Image source, EPA

US foreign policy adviser Derek Chollet has told the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Landale that Russia is weaker now than it was when it launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has already suffered a "strategic defeat," says Chollet. He explains that the Russian economy has been "devastated" by sanctions, and its military has been depleted.

On the other hand, "Ukraine is stronger today and closer to the West," Chollet says. "And Nato is stronger as well.

"Here we are talking about Sweden and Finland joining [Nato]. This was not on any of our 'to-do' lists at New Year."

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, EPA

The fighters who were holed up in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol putting up strong resistance against Russian forces have been seen as heroes in Ukraine. They were surrounded by the invading troops and, for weeks, attacked with almost no respite.

They had vowed to fight until the end, but eventually were told to surrender.

Since Monday, hundreds have left the site and taken to Russian-controlled towns. The exact number is not yet clear, though Russia claims almost 2,000 have surrendered.

What will happen next is still not clear. Ukrainian officials hope they will be part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. Moscow, however, has not confirmed this.

Many of the fighters belong to the Azov regiment, which was set up as a far-right volunteer militia in 2014. Its members deny being neo-Nazi, and Ukraine says the regiment has been reformed and integrated into the National Guard.

Image source, Dmytro Orest Kozatskyi/Azov regiment press service/Reuters

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says his “special military operation” in Ukraine is an effort to “de-Nazify” the country, and prominent names in Russia have already voiced their opposition to any exchange deal involving the Azovstal defenders.

The relatives of the fighters – and the rest of this country – are in a desperate wait. Meanwhile, it is not yet clear if those who are still at the plant had laid down their arms.

In a video, Lt Denys Prokopenko, the commander of the Azov regiment, said a process was still under way to remove the bodies from those who had died in the fighting. But there was no word about what the remaining fighters will do.

Image source, .

The Russian military have fired on a school in Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region, where more than 200 people were hiding - many of them children - the head of the regional state administration, Serhiy Haidai, has said on the messaging app Telegram.

Haidai says three adults died and police are trying to move people to another shelter.

He has also said around 11,000 houses, of which almost 3,000 were high-rise buildings, have been "partially or completely destroyed" in Luhansk.

Haidai says the economic losses are estimated "at hundreds of billions of hryvnias".

The BBC has not been able to independently verify this information.

Image source, .

Russian forces are continuing their slow advance in the east of Ukraine after using heavy firepower to weaken defending forces.

As you'll see from the map above, some of their focus in recent weeks has been around the cities of Izyum and Severodonetsk.

To the north, however, Ukrainian forces have now pushed the majority of Russian forces away from Kharkiv, the country's second largest city.

The Institute for the Study of War reports that those Russian forces are now being redeployed to the Donetsk region.

You can find more maps here showing areas of Russian control.

Image source, Reuters

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said he will maintain his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining Nato when he speaks with the countries tomorrow.

The Turkish President has been vocal in his opposition to the two countries' joining the military alliance.

Erdogan discussed the issue with the Dutch Prime Minister today and is also planning to speak with Britain tomorrow.

More now on the end of Ukraine's defence of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks.

In a short video message published on Thursday by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Azov regiment commander Sviatoslav Palamar said "an operation is under way". He added that he would not disclose the details.

This week hundreds of Azov troops, who spent weeks holed up in the steelworks, handed themselves over to Russian forces. Russia says more than 1,700 fighters from the plant have now surrendered and been taken to Russian-controlled areas

The Azov regiment is the most frequent target for Russia's claim that it is fighting against Nazis in Ukraine.

The regiment, which was set up as a volunteer militia in 2014 but is now a National Guard unit, once had links to the far right.

The BBC has not been able to verify the location or date the video was recorded.

Image source, .

Image source, Donetsk Regional Military Administration

Russia says it's created a "special headquarters" to oversee restoration work in the Donbas region - where its troops have been gaining territory, but infrastructure bas been badly damaged as a result of artillery bombardment and air strikes.

Specialist teams have been assessing the repairs and construction needed in the region, according to a report by the state-owned RIA-Novosti news agency seen by BBC Monitoring.

