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Russian forces are firing on Ukrainian military units and launching missile strikes in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, where they are regrouping troops in their active offensive, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces says in its morning update.

Russia is trying to capture the eastern city of Lyman with artillery weapons, while also trying to cut off Ukrainian military units from reaching troops in the city of Bakhmut, it adds.

In Slovyansk - a city of 125,000 people that was seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014 before being recaptured - Russia continues to shell positions where Ukrainian troops are stationed, it adds.

In southern Ukraine, Russian forces have increased the shelling of Ukrainian military units and transferred reserve troops to the area to strengthen its attack.

However, the General Staff says 12 Russian attacks have failed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions over the past day and several Russian military units have been destroyed.

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More now from Joe Inwood, our correspondent in Kyiv.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he says the Ukrainian messaging has changed in recent weeks – with optimism over the situation in the Donbas giving way to a tone that’s “a bit more pessimistic – a bit more realistic maybe”.

Russian forces have been battling to cut off the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

Elsewhere, Thursday’s strike on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv matters as well, says our correspondent, because “this could be where the Russians turn once they’ve finished with the Donbas”.

Russian troops were previously pushed back from the area.

More now on the intensifying attacks in eastern Ukraine as Russia drives to take over key cities in the region.

The mayor of Severodonetsk says the city is under almost continuous shelling - 60% of the housing stock is completely destroyed and up to 90% of buildings are damaged and will need major repairs, Oleksandr Stryuk says.

He says the route out of the city is extremely dangerous due to shelling making it difficult for people to leave, but Ukraine's military are doing "everything necessary to make the route safe".

About 12,000-13,000 people remain in the city, Stryuk says, adding at least 1,500 have been killed there so far.

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Russia is believed to be using 50-year-old tanks in its efforts to occupy territory in southern Ukraine.

It's mobilising T-62 vehicles to bolster its Southern Grouping of Forces, according to a morning update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).

These vehicles are thought to be "particularly vulnerable to anti-tank weapons" and signal a shortage of "modern, combat-ready equipment".

The MoD also says Russian forces are continuing efforts to surround Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

They have recently captured several villages north-east of Popasna - but Ukrainian resistance is "denying Moscow full control" of the eastern Donbas region, says the MoD.

We're hearing reports of three explosions overnight in the southern Dnipro region of Ukraine, and the region's governor says there are "several more incoming".

Valentyn Reznichenko says rescuers are going through the debris and looking for people.

The region faced a “restless night and restless morning”, Reznichenko says in a Facebook update.

We'll bring you more details on the situation as we have them.

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Joe Inwood
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of carrying out a "genocide" in the eastern region of Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is suffering an onslaught of Russian shelling.

“They want to burn the Donbas – to make it uninhabitable.” President Zelensky’s nightly address was downbeat – representing his country’s increasingly difficult position in the east.

Russian forces are closing in on the twin strategic cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk – attempting to encircle and then destroy their Ukrainian defenders.

But – it is not just his armed forces Ukraine’s president accused Russia of wanting to wipe out. He suggested their invasion was genocidal – with civilian populations killed or deported.

He also accused the European Union of failing to act decisively on sanctions. A sixth package of measures is currently being held up – most notably by Hungary – a long time Russia ally.

Every day, the EU sends Moscow nearly €1bn for oil and gas – money that President Zelensky says directly fuels the invasion of his country.

Image source, Reuters

We're restarting our coverage of the war in Ukraine - good morning and thanks for joining us. Here are some of the latest headlines:

• President Zelensky has said the Russian assault could leave Ukraine's eastern Donbas region uninhabited. The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are currently under attack
• The Ukrainian leader again said Russia's actions amounted to genocide - because of forcible deportations and killings of civilians
• In his nightly video address, Zelensky criticised the European Union for failing to impose further sanctions on Russia
• Ukraine has also stepped up its call for heavy weaponry in the east - with the foreign minister saying the situation there was even worse than people understood
• The death toll in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv has risen to nine following Russian shelling yesterday, says the regional governor

Image source, Getty Images

We'll be pausing our live coverage shortly. Before we do, here's a quick round-up of all the latest.

