Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said he'd held "open and direct" talks with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Finland's bid for Nato membership.

As we've been reporting, Erdogan has publicly questioned whether Finland and Sweden should be allowed to join the military alliance.

"I stated that as Nato allies Finland and Turkey will commit to each other's security and our relationship will thus grow stronger," Niinisto tweeted after the call.

"Finland condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he wrote, adding, "Close dialogue continues."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson that Ankara expects concrete steps regarding its concerns about terrorist organisations.

Turkey says Sweden and Finland harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

In a phone call, Erdogan also said an arms exports embargo imposed on Turkey after its Syria incursion in 2019 should be lifted, according to Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan and Andersson spoke today after Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato earlier this week.

Turkey has said it objected to the two countries joining the military alliance, but Western leaders have expressed confidence that Ankara's position will not be a roadblock for the Nato accession process.

A woman ran onto the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, to protest against sexual violence in Ukraine.

The protester stripped off a gown to reveal the words "stop raping us" painted on her body, along with the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Ukrainian authorities have said they're investigating cases of women being raped by Russian forces during their occupation of parts of the country.

If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this video you can visit the BBC Action Line here.

Ukraine's President Zelensky has tweeted his gratitude after his American counterpart Joe Biden signed off $40bn (£32bn) of fresh aid money for Ukraine.

The aid package was overwhelmingly approved by the US Senate on Thursday.

The money represents the largest package of US aid since Russia invaded.

It includes:

• $6bn (£4.8bn) for security assistance - including training, equipment, weapons and support
• $9 billion (£7.2bn) for an economic support fund for Ukraine
• $5bn (£4bn) to address global food insecurity

James Waterhouse
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Office

Right now, the most likely outcome in Ukraine looks to be a return to diplomacy - something President Zelensky hinted at in his interview earlier.

The alternatives are a change of heart in Russia, or even a change of leadership there – which seem far less likely.

Zelensky has made it clear that he doesn’t have the means to push the Russians back, which is why he’s urging people to stay cautious about the eventual outcome. But we’ve not had any signs of the Ukrainian resistance easing in any way.

So I think any resolution is going to rely on a peace deal at this moment in time.

The Donbas in the east is still Russia's priority. We’re hearing from Ukrainian forces that Moscow is throwing everything at the region – possibly because its troops can move more freely now that the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has fallen.

Image source, Getty Images

Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here's a quick summary of today's main news:

• President Zelensky says the war in Ukraine can only be resolved through diplomacy
• Speaking on Ukrainian television, he suggested his country could be victorious on the battlefield - but that things could only come to a conclusive halt "at the negotiating table"
• America's President Biden has signed a bill to provide another $40bn (£32bn) of military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine - the largest aid package since Russia began its war
• Russia now claims to be in full control of Mariupol after the final defenders of the Azovstal metal works surrendered

• Russia also says its military had destroyed a major consignment of Western arms in Ukraine's Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv

• The UK's foreign secretary says Moldova's defences should be brought up to the standard of the Nato military alliance - over concerns that Moscow could launch an attack there, too
• Russia has switched off its gas supply to Finland after that country refused Moscow's demand to pay for fuel in Russian roubles

More now from President Zelensky, who's been speaking on Ukrainian TV.

He said his country had "broken the backbone" of one of the world's strongest armies - adding that the Russians were "not going to regain their feet in the next several years".

But he cautioned against high expectations about what Ukraine could achieve on the battlefield.

Zelensky said returning to the status quo of 23 February - before Russia invaded - would represent "victory".

This would mean an end to the war's "first stage", he said - adding the conflict could only be fully resolved through diplomacy.

Zelensky insisted his country was adequately prepared for the invasion - and suggests the Russians made underestimations. "They did not know about a number of things," he claimed.

The president was speaking in a 75-minute pre-recorded interview alongside his wife, Olena Zelenska.

The broadcast was to mark three years since he took office.

President Biden has signed a bill that confirms $40bn (£32bn) of new aid for Ukraine's war effort, the White House says.

The money represents the largest package of American assistance since Russia launched its invasion in February.

The bill, which will funnel support to Ukraine for about the next five months, includes around $6 billion budgeted for armoured vehicles and air defences.