"The work is in full swing," Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin is quoted as saying. "We will build, restore all roads, destroyed housing.

"The second set of measures is economic recovery," he adds.

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

A Finnish brewery is struggling to cope with the huge demand for its new beer to mark the country's decision to join the Nato military alliance after 75 years of neutrality.

The brewery is based in Savonlinna, 50 km (31 miles), from the Russian border, in a red brick building built when Finland was still part of the Russian Empire in 1909.

Its owner, Petteri Vanttinen told the AFP news agency that sales of his "freedom" beer have exploded since it went viral on social media after the Finnish parliament debated its bid to join Nato on Monday.

"Normally we sell around a hundred cans of beer a day. Now the number is over two thousand", he said.

Finland and Sweden have now submitted their applications to join Nato.

The leader of an independent Belarusian trade union organisation has been sentenced to 15 days in jail, the Polish-based European Radio for Belarus (Euroradio) reports.

Maksim Paznyakow was arrested after the Ukrainian flag was displayed on the profile picture of his Facebook page, along with the slogan "For independence!".

He was detained on 17 May, Euroradio says.

Image source, Dmytro Kozatskyi

More on the evacuation of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are said to have laid down their weapons.

One of the Ukrainian troops who had been defending the besieged city's last holdout posted a series of photos of the devastated steelworks on social media as he left the site.

"Well, that's all", wrote Ukrainian serviceman Dmytro Kozatskyi after leaving the plant. "Thank you for the shelter, Azovstal is the place of my death and my life," he added.

Earlier, Russian authorities said nearly 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered at Azovstal and are believed to have been taken to Russian-controlled areas.

Laura Bicker
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, .

Lt Col Denys Prokopenko of the Azov Regiment, a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces which has been defending the Azovstal steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol, has posted a video on social media after the government in Kyiv announced it was ending its defence of the site.

Russia says some 2,000 soldiers have surrendered to its forces - a similar figure to estimates published by the UK's Ministry of Defence.

Image source, Reuters

Hanna Chornous
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, EPA

A lawyer for the first Russian soldier on trial in Kyiv since the invasion started has told a court his client is not guilty of murder or war crimes.

Vadim Shishimarin has admitted killing an unarmed 62-year-old man in a Ukrainian village.

Lawyer Viktor Ovsyannikov argued that Shishimarin carried out an order from someone of a higher rank - and could not have known whether that order was criminal or not, “just like anyone else in that situation would not know”.

Ovsyannikov said Russian soldiers erroneously believed the civilian could inform the Ukrainian military of their whereabouts. He added that Shishimarin did not mean to commit a crime and felt that there was a threat to his life.

In response, the prosecutor said that Shishimarin could have avoided killing a civilian; that instead of firing three or four rounds, he could have taken the man’s phone, or fired just one shot to scare him.

Shishimarin again apologised in his closing remarks.

“I do not deny it, and am ready to be punished and to face the consequences,” he said.

A verdict is expected on Monday.

Will Vernon
Reporting from Moscow

Image source, EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

Two MPs from the ruling United Russia party have submitted a draft bill to Russia's parliament, the Duma, that will remove the upper age limit for men to sign a contract to serve in the country's armed forces. The current maximum age limit is 40 for Russian citizens.

A note accompanying the draft law appears to justify the change by claiming that “highly-qualified specialists are needed to fire high-precision weapons and operate weaponry and armour, and experience shows that [people] become such specialists towards the ages of 40-45.”

But speculation will abound that this is the latest measure Russian authorities are employing in order to attract more men into the Army as reports of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine continue to be published online and in local Russian media.

Russian authorities have not released official updated statistics on the number of service personnel killed in the war since 25 March.

A period of one-year military service for men is obligatory in Russia. The conscription age is currently between 18 and 27. However, many men are exempt due to their profession, education status or health. This law, however, covers “professional” soldiers, who sign a contract.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine could soon cause a global food crisis that may last for years, the United Nations has warned.

The conflict has cut off supplies from Ukraine's ports, which once exported vast amounts of cooking oil as well as cereals such as maize and wheat.

This has reduced global supplies and caused the price of alternatives to soar, with food prices worldwide almost 30% higher than the same time last year, according to the UN.

The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m to 1.6bn, with nearly 250m on the brink of famine, the Economist reports, external.

To emphasis this point the magazine's striking front cover (above) has replaced wheat kernels with skulls.

Russia has staged a blockade all along Ukraine's Black Sea coast and millions of tonnes of grain has not been able to leave.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the only effective solution to the crisis is reintegrating Ukraine's food production, as well as fertiliser produced by both Russia and Belarus, back into the global market.

Kremlin's defence minister has also been reflecting on how the country will respond to the eastern expansion of Nato.

Russia will create new military bases in the west of the country to counter the strengthening of Nato near its borders, Sergei Shoigu says.

Finland and Sweden have both formally submitted applications to join Nato, a military alliance of 30 Western nations.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

More now from Russia's Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu.

Nearly 2,000 soldiers have so far surrendered to Kremlin forces at the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol, he says.

The BBC has not been able to verify the numbers.

Earlier, the UK's Ministry of Defence suggested around 1,700 soldiers were likely to have laid down their arms at the vast industrial site.

Azovstal has long represented the last bastion of resistance in Mariupol - and Ukraine says efforts continue to evacuate the remaining defenders.

Those who've surrendered have been taken to Russian-controlled areas.

Russia's "liberation" of the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine is almost complete, Moscow's defence minister has said in comments quoted by the Tass news agency.

More territory has been seized from Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists and Russia's own forces, Sergei Shoigu said.

Before the invasion, President Putin announced that he was formally recognising the so-called People's Republic - and another in Donetsk - as being independent from Ukraine.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just joining us, or looking for a recap, here's a round-up of the latest events in Ukraine:

• President Zelensky has said Ukraine's eastern Donbas region had been "completely destroyed" and life there was "hell" in his latest video address

• Fighting is still concentrated in the east; Ukraine has reported intense combat around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk
• 13 civilians died in Russian shelling in the Luhansk region in the last 24 hours, the governor there has said
• Video released by Ukraine - but not verified by the BBC - appears to show its soldiers blowing up a bridge in the Luhansk region, to try and slow the Russian offensive
• Efforts continue to evacuate the last Ukrainian defenders of the Azovstal metal works in Mariupol
• As many as 1,700 Ukrainian fighters at the steelworks have so far surrendered to Russia, according to UK military intelligence

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has topped the 2022 TIME100 poll, in which readers vote for who they think should be in the magazine's list of the year's most influential people.

A total of 3.3 million votes were cast by the public, with 5% of voters naming President Zelensky as the key public figure of 2022.

Previously on the magazine's cover, President Zelensky told TIME he acknowledged that many people around the globe have been closely watching him throughout the conflict.

“You understand that they’re watching,” he told TIME magazine. “You’re a symbol. You need to act the way the head of state must act.”

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, came in second place with 3.5% of the vote, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson followed closely in third place with 3.4% of the public vote.

Jeremy Bowen
Reporting from Dnipro

Russian forces in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region have pushed forward and taken some ground, according to information in the latest Ukrainian military briefing.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the Russians for destroying the area.

That could be code for admitting the weight of Russian firepower is starting to tell.

These are not big advances – it’s mile by mile and village by village - but it looks as if the Russians are reaping their first tactical success in weeks from tried and trusted methods of advance behind heavy bombardments.

The Ukrainian military says the Russian army is advancing in the areas of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

Image source, EPA/STR

The Ukrainians say a strategic highway between Bahmut and Lysychansk is blocked by Russian artillery placed five kilometres from the road.

In Bakhmut, a city that had a population of around 75,000 before the war, shelling and airstrikes have started fires.

Ukraine has its own artillery and is firing back. But it’s not clear how many of the modern 155mm howitzers supplied by the US have managed to reach battlefields in the east.

The surrender of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol could also release Russian reinforcements for their offensive in Donbas.

Image source, .