• Shelling kills eight people, including a baby, in Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, in north-eastern Ukraine. Seventeen people, one a child, are wounded
• Fighting in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine is at maximum intensity and "escalating", Ukraine's deputy defence minister says
• The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas earlier came under intense bombardment
• Kyiv accuses Russia of stepping up its mass looting of Ukrainian grain, intended for shipping abroad. Global concern grows that disruption to grain supplies is leading to price rises and food shortages. Putin says Moscow can help divert a food crisis if the West lifts sanctions against it
• Ukraine’s chief prosecutor say she's investigating almost 14,000 cases of alleged war crimes by Russian forces. Iryna Venediktova adds that more than 1,000 medical or educational buildings have been destroyed in Ukraine during the war
• Two captured Russian soldiers plead guilty at Ukraine's second war crimes trial

Updates were brought to you today by Heather Sharp, Patrick Jackson, James Harness, Sam Hancock, Emily McGarvey, James Clarke, James FitzGerald, Marie Jackson, Alexandra Fouché, Yvette Tam, Meryl Sebastian, and Claire Heald.

We'll be back tomorrow with more. Do join us then.

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

When Marina's two sons were conscripted last winter to the Russian army she welcomed the idea of her children doing a year's military service.

"I told them that they had to serve," Marina tells me, "it was their duty to the motherland".

But a few weeks later she began to worry. Her sons had been deployed to an area close to the border with Ukraine. "Time stopped for me. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep," she told me.

She started searching and even tried to cross the border into Ukraine.

Her search took her to a military hospital - and she was shocked by what she saw.

Eventually someone at her sons' military unit admitted that they were, indeed, in Ukraine.

"I was told the terrifying news: 'Your children have signed military contracts to be professional soldiers. They're taking part in the special military operation [in Ukraine]. They will return as heroes'."

Read more of Marina's story here.

Image source, Getty Images

The situation in the east of the country is worse than people understand, Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says.

As we've been saying, Russia is making a major push in the Donbas region to capture the towns of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

Answering questions submitted on Twitter, external, Kuleba says Ukraine is in desperate need of more weapons to fight the Russians.

The situation in the east is as dire as people are saying, he says. "If you really care for Ukraine: weapons, weapons and weapons again."

To the international community, he repeated his appeal saying Russia is only better than Ukraine when it comes to heavy weapons.

"Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems, we won't be able to push them back. If you really care for Ukraine, if you want Ukraine to de-occupy its territories, send us multiple launch rocket systems as soon as possible."

James Waterhouse
Kyiv correspondent, BBC News

What we are seeing from the Russians are very slow, very deliberate and very familiar tactics, where they are trying to encircle an increasing number of locations in the Donbas, which is their priority.

They are trying to take territory around the city of Bahkmut in the Donetsk region.

They are increasingly launching assaults in the Luhansk region too.

In Severodonetsk, there is a single bridge allowing people to get out and supplies to get into the city, and the Russians have been targeting it directly.

But also, missiles landed today in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, which has been left alone for the past couple of weeks as the Russians pulled back. While their focus is on the eastern Donbas region, these strikes suggest they might not be curbing their greater ambitions in the long term.

Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine's territory, and they’re not stopping there. We're also seeing how they're consolidating, for example in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, where they have increased their land and air presence.

The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council has warned of really tough times ahead in the coming weeks and said the Russians should not be underestimated.

I think this is a reminder that while it was seen as a good thing when the Russians pulled back from their greater ambitions in trying to encircle Kyiv, over in east they have now improved supply lines and have artillery and air dominance.

This could be a pivotal moment in this conflict, because should the whole Donbas region fall, that would be the first marker for Vladimir Putin to claim something as a victory.

Image source, EPA

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns Western deliveries to Ukraine of weapons that can reach Russia could lead to an "unacceptable escalation".

In comments in an interview with RT Arabic, quoted by the Tass news agency, he says: "The West called for defeating Russia on the battlefield, and for this it is necessary... to pump weapons to Ukrainian nationalists, the Ukrainian regime, including weapons that can reach the Russian Federation."

"These are the weapons that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky publicly demands," he says.

"We warned the West in the most serious way that they are already, in fact, waging a proxy war with the Russian Federation... but this will be a serious step towards an unacceptable escalation," Lavrov said.

Paul Kirby
Digital Europe editor

Russian forces are bombarding towns and cities in eastern Ukraine with the declared aim of "liberating" the old industrial heartland known as Donbas.

Having abandoned his campaign to capture the capital Kyiv and second city Kharkiv, Vladimir Putin is now looking for military victory in the largely Russian-speaking east, where he falsely accuses Ukraine of committing genocide.

Achieving his goals in the east is the minimum he needs before he could end the operation and claim it a success.

Moscow's likely next step would be to annexe Donbas and other adjacent areas, exactly as President Putin did with Crimea after a discredited referendum in 2014.

US officials believe annexation is on the cards, and Russia's puppet leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, has said referendums would make sense when Russian forces complete the capture of both regions.

The outside world would regard any vote as a sham, but he sees the result as "obvious".

Image source, EPA

The total number of people killed in attacks in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv today has now risen to eight, including a 5-month-old baby, National Police chief Ihor Klymenko said on Facebook.

Elsewhere, four civilians were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, the regional governor said.

Another two died in the southern region of Mykolayiv, as civilian infrastructure, including a shop and residential buildings, was damaged in Russian shelling, the regional military command said.

If you're just joining our coverage of the invasion of Ukraine, here's what's been happening so far today:

• The situation in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine is grave, with the deputy defence minister saying fighting is at maximum intensity as the Russians storm Ukrainian positions in several areas at the same time
• Ukrainian officials tell the AFP news agency the Russians have attacked more than 40 settlements in their drive to take the strategic towns of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk
• There's been shelling in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and the overall death toll from that has risen to eight civilians killed, including a baby, and 17 people, including a child, wounded
• As difficulties in getting grain out of Ukraine continue, Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow can make a "significant contribution" to avoiding a global food crisis if the West lifts sanctions on Russia
• Ukraine’s chief prosecutor says she’s investigating almost 14,000 cases of alleged war crimes by Russian forces. Iryna Venediktova is in London on her first trip out of Ukraine since the invasion began and says between 100 and 200 new cases come in each day
• The assembly of the World Health Organization, the UN's health agency, approves a resolution to condemn Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on facilities like hospitals

Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) assembly has been considering a resolution condemning Russia's "military aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities".

The resolution, supported by the US and other Western countries, has now been passed, with 88 countries voting in favour and 12 against, with 53 abstentions.

A rival resolution proposed by Russia that made no mention of its own role in the crisis was voted down.

The outcome "sends a clear signal to the Russian Federation: stop your war against Ukraine, stop attacks on hospitals," said Ukrainian ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko.

"The World Health Assembly confirmed that the responsibility for the health crisis in Ukraine rests exclusively with the Russian Federation," Filipenko said.

The resolution stopped short of suspending Russia's voting rights at the UN health agency.

The WHO says 256 attacks on health care - including health facilities, transport, personnel, patients, supplies and warehouses - have been reported since Russia invaded Ukraine - we've reported about some of them here.

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Russian troops seized Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant to safeguard its nuclear fuel and materials.

It is Europe's biggest nuclear plant, generating more than half of Ukraine's nuclear power and 20% of the country's total electricity supply.

Russian forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant on 3 March, and later took control. Now just two of its six reactors are operating.

In a statement posted on the Russian foreign ministry website, Zakharova said: "We again stress that the placing under protection by Russian military personnel of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant was justified from the point of view of preventing a leak of nuclear and radioactive materials at a nuclear facility that happened to be in the zone of the special military operation."

Her comments came in response to a statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was seeking to visit the plant to check plutonium and enriched uranium was not being diverted to other uses.

Zakharova dismissed the IAEA's concerns, saying the uranium was low-enriched and plutonium was in spent fuel and could not be separated "without the use of quite complex equipment that only several countries have".

Russia is advancing a new law that will allow it to take control of local businesses of Western companies that decide to leave Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine.

The law, which could be in place within weeks, will give Russia powers to intervene where there is a threat to local jobs or industry, making it more difficult for Western companies to remove their business quickly unless they are prepared to take a big financial hit.

Hundreds of international brands, including Starbucks, Coca Cola, Levi's and Apple, have left Russia or suspended sales there since the country invaded Ukraine in February.

It comes as the Russian economy, increasingly cut off by Western sanctions, plunges into recession amid double-digit inflation.

The head of Ukraine's breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic says some of the Ukrainian soldiers being held after the fall of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol are not there because they surrendered but because they were captured.

In an interview with Russia's RIA Novosti agency, external, Denis Pushilin says Ukrainian troops were found hiding - or purposely lagging behind - during the side's surrender last week. The end of the bloody battle signalled the total fall of Mariupol to Russia.

As a result, Russian and pro-Russian forces can't say with 100% certainty if anyone remains hidden at the steelworks. Such "stragglers" do not pose an active threat, though, Pushilin says.

Checks are due to take place at the sprawling industrial site, he adds, where Russian forces will look for remaining Ukrainians and mines.

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Image source, EPA

Moscow is ready to make a "significant contribution" to avoiding a global food crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has said in a telephone call with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Putin also spoke about the "steps taken to ensure safety of navigation, including the daily opening of humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilian ships from the ports of the Azov and Black Sea, which is impeded by the Ukrainian side", the Kremlin said in a statement after the call.

Ukrainian farmers have 20 million tonnes of grain they cannot get to international markets, and a new harvest is about to begin.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has previously described as "blackmail" the offer from Russia to lift its blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Read more about how Ukraine can export its harvest to the world here.