Biden is currently in South Korea, during a four-day trip through Asia.

Speaking in Seoul, he said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an attack on "core international principles".

It's not just Finland that will no longer receive natural gas from Russia.

Last month, the Russian-state-owned energy company Gazprom cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after they, like Finland, refused to make payments in the Russian currency roubles.

All three countries are members of the EU - which has insisted payments continue to be made in euros - and many other members are set to face the same issue when payments are due.

The demand by Russia is an attempt to shore up the Russian currency and benefit its economy in response to western sanctions.

Brussels has said it considers Russia's action to be a form of blackmail.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

Russia has confirmed this morning that it's stopped supplying gas to Finland - the latest escalation of an energy payments row with the West.

Finland verified that deliveries had been halted - but insisted there would be no disruption to customers.

It's been refusing to pay for gas in roubles - after Moscow insisted that "unfriendly" countries must make payments in the Russian currency.

But the cut-off also follows an announcement that Finland will apply to join Nato, the military alliance of 30 Western nations.

Finland imports most of its gas from Russia but gas accounts for less than a tenth of the country's energy consumption.

Read more here.

Jeremy Bowen
Reporting from Dnipro

What we’re hearing from Ukrainian troops fighting in the Donbas region is that the Russians have moved forward. In fact, official communiques have said the same thing.

It’s a matter of miles. It’s not like there’s been a major breakthrough and Russian troops are pouring through.

But I think the Ukrainian defences are creaking.

They haven’t broken, but they’ve had to retreat. They’ve blown up bridges to try and slow down the Russian advance.

Luhansk, which is the north-eastern part of the Donbas region, is the area they are really prioritising.

And this morning what we heard from people there on the military side was that the Russians were doing more airstrikes, more shelling, and were really ramping up the firepower to break those Ukrainian defences.

Yesterday, the Russian defence minister said Luhansk would soon be 100 percent in their hands.

Image source, .

Image source, Getty Images

Russian forces are intensifying their battle to capture more territory in the eastern Donbas region, where they've been heavily bombarding Ukrainian positions.

Moscow now claims to have fully captured the strategic port city of Mariupol - where Ukrainian troops had been fighting for weeks to defend a huge steel plant. Those fighters have all surrendered.

The freeing up of Russian forces from Mariupol has raised concerns in Kyiv that Moscow will now be able to encircle the east of Ukraine.

The authorities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions say at least nine more Ukrainian civilians were killed in Russian attacks on Friday.

Image source, .

Russia says it's destroyed a large shipment of weapons sent by Western countries to help Ukraine.

It was blown up near a railway station in the northern Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, using missiles launched from the sea, the Russian defence ministry is quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The ministry said the weapons were intended for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Among other updates, Russia also reportedly claimed to have attacked a training base for Ukrainian special operations forces, as well as fuel storage facilities near the southern port city of Odesa.

It was not possible for the BBC to independently verify the claims made.

Image source, Getty Images

The war in Ukraine can only be resolved through diplomacy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said - despite a current deadlock in negotiations between the two sides.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, he suggested his country could be victorious on the battlefield - but that things could only come to a conclusive halt "at the negotiating table".

The conflict "will be bloody, there will be fighting, but it will only definitively end through diplomacy", Zelensky said.

But he indicated this would not be easy as neither side wanted to give anything up.

On Tuesday, Kyiv's lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said talks were on hold.

The following day Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv authorities of not wanting to continue talks to end hostilities.

Russian news agencies say the last meeting happened nearly a month ago, on 22 April.

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, Reuters

Russia has declared victory at Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, after weeks of near-constant bombardment amid incredible Ukrainian resistance.

But many questions remain.

First, the exact number of fighters who have surrendered, and are now in Russian-controlled territory, is still not clear. Russia claims more than 2,000 are now in their hands, a number that hasn’t been confirmed by Ukraine. The Red Cross says it’s registered “hundreds” prisoners of war but the difference could be explained by delays in the process.

