious," Bachelet said.
According to evidence collected by her office, some of those individuals were "taken to Belarus and Russia, unbeknownst to their families, and held in pre-trial detention facilities".
Many of their families still do not know what has happened to them, she added.
Image source, ReutersNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
Away from Ukraine, Nato says it will increase its presence around Sweden and the Baltic sea if Sweden applies to join the alliance, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Swedish broadcaster SVT.
The secretary general highlighted the importance of protecting the country's borders while its Nato application is approved, which could take up to a year.
"From the potential moment Sweden is applying, and Nato says that they want Sweden to join, there is a very strong obligation from Nato to be able to guarantee Sweden's security," Stoltenberg told SVT.
Sweden and neighbouring Finland are expected to make a decision on whether they are applying to join Nato this month, as both countries have considered joining the alliance following the invasion of Ukraine.
Image source, AFPUkraine is asking its Western allies for more weapons before it can launch a counteroffensive on Russia, which is likely to be late June at the earliest, when it expects to receive additional military aid.
Here's a look at what aid has been sent so far:
Boris Johnson and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the possibility of the UK sending long-range weapons to help Ukraine's military - and the UK has already sent Ukraine thousands of NLAW anti-tank missiles and some Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles.
The US sent Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles - and they are now sending helicopters, long-range artillery and armoured personnel carriers.
Slovakia sent its S-300 anti aircraft defence system, which can destroy aircraft up to 400km away.
The US and Turkey have both sent drones armed with missiles.
Several Nato countries are now supplying Ukraine with heavier weapons, to enable its army to push back against Russia's army, and they are planning massively to increase the amounts they are spending on military aid.
Some more details have emerged on plans for another evacuation attempt to rescue civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol.
"Tomorrow, May 6, there will be an evacuation from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia," Ukraine's Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk writes in a Facebook post, external.
She says residents should gather on Friday at 12:00 local (09:00 GMT) near Mariupol's Port City shopping centre, providing no further details.
As we've been reporting, the UN and Red Cross hope that a convoy of its buses intended to evacuate civilians trapped in Mariupol's besieged steelworks will reach the city tomorrow morning.
Laura Bicker
BBC News
We're now hearing that another evacuation convoy is on its way to the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Hundreds of civilians are thought to be trapped in the maze-like tunnels under the plant.
It’s hoped the buses will reach Mariupol by Friday morning. The operation is being run jointly by the UN and the Red Cross.
Sarah Rainsford
Reporting from Makariv
Almost every window of Makariv hospital, outside Kyiv, has been blown out. There are holes from mortar fire in the car park and twisted pieces of Russian missiles under a tree.
Even so, the hospital’s still working as a day clinic.
When Russian tanks first rolled into the town, the hospital director says staff strung white sheets on the roof marked with red crosses hoping that would protect them.
"The 5th floor was hit by mortar fire," Galina Romanenko recalls. "When an ambulance drove out to get diesel, the Russians shot right at it."
Doctors stacked sacks filled with soil inside the windows of their operating theatre so they could go on treating the wounded, under fire.The hospital was treating up to two dozen injured people a day at the height of the fighting. They had to help many others over the phone.
"They’d call to say they were wounded but surrounded. We even helped a woman give birth by phone," Galina says.
The hospital was evacuated on 7 March. Ukrainian forces then moved into its grounds, drawing even heavier fire. At that point an entire clinic was hit, leaving only the filing cabinets standing, charred, among the wreckage.
Image source, EBUThe UN is trying to organise another evacuation from Mariupol, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
Speaking at a meeting of the body's Security Council, Guterres said that this was in addition to the two convoys that have already been completed successfully, including one that rescued 101 civilians who had been trapped in the city's massive Azovstal steelworks.
The UN chief did not specify whether it applied to civilians in the steelworks or to those in the wider Mariupol area.
"It is our policy not to speak about details of [negotiations] before they are completed to avoid undermining possible success."
Guterres added: "We must continue to do all we can to get people out of these hellscapes.".
Image source, Getty ImagesThe luxury yacht, named 'The Amadea', is one of the largest in the world
Sticking with sanctions, and a $300 million (£243m) luxury yacht owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov has been seized by authorities in Fiji after the US Justice Department requested it be held for violating sanctions and for alleged ties to corruption.
The luxury yacht, the Amadea, which was berthed in Lautoka when it was seized, is 348-feet (105 metres) long and has eight cabins, a VIP stateroom, and a helipad.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the department wants to make clear that there is "no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime".
Kerimov is part-owner of Russia's Gazprom and an official of the Russian government. He was described by the US department as part of a group of oligarchs who "profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe, including the occupation of Crimea."
Image source, EPAThe EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell speaking on 3 May
The EU is close to agreeing on a sixth round of sanctions against Russia, the bloc's foreign policy chief has said.
"They are almost there. And we need this agreement because we have to push still more our economic and financial pressure on Russia," Josep Borrell said at an event in Italy.
Yesterday the EU Commission proposed that the next round of sanctions included a phased ban on Russian oil imports, which if approved would be its toughest move against the Russian energy sector to date.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies. He has long given his backing to Russia's invasion, allowing troops to advance from his country's border when it began.
But he has said he hadn't expected the operation to "drag on this way".
In an interview with the Associated Press news agency Mr Lukashenko said that Russia's leader had had no choice but to act because Ukraine was "provoking Russia".
But he said: "I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it.
"I want to stress one more time: I feel like this operation has dragged on."
Mr Lukashenko also said he wanted the war to end, saying Belarus had "done and are doing everything" to stop it.
Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro
Image source, ReutersCivilians are helped over rubble at the steelworks plant
There is renewed hope that civilians who are still trapped in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol can be evacuated, as the UN and the Red Cross say a new convoy is expected on Friday.
The situation at the site, surrounded by Russian forces, is rapidly deteriorating, with little food and water supplies.
Meanwhile, the relatives of the hundreds of fighters who are also holed up there are desperate for an evacuation to include them too.
“We’re worried because the Russian attacks have been happening for three days and we still don’t have contact with our fighters there,” Nataliia, whose brother is a fighter currently at the site, told me.
“I don’t know how our fighters are dealing with it. I cannot get any information.”
She urged the Ukrainian government to come up with a plan for their rescue. Russian officials have urged them to lay down their arms. The fighters, however, say they will not surrender.
Image source, ReutersA new convoy is on its way to the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to try to evacuate the remaining civilians there, and is expected to arrive on Friday, the United Nations humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, says.
More than 340 civilians were evacuated from different parts of Mariupol yesterday with the help of the UN and the Red Cross, Griffiths said.
"Today, as we speak, a convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning, hopefully to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell that they have inhabited for so many weeks and months and take them back to safety," Griffiths said.
Numerous attempts had previously failed to get civilians out of the besieged city of Mariupol - but the first successful evacuation of the steelworks happened earlier this week.
Around 200 civilians, including at least 20 children, are still believed to be stuck underneath the steel plant.
Image source, LuhanskaVTSA / TelegramUnverified images posted by Luhansk officials apparently showing damage from Russian shelling
In addition to overnight strikes on the city of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks have resumed elsewhere in Ukraine's east.
Russian shelling killed a 15-year-old boy in Kharkiv who was helping to evacuate animals from a zoo, the owner of the Feldman Ecopark zoo says. Two other people were badly wounded in the attack, he added.
The governor of Mykolaiv says that the region and city "were bombed all night" wounding several people.
And in a Telegram post, external this afternoon, Luhansk's Ukrainian military commander says that the bodies of four men and one woman - all civilians - have been discovered in towns around the region after "24 devastating attacks" by Russian forces.
The BBC has not been able to verify these reports.
Andrew Harding
Reporting from Kramatorsk
Within hours of the attacks, council workers were busy cleaning rubble from the streets
At least 25 people have been injured in a series of overnight explosions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
Local officials said six civilians were severely wounded. The blasts – at least some believed to be the result of air strikes – damaged apartment blocks and shops in a residential neighbourhood of the city.
One air strike appeared to have destroyed a local hot water plant surrounded by apartment blocks, leaving a huge crater perhaps four metres deep, and widespread damage to dozens of residential homes.
In a short statement, the Donestsk region’s military administration said that nine homes and a school were also significantly damaged.
Less than a month ago, at least 50 people were killed when a missile hit the city’s railway station. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of a ‘monstrous war crime’ following the strike.
Within hours of last night’s attacks, council workers were busy cleaning rubble from Kramatorsk’s streets, while mechanical diggers removed larger blocks of concrete that had been torn apart in one blast.
The EU's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulator warned that airlines may be at heightened risk due to the war in Ukraine.
In a statement, the regulator said civil planes may be accidentally targeted and airlines could be struck by cyber-attacks while the conflict is ongoing.
"As shown by previous wars, misidentification is easy in confused arenas of warfare", the regulator said.
In 2014, a Malaysia Airlines flight crashed while flying over conflict-hit eastern Ukraine after it was hit by a Russian-made Buk missile.
"If we add in the likelihood of jamming of electronic aids that may be involved with navigation and or identification tools, then it is easy to see the potential for innocent aircraft being subject to missiles or radar laid weapons," the EASA added.
The regulator also stated that there are potential risks related to military operations using civilian airports throughout the conflict.
Paul Kirby
BBC News
Image source, EPARussia's Victory Day has become an annual event - the military parade in Red Square in Moscow and cities across Russia on 9 May - when the country marks its victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Under Vladimir Putin, Victory Day has become a show of military strength as well as a chance to remember the sacrifices of World War Two, when 27 million Soviet citizens died.
This year, the event has taken on a significance of its own.
Far from liberating Europe, Russia has waged months of war against its neighbour Ukraine and is devoid of any real form of military victory that it can celebrate.
Instead of celebrating the overthrow of Ukraine's government, the Kremlin will have to settle for the capture of most of Mariupol.
The city may lie in ruins, but Russia has repeatedly talked of "de-Nazification and demilitarisation" of Ukraine and it may claim defeat of the Azov battalion, which it has falsely portrayed as Nazi.
That would resonate on a day marking World War Two.
Read more about Russia's Victory Day parade.
Image source, GettyVladimir Putin meeting with Israeli PM Naftali Bennett in Sochi last October
Some more now from today's phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which we reported earlier.
Bennett has now said that Putin apologised to him for remarks earlier this week by his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claiming that Adolf Hitler was part-Jewish.
Lavrov made the comments when asked in an interview how Russia could claim to be "de-Nazifying" Ukraine when its president is himself Jewish.
In the interview, Russia's top diplomat said "Hitler also had Jewish blood," adding: "wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews."
The comments sparked outrage in Israel, which summoned the country's Russia's ambassador for "clarification" and demanded an apology.
Prime Minister Bennett says he has accepted Putin's apology for the remarks and thanked him for clarifying his position.