Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine
Russian forces have taken the Ukrainian port of Kherson, local officials have confirmed, the first major urban centre to fall since Moscow's attack a week ago.
“The [Russian] occupiers are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous,” Gennady Lakhuta, head of the regional administration, wrote on messaging service Telegram on Wednesday.
Mayor Igor Kolykhayev said late on Wednesday that Russian troops were in the streets and had entered the council building. He called on civilians to walk through the streets only in daylight and in ones and twos.
“There were armed visitors in the city executive committee today,” he said in a statement. “I didn't make any promises to them … I just asked them not to shoot people.”
The strategic port city of 290,000 people near the Black Sea came under siege as Russian forces pressed ahead with their offensive across other towns and cities.
Another important Ukrainian port, Berdiansk, has already been seized by Russian troops, while Mariupol has repelled attacks “with dignity,” according to that city's mayor, Vadim Boichenko.
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Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA -
Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP -
A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo -
Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo -
A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo -
A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo -
Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA -
Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP -
A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA -
Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP -
A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters -
MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP -
Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty -
Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP -
Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP -
A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP -
Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters -
An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters -
People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters -
A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters -
A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters -
A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters -
A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP -
A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP -
Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP -
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP -
A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP -
Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP -
An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP -
Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP -
Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters -
US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters -
Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP -
Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP -
A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP -
Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA
Russian forces struck a radio and television centre in Kyiv and captured the town of Balakliya near the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Thursday.
Russian missiles struck a TV tower in Kyiv this week in what Moscow said was a targeted attack against Ukraine's information warfare.
Russian-backed forces threaten strikes on Mariupol
A spokesman for Russian-backed separatists threatened strikes on Mariupol to demoralise the Ukrainian army and said an evacuation corridor for civilians was not working, in comments broadcast on Rossiya 24.
A Pentagon official said earlier Russian forces appeared to be preparing to assault the encircled port city.
Ukraine’s military headquarters also confirmed that Russia is sending four amphibious assault ships to land troops near Odesa’s seaport and seize the city.
National police in Kyiv said that there were explosions in the capital overnight, but that they were the result of Ukraine’s anti-missile systems hitting Russian targets.
Russian forces have also bombarded Ukraine's second-biggest city, Kharkiv, prompting comparisons to the civilian massacres in Sarajevo in the 1990s.
After days of intense fighting, hundreds of civilians have been killed, while about one million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began. The Russian invasion triggered western sanctions intended to cripple Russia's economy.
Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, continued to issue upbeat statements, rallying his forces to fight back.
“We are a people who broke the enemy's plans in a week,” Mr Zelenskyy said in a video address. “These plans had taken years to write — they are mean, with hatred for our country, for our people.”
A Ukrainian delegation left for a second round of talks with Russian officials about a ceasefire, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
With more than a million refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries, according to the UN, the second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine was due to take place on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, is travelling to Nato member states neighbouring Ukraine.
Russia continued to suffer the economic fallout from its invasion, with its rating slashed to junk by Fitch and Moody's Investors Service on the back of a wave of sanctions by the US, the EU and other countries.
The global economy was further roiled with crude oil extending its gains; Brent was near $117 a barrel.
Russia’s Lavrov compares the US to Hitler
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday accused western politicians of fixating on nuclear war, one week after Moscow launched its offensive on Ukraine.
“It’s clear that World War Three can only be a nuclear war,” Lavrov said in an online interview with Russian and foreign media.
“I would like to point out that it’s in the heads of western politicians that the idea of a nuclear war is spinning constantly, and not in the heads of Russians,” he said.
“Therefore I assure you that we will not allow any provocations to throw us off balance.”
He also compared the US to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and German dictator Adolf Hitler.
“In their time, both Napoleon and Hitler set themselves the task of subjugating Europe. Now the Americans have subdued it,” Lavrov said.