Then, what will happen to them? Ukrainian authorities have suggested they will be exchanged with Russian prisoners of war, something Moscow hasn’t confirmed. And there’s already opposition in Russia to that.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says Russian officials might try to inflate the numbers of soldiers captured in order to maximise the number of Russian prisoners that can be exchanged if a prisoner swap is agreed.

Perhaps as important, they say the “Russian leadership may also seek to avoid the embarrassment of admitting that their forces have been locked in a months-long siege by ‘hundreds’ rather than ‘thousands’ of Ukrainian defenders.”

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

Russia has declared victory in its months-long battle to conquer Mariupol.

Last night, Moscow said the port city had been "completely liberated" after the last fighters defending the Azovstal metal works surrendered.

Friday's evacuation marks the end of the most destructive siege of the war, with Mariupol now in complete ruins.

It said 531 Ukrainian troops had left the site. "The underground facilities of the enterprise, where the militants were hiding, came under the full control of the Russian armed forces," it added in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the site's last remaining defenders had been given permission to leave.

"Today the boys received a clear signal from the military command that they can get out and save their lives," he told a Ukrainian television channel.

According to Moscow officials, a total of 2,439 Ukrainian fighters have now surrendered from the steel works in recent days.

Moscow has released no information about where the soldiers who left last night are being evacuated to, but previous buses have been sent to Russian-controlled territories.

Read more here.

Joe Inwood
Reporting from Lviv

Image source, EPA

Moldova is looking nervously at events to its east. Like Ukraine, it has Russian-backed separatists and has seen attempts at destabilisation by Moscow.

Now, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has suggested that Moldova should be armed to Nato standards, even though it isn’t a member of the Alliance. The Foreign Secretary said the country needed to be “permanently able to defend itself”. She told The Telegraph that the idea was being discussed with Britain’s allies.

Her comments came as Russia declared it had complete control of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Moscow claimed the city was entirely “liberated” – after the last Ukrainian defenders lay down their weapons. That will free up forces to take part in what appears to be a major offensive in the Luhansk region.

Days of increased bombardment have allowed some Ukrainian positions to be breached – leading to fears of another encirclement starting in the East – just as that of Mariupol has come to an end.

Read more about the story here.

Good morning and thanks for joining us. We’re resuming our live coverage and will be bringing you the latest developments and analysis of the war in Ukraine throughout the day. Here's the latest:

• Russia has declared victory in its months-long battle to conquer the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol
• The last fighters defending the city's Azovstal steel plant have now surrendered, Moscow officials said
• British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she wants to see Ukraine's neighbour Moldova armed with Nato standard military equipment, to guard it against potential Russian aggression
• Turkey's President has said he will speak with Finland and Sweden about their bids to join Nato but Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that he would maintain his opposition to their applications
• Finland's state-owned gas operator has confirmed that Russia has switched off the supply to the country after it refused to comply with Moscow's demand that it pay for energy supplies in Russian currency, rather than in euros or dollars

• Finance ministers from the G7 group of nations have agreed on a further $9.5bn (£7.6bn) of financial aid for Ukraine - bringing their total commitment to almost $20bn (£16bn)

We're now pausing our live page but will be back tomorrow. Thanks for joining us.

The live page writers today were James Fitzgerald, Jack Burgess, James Harness, Alexandra Fouche and Emily McGarvey.

The page was edited by Rob Corp and Alex Therrien, with help from Chris Giles and Jeremy Gahagan.

We'll soon be pausing our live coverage of the Ukraine war for the day. But before we do, here's a quick recap of the day's key developments:

• The Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol is now under Russian control after the last group of 531 soldiers defending the devastated plant surrendered, according to Russia's defence ministry
• A Russian missile strike on a cultural centre in Lozova, in the Kharkiv region, that injured seven civilians, including an 11-year-old child, was condemned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "absolute evil". Zelensky went on to use his nightly address to argue that Russian assets in ally countries should be seized to help fund the cost of rebuilding Ukraine

• Russia said it is halting its supply of natural gas to Finland, after the Nordic nation refused to pay for its supplies in roubles
• Finance ministers from the G7 group of nations have agreed on a further $9.5bn (£7.6bn) of financial aid for Ukraine - bringing their total commitment to almost $20bn (£16bn)