As it happened: Ukraine war latest news: Forces clash along eastern front line

Peter Chumak, who's lived in London for 22 years, returned to Ukraine for family reasons just before Russia invaded.

Because he's a Ukrainian citizen he was ordered to remain in the country to help with the war effort. Seven weeks later the military alllowed him to return to the UK.

The BBC interviewed the family when Chumak's wife, Nicola, was trying to get him home, and has spoken to them again now he's back.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Here's a roundup of the latest:

On the ground

• Ukrainian and Russian forces are locked in combat along a 300-mile (480km) frontline in eastern Ukraine
• President Zelensky said the situation in embattled Mariupol remained "as tough as possible without any changes", and the fate of tens of thousands of civilians remains unknown
• In his latest video, the Ukrainian leader also said Russian fire had intensified in the Kharkiv direction, and in the Donbas and Dnipro regions, after Russia ramped up its eastern offensive
• Zelensky again accused Russia of targeting civilians (something Moscow denies), saying this marked the Russian state as a "source of absolute evil"
• The Ukrainian armed forces say they've come under bombardment in Kherson and elsewhere. But they claim to have sprung counter-attacks on their enemies, and say they've retaken the town of Maryinka near Donetsk
• Russia has handed back 76 Ukrainians in a prisoners-of-war exchange, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

In diplomacy

• Western leaders have spoken by videolink about increasing support for Ukraine
• The US pledged to send more artillery systems and military assistance to Kyiv
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was supplying Brimstone anti-ship missiles
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin would provide finance to help Ukraine buy German-made weapons
• European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said sanctions against Russia would be tightened
• The Czech Republic has offered to repair Ukrainian tanks damaged in combat

You can read more here about the fresh pledges from Western nations.

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The Biden administration is planning to announce another $800m (£615m) military aid package for Ukraine, according to US media.

Asked on Tuesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, if he would send more artillery to Ukraine, President Biden responded: "Yes."

The White House last week announced it would sent an $800m package to Ukraine that includes 40,000 artillery rounds and 18 howitzers (155mm).

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Speaking at a domestic event in the US state of New Hampshire, President Joe Biden said that he's not sure whether he'll travel to Ukraine.

“The answer is, I don’t know,” Biden told reporters, according to CNN.

“I’ve been to Ukraine many times, just haven’t been there recently.”

White House officials have been saying since last week that a senior official may travel to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky has also invited Biden to personally make the trip.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that there are currently no plans for Biden to go. She later added that if there were plans in the works, she would not tell reporters in advance anyway.

Officials say it's more likely that the US will send the secretary of state or secretary of defence.

Volodymyr Zelensky/TelegramCopyright: Volodymyr Zelensky/Telegram

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has given his nightly video address, with an update on the fighting in the east.

He says "the situation in Mariupol remains as severe as possible without any changes," according to the Reuters news agency, adding that Russian forces have been blocking attempts to organise humanitarian corridors to help civilians leave the besieged city.

He also says, "the fate of tens of thousands of Mariupol residents, who have been earlier moved to the territory controlled by Russia, is unknown".

Zelensky claims "the intensity of fire by Russian troops in the Kharkiv direction, in the Donbas, and in the Dnipro region has increased significantly" and accuses Russia of targeting residential buildings and civilians.

He adds, "this is such meanness, which for generations will mark the Russian state as a source of absolute evil.”

MBDA Missile SystemsCopyright: MBDA Missile Systems

More now on what's been promised by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, following his video call with President Biden and others earlier.

Johnson was among the Western leaders who pledged to send more artillery to Ukraine.

Specifically, he said he planned to equip Kyiv with anti-ship missiles - including by mounting British Brimstone rockets to vehicles.

Reuters reports that Brimstones have previously been used by UK forces in Libya and Syria, and are typically launched from fast jet aircraft. They're used against fast-moving land and sea targets.

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Ukraine's allies have provided Kyiv with additional military aircraft and aircraft parts to increase their fleet size and repair others in Ukraine's arsenal that were damaged, the US defence department said on Tuesday.

"They have received additional aircraft and aircraft parts to help them get more aircraft in the air," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing.

He added that Washington had not provided aircraft to Kyiv.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden held a video call with Western leaders about stepping up military support to Ukraine. They pledged to send more weapons to help the country defend itself against the renewed Russian offensive in the east.

EPACopyright: EPA

The Donbas is mostly open countryside, outside the big cities. It’s Ukraine’s old industrial heartland. You’ll see slag heaps and mines there.

Open countryside gives both sides room for manoeuvre. Russian tanks, which have been seen elsewhere stuck in columns on roads, will be able to go over fields there and make life more difficult for Ukrainian forces.

But the Ukrainians are well dug-in. They’re in trenches. They have anti-tank weapons supplied by the West which they can use to effect.

I think it’s important what happens in the air. The Donbas is closer to Russian territory, and the Russians may have more freedom over the air. They certainly haven’t got air superiority at the moment.

But it’s difficult for the Ukrainian air force, as small as it is, to operate that far to the east of the country. So that might be one advantage for the Russians.

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Russia's defence ministry has once again called on Ukrainian troops holding out inside Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant to lay down their weapons on Wednesday.

Mariupol has been besieged by Russian attacks, but Ukraine's Azov Battalion is reportedly still holding out in Azovstal - a huge steelworks plant overlooking the Azov Sea.

Russian troops will observe a cease-fire while the proposal is in effect - starting from 1100 GMT on 20 April.

Not a single Ukrainian soldier accepted that same offer on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.

Russia's military says it controls almost all of Mariupol, but Ukrainian officials insist their remaining soldiers will fight to the end.

Read more about the Mariupol defenders

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As Russia attacks along the eastern front in Ukraine, here are some of the latest images from across the country.

AFP via Getty ImagesCopyright: AFP via Getty Images

EPACopyright: EPA

EPACopyright: EPA

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

It is hard to say when peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume, Ukraine's lead negotiator says.

Mykhailo Podolyak said the current hiatus would likely be prolonged by the ongoing siege of Mariupol and Russia's apparent desire to strengthen its hand with a renewed offensive in the east.

Relations were also soured by the alleged killing of civilians in the town of Bucha before the withdrawal of Russian forces earlier this month.

The last face-to-face talks were on March 29.

"Obviously, against the backdrop of the Mariupol tragedy, the negotiation process has become even more complicated," Podolyak told Reuters.

"Russia defiantly renounces any manifestations of humanity and humanism when it comes to certain humanitarian corridors. Especially when we talk about Mariupol."

Ukrainian authorities say at least 20,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the war, and that efforts to evacuate the city have been repeatedly hampered by Russian shelling.

"It is difficult to say when the next face-to-face round of negotiations will be possible because the Russians are seriously betting on [making gains in] the so-called 'second stage of the special operation'," Podolyak said.

Russian-backed forces are reportedly storming the area where Mariupol's final Ukrainian defenders are holed-up - the vast Azovastal iron and steel works.

Plumes of smoke can be seen drifting into the air from near the plant, in this drone video released by Ukraine's defence ministry.

Russia already claims to be in control of most of the key southern city, and were the city to fall completely, it would be a big strategic prize for Russia.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The UK's Ministry of Defence has given its latest update on the fighting in Ukraine, with a focus on the situation in the east of the country.

In a tweet, the MoD says:

• Russian shelling and strikes on the line of control in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region are continuing to increase
• The MoD says Ukrainians are repelling "numerous" attempted advances from Russian forces
• Russia is still hampered by "environmental, logistical and technical challenges" already seen in the war - as well as "highly-motivated" resistance from defending Ukrainians
• Russia is resorting to "indiscriminate attacks" in the besieged port city of Mariupol. The MoD says this reflected Moscow's inability to achieve its aims as quickly as they would like

We've just received a White House readout of President Joe Biden's video call with European allies, in which they discussed the "ongoing provision" of security, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

The call also included French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among others.

According to the readout, the leaders on the call "affirmed their solidarity" with Ukraine and condemned "the humanitarian suffering caused by Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion".

"They also discussed their coordinated efforts to impose severe economic costs to hold Russia accountable," the readout says.

Read more about the military assistance the US and other Western allies plan to send to Ukraine here.

Google / Maxar TechnologiesCopyright: Google / Maxar Technologies

Google has denied making changes to its satellite images of Russia’s military sites after false claims were widely shared online that it had unblurred images of certain spots.

A number of self-described open source intelligence accounts claimed yesterday that Google had stopped hiding Russia’s “secret” military facilities from public view on its Google Earth and Maps services. Images of those facilities went viral online and the story was widely reported as a new development in Ukraine.

But Google has never hidden those facilities, and high-resolution images of Moscow’s military sites and equipment have been publicly available for years. The company took to Twitter to refute the claim, saying it hadn’t made “any blurring changes to our satellite imagery in Russia”.

A search of the company’s historic imagery function on Google Earth confirms no specific changes have been made with regard to satellite images from Russia.

Google has been found to have blurred satellite images of certain territories in the past, including parts of Israel and Palestinian territories, owing to a now defunct US regulation. It also blurs satellite images of certain sensitive sites, likely at the request of national governments.

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The embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol could completely fall to Russian forces within days, a European official has told Reuters.

The official, who asked not to be named, said they believe that Russia hopes to declare the city "liberated" by 9 May, the date when Russia marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

"We do expect a complete destruction of the city and many civilian casualties in Mariupol," they added.

The official added they fear the death toll could be worse than Bucha, where Russian troops have been accused of killing hundreds of civilians. Russia denies the claims.

Additionally, the official said they believed Russia's medium-term objective was to control Luhansk and Donetsk and secure a land corridor with Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.

Such an operation is likely to take between four and six months to complete, after which the conflict could result in a stalemate, the official added.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

US President Joe Biden has told reporter the US will send more artillery systems to Ukraine amid a renewed Russian offensive in the east.

Since the beginning of the Biden administration began, the US has provided $3.2 billion (£2.46bn) in security aid to Ukraine, including $2.6bn since the conflict began on 24 February.

"What we have done here is...exactly what the president would do from the beginning. Which is to [provide] significant security assistance, economic assistance, and support to the Ukrainian people," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

"And we're going to continue to do exactly that," she added.

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The Czech Republic will repair Ukrainian tanks and armoured personnel carriers damaged in combat, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova has confirmed.

She said the first vehicles would be Ukrainian T-64 tanks, but that others - including infantry fighting vehicles - would follow.

Cernochova said the Czech Republic was the first country approached by Ukraine with a request to service and repair combat vehicles. Seznam said the vehicles would also be repaired in Ukraine's neighbour, Slovakia.

The Czech Republic was the first foreign country to supply Ukraine with tanks - Soviet-era T-72s - as well as BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, belonging to its active reserves. There are also reports it has supplied self-propelled artillery as well as multiple launch rocket systems.

The defence ministry refuses to specify the amount and type of deliveries to Ukraine, confirming only that it is sending both light and heavy weapons and will continue to do so regardless of Russian objections.

Alongside the official government military aid, a crowd-funding campaign to buy weapons for the Ukrainian armed forces has so far raised over €40m (£33m).

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK will step up aid to Ukraine and provide artillery systems at a time in which the conflict "is in a very perilous stage".

Speaking in the House of Commons after a video call with Western allies, Johnson said that it is "vital that we don't allow Putin to gain momentum" in the eastern Donbas region.

"That's why we are stepping up our supply of military hardware of the kind that the Ukrainians particularly need now," he said, adding that the war has become "an artillery conflict".

"That is what we are giving them, in addition to many other forms of support," he added.