Ukraine's National Guard have released a video which it said shows the destruction of a bridge connecting Severodonetsk to Rubizhne in the Luhansk region.

The special operation between Ukraine's security forces aims to slow down the advance of Russian troops in the area.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the images.

Image source, .

Russian senator Frants Klintsevich has claimed his country’s slow progress in Ukraine is because Moscow's forces are fighting soldiers "with exactly the same mentality as ours", BBC Monitoring's Francis Scarr reports.

Speaking on Russian state television, Klintsevich said Russia’s “special military operation” was proceeding “with quite some difficulty”, adding that he didn’t want to offend anyone.

He called Ukraine's military "one of the strongest and best-trained armies" and said "we're fighting against Russian soldiers and officers".

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We've had word of a rare display of public dissent in Russia over the war.

The owner of a shopping centre in the small town of Russko-Vysotskoye has painted his building with the names of Ukrainian cities attacked by the Kremlin's troops.

Mariupol, Bucha, Kherson and Chernihiv are all listed.

Owner Dmitry tells the BBC it's a "way of getting information out" because the Russian public is being misled over the invasion.

"People are starting to realise that what's really happening is a calamity," he says.

Read the full report from our Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg.

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Image source, Donetsk Regional Military Administration

President Zelensky has repeated his allegation that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine - something for which "the occupiers will definitely be brought to justice" he says.

As we've been reporting, Zelensky said in a video address last night that attacks on civilian infrastructure were a "deliberate and criminal attempt to kill as many Ukrainians as possible".

Russia has previously strenuously denied such attacks.

Zelensky said life had become "hell" in the eastern Donbas region - which had been "completely destroyed".

He also welcomed the first war crimes trial of the conflict - in which a Russian soldier has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian.

Image source, Reuters

Turning now to the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol, where efforts are being made to extract the last Ukrainian defenders still believed to be holed up inside.

Presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak says "very difficult, very fragile" talks are being held over the evacuations - and that Ukrainians should refrain from commenting until the operation is over.

Fresh military intelligence from the UK has suggested as many as 1,700 fighters at the vast industrial plant have now surrendered and been taken to Russian-controlled areas.

Yesterday, a deputy commander of the Azov battalion confirmed in a short video that he and other soldiers were still inside Azovstal.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's get some more details now on where the fighting is currently focused.

Russian forces are continuing their offensive around the strategic eastern towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, Ukraine has said in its latest military update.

Combat is said to be intense across the wider Donbas region, and Russia is again accused of shelling civilian infrastructure (something it has previously denied).

But Ukraine claims to have repelled 14 Russian attacks and destroyed eight tanks among other vehicles.

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

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Russian shelling in Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk has killed 13 civilians in the past 24 hours, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration - Serhiy Hayday - has said, according to Reuters.

Twelve were killed in the town of Severodonetsk, where a Russian assault has been unsuccessful, he says.

Severodonetsk is strategically important to the Russians because controlling it would enable Russia to drive west and link up with Russian forces pushing south-east of Izyum.

Image source, .

James Waterhouse
Reporting from Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his politicians have called for one thing above everything else over the past few weeks - weapons and more weapons.

They have been grateful for what's already been sent but as far as they're concerned, they need to replenish what has been lost.

That includes anti-aircraft missiles, tank missiles, ammunition, as well as continued training for forces.

The support from the West, and what the US has announced this morning, shows how committed the West is at the moment in terms of propping up Ukraine in its defence of its own country.

President Zelensky has said the US is contributing to restoring peace to Ukraine, Europe and the wider world but of course the fighting is still happening.

He's described the Donbas region in the east, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk, as being completely destroyed, accusing the Russians of mindlessly bombarding it.

Image source, REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

This is a place where Russian forces are focusing their efforts but it's also a place where there's already been eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.

So we are continuing to see a concentration of fighting there.

Meanwhile, where the Russians do occupy territory in the Kherson region to the south, the installed governor there says he intends to make the region part of Russia in the long-term.

Something that will be so jarring for so many Ukrainians but officials in this country have warned this is straight out of the Russian playbook.

Image source, Getty Images

US officials are considering arming the Ukrainian military with advanced anti-ship missiles, the Reuters news agency has reported.

Citing Biden administration officials, the report says the White House could offer Kyiv Boeing Harpoon and Naval Strike missiles with which to target the Russian Black Fleet, which is currently blockading Ukrainian ports.

UK defence officials have said that around 20 Russian Navy vessels, including submarines, are active in the region.

Officials are said to believe the arms could help force Russian ships away from Ukrainian territory and allow shipments of grain and other agricultural products to resume.

But the missiles, which cost around $1.5m (£1.2m) per round and have a range of 300km, are mainly sea based missiles, meaning Ukraine could face difficulty firing it from shore.

Image source, EPA

The US Senate has voted to approve a new $40bn (£32bn) bill to provide military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. It is the biggest emergency aid package so far for Ukraine.

The package brings the total US aid delivered to Ukraine to more than $50bn, including $6bn for security assistance such as training, equipment, weapons and support.

The bill - which was passed by the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support on 10 May - was expected to be passed earlier this week, but was blocked by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul over a dispute about spending oversight.

But the Republican's Senate leader Mitch McConnell dismissed these concerns and told reporters that Congress had a "moral responsibility" to support "a sovereign democracy's self-defence".

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the aid package as "a significant US contribution to the restoration of peace and security in Ukraine, Europe and the world".

The UK's Ministry of Defence, external has just issued its latest assessment of the fighting in Ukraine. It suggests:

• As many as 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers are likely to have surrendered at the Azovstal metal works - the country's last pocket of resistance in Mariupol. An unknown number of troops are still inside
• Once Russian forces have fully secured Mariupol, they are likely to head elsewhere in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region to reinforce other operations
• But first, those soldiers will need to be "re-equipped" having faced stern Ukrainian resistance - something that can be a "lengthy process"
• However, the MoD does not believe this will be done thoroughly - due to "pressure" on Russian commanders to quickly make gains elsewhere

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Russia has shifted most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine, after pulling back its forces from near the capital Kyiv.

The battle for Ukraine's old industrial heartland known as Donbas is likely to decide the fate of the Russian invasion.

Donbas is predominantly Russian-speaking and Russia has repeatedly spoken of "liberating" the region, home of two self-declared republics, the Luhansk and Donestsk People's Republics.

Seizing the region would allow Moscow to open a land bridge along the south coast to the Russian border and control of the water supply to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Russian forces were also trying to encircle Ukraine's troops in the region. Around 40,000 of Kyiv's most battle-hardened and experienced soldiers are based in the Donbas and their loss would be a significant blow to President Volodymyr Zelensky's war effort.

But in recent days military analysts say that effort has been faltering, as Russian troops have been forced back from the city of Kharkiv towards the Russian border.

Read more about the Donbas offensive here. , external

Image source, Getty Images

The Russian-installed governor of occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine has said the region will soon be fully integrated into Russia.

Volodymyr Saldo, who was installed by Russian forces after they took control of the area in early March, wrote on Telegram that it would become the “Kherson region of the Russian Federation”.

His deputy, Kirill Stremousov, wrote that residents would be able to apply for Russian citizenship in the coming weeks when the situation stabilises.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that Moscow is planning a sham independence referendum in the region and elsewhere.

However, Russian officials have not confirmed that annexation of the occupied regions of southern Ukraine is imminent and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that the future of the region depended on the will of residents.

Image source, Office of the President of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of turning the eastern Donbas region into “hell,” as intense fighting there rages on.

Speaking during his nightly address from Kyiv, he said Russian forces had flattened the region. "[There are] constant strikes on the Odesa region, on the cities of central Ukraine. The Donbas is completely destroyed," he said.

“All this has no and cannot have any military explanation for Russia,” Zelensky added.

“This is a deliberate and criminal attempt to kill as many Ukrainians as possible. Destroy as many houses, social facilities and enterprises as possible," the Ukrainian leader said.

On Thursday, Ukraine's defence ministry accused Russia of intensifying its attacks in the Donbas and preventing civilians from fleeing.

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:

• In a late-night video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Donbas region in the east of the country has been "completely destroyed"
• "[Russia] is trying to exert even more pressure. It is hell there - and that is not an exaggeration," he says of the region, which has been the main focus of Russia's invasion in recent weeks
• Meanwhile, the US Senate approves $40bn (£32bn) in aid for Ukraine - the largest package of support since Russia invaded
• Sweden and Finland move closer in their bid to join Nato after their application was welcomed by US President Joe Biden, who earlier met the leaders of both countries at the White House
• Biden told reporters during a news conference that the applications marked "a watershed moment in European security"
• And a prosecutor in the first trial of a Russian soldier for war crimes in the conflict has asked for a life sentence for the accused. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, says he was threatened by another soldier before killing a civilian