Russia bombards Kyiv during UN chief's visit

• Britain is sending 8,000 troops to Eastern Europe in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War
• Volodymyr Zelensky refused to be evacuated from his compound in Kyiv even as Russian assassination squads parachuted into the capital and tried to storm the building to kill him
• At least 10 people have been injured after Russia fired missiles into Kyiv on Thursday
• Two powerful blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine
• Ukraine’s military said Russian troops were subjecting several places in the Donbas to “intense fire”
• Russia is preventing injured Ukrainian troops from being evacuated from a steel plant in Mariupol because it wants to capture them, the local governor said
• Ukrainian investigators have identified more than 8,000 cases of suspected war crimes since Russia's invasion
• Britain is expected to start sending anti-ship missiles to Ukraine after the Defence Secretary warned any blockade of the Black Sea could see increased food prices

Britain is sending 8,000 troops to Eastern Europe in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War.

Tanks, artillery guns, armoured assault vehicles and aircraft are also being sent to bolster Nato forces, in what Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, described as a “show of solidarity and strength”.

The deployment, intended as a “deterrence of Russian aggression”, came on the day a former British soldier became the first UK national confirmed to have been killed in the war in Ukraine.

Scott Sibley, 36, an ex-Royal Marine, is thought to have died in Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, in the south of the country. In a tribute, his former regiment said he had “showed Commando spirit until the end”. 

Read the full story from Robert Mendick and Dominic Nicholls here

At least 10 people have been injured after Russia fired two missiles into Kyiv on Thursday, during a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The rockets shook the central Shevchenko district and one of them struck the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building, injuring at least 10 people.

The blasts were heard soon after Mr Guterres completed talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"There was an attack on Kyiv ... it shocked me, not because I'm here but because Kyiv is a sacred city for Ukrainians and Russians alike," Mr Guterres told Portuguese broadcaster RTP.

President Zelensky said the blasts "prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over".

A French call centre company behind the passport office chaos also runs the helplines for Britain’s much-criticised refugee schemes.

Abigail Tierney, the director general of the Passport Office, on Thursday hauled in the chief executive of Paris-based Teleperformance to demand improvements over its “unacceptable” handling of the helplines.

Applicants have complained of lengthy delays only to then find the staff are working from home and unable to access their files. Others have been unable to reach them or, when they get through, claim they have been provided with inadequate or inaccurate information.

Read the full story from Charles Hymas here

Volodymyr Zelensky refused to be evacuated from his compound in Kyiv even as Russian assassination squads parachuted into the capital and tried to storm the building to kill him.

At the start of the invasion on Feb 24 those inside defended themselves with automatic weapons and erected defences as the Russians twice tried to storm them at night.

A back gate was blocked with only plywood boards and police barricades.

Read the full piece from Nick Allen here

European unity entered an extraordinary era at the end of February, when Germany broke with its post-Second World War stance and finally promised to pull its weight in Nato.

Olaf Scholz, just months into his tenure as Chancellor and three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pledged an extra €100bn (£84bn) of military spending.

Combined with an unprecedented volley of sanctions against Putin and his henchmen, it marked the end of the post-Cold War settlement – and the start of an age defined by Europe would stand up to the aggressor on its borders.

Read the latest from Tim Wallace here

President Joe Biden has rejected the idea that Russia's war in Ukraine could grow into a larger proxy conflict between Moscow and the United States and Nato allies that may even bring the world closer to nuclear confrontation.

At an event at the White House where Biden asked Congress for an additional $33 billion to aid Ukraine, the president said Thursday that the idea of a larger proxy war was concerning but "not true." He blamed Russian authorities for exaggerating such speculation, saying "it shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure" with the invasion of Ukraine.

"Instead of saying that the Ukrainians, equipped with some capability to resist Russian forces, are doing this, they've got to tell their people that the United States and all of Nato is engaged," Biden said.

He added that "no one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons" and called doing so "irresponsible."

A senior minister in Nicola Sturgeon’s government has suggested that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is partly to blame for the pitiful response rate to the Scottish census.

Angus Robertson provoked ridicule from opponents on Thursday when he claimed that public anxiety caused by “recent world events” had contributed to the survey descending into disarray.

More than a fifth of households have so far refused to complete the census ahead of an original deadline of Sunday, after it was delayed by a year by SNP ministers who blamed Covid.

Read the full story from Daniel Sanderson here

A British military veteran has reportedly been killed in Ukraine while fighting against Russian forces.

Tributes have been paid to Scott Sibley after the Foreign Office confirmed a British national had died in Ukraine and another is missing.

The families of both are being supported, a spokesperson said, declining to give names or further details.

Mr Sibley has been widely named, and is believed to have been fighting in support of Ukrainian forces.

Read more on the story here

Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defence minister, has condemned the Russian missile strikes.

He tweeted: This is an attack on the security of the Secretary General and on world security!"

Two explosions reportedly rocked a central district of Kyiv after Russian forces fired on the Ukrainian capital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online post.

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, was visiting in the first such bombardment of Ukraine's capital since mid-April, the president's office  said.

The mayor said authorities were gathering details about possible casualties.

Reuters eyewitnesses had earlier reported the sound of two blasts in the city. 

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said that his organisation was "doing all it could" to enable the evacuation of a steel plant where fighters and civilians are holed up in the city of Mariupol.

"At the present moment I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen. I’m not going to enter into any comment that could undermine that possibility," he said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said: "I trust and believe - just as many relatives of those people who are blocked in Azovstal (steel plant) do - that the Secretary-General and we will be able to have a successful result."

Ukraine has asked Bulgaria to repair some of its heavy military machinery at its arms plants, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Thursday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy in Kyiv.

European Union and NATO member Bulgaria has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but is yet to decide on whether to send military aid to Kiyv, with one of the partners in Petkov's four-party government opposing such a move.

"This is a genuine request, which I personally will present to the coalition council and I hope next week, when we will be voting in the parliament on military technical assistance to Ukraine, that it will be a key part of the package," Petkov told reporters in Kyiv.

Petkov's centrist PP party and two other coalition partners are in favour of supporting Ukraine with military aid, while the fourth party, the Socialists, who have also opposed imposing sanctions on Russia, see it as a direct involvement in the conflict.

Bulgaria's parliament is expected to approve the move with support from some of the opposition parties.

Ukrainian investigators have identified more than 8,000 cases of suspected war crimes since Russia's invasion, Iryna Venediktova,  Ukraine prosecutor general told a German TV channel has said.

"It's actually 8,600 cases only about war crimes, and more than 4,000 cases that are connected with war crimes," Venediktova told the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

Venediktova has been investigating and tallying the mounting cases of suspected crimes by Russian forces since their invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

There are now more than 8,000 investigators gathering evidence on the ground, she said, including state security services, national police and foreign investigators.

The alleged crimes documented include "killing civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture" and "sexual crimes" that are being reported in the "occupied territory of Ukraine", Venediktova said.

Investigators have no access to occupied territories such as Mariupol, Donetsk or Lugansk, but "we can interview people who were evacuated from those territories", she said.

Britain is expected to start sending anti-ship missiles to Ukraine after the Defence Secretary warned any blockade of the Black Sea could see increased food prices.

Brimstone missiles, in service with the RAF since 2005 and used extensively in Afghanistan, can be modified to target ships.

The latest intelligence assessment from the Ministry of Defence said there were 20 Russian navy vessels in the Black Sea, including submarines.

Read the full story from Dom Nicholls here

Ukrainian refugees will be offered help with flights to get them to the UK if needed, the minister in charge has said.

Lord Harrington, the Tory peer, made the commitment as he was pressed at Westminster - ahead of prorogation - over the disparity between the number of visas issued and the number of people actually arriving in Britain.

While acknowledging the delays in processing applications, leading to widespread criticism, the refugees minister told the Lords steps had been taken to tackle this and meant the 48-hour target should now be met in "the vast majority of cases".

Lord Harrington also said from speaking to those involved, many refugees had applied for visas "in case the worst happens", but for now wished to stay as close to home as possible.

Seeking to reassure peers over efforts to ensure refugees could reach the UK, he said: "I am working on this and I intend to make sure that the system is simplified and that we have people helping people through the procedure.

"If necessary, we will move on to helping them with flights and with everything in the process."

Scott Sibley is reportedly the name of the Briton who died. 

Sky News have reported that Mr Sibley is a veteran of the armed forces. 

A second British man has been reported missing, the Foreign Office have confirmed.

A GoFundMe page has been set up in his memory. 

President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday for an additional $33 billion to help Ukraine fend off Russia's invasion. 

The move signals that the US is prepared to mount a robust, long-term campaign to bolster Kyiv and weaken Moscow as the bloody war enters its third month with no sign of abating.

Biden's latest proposal, which the White House said was expected to support Ukraine's needs for five months, includes more than $20 billion in military assistance for Kyiv and for shoring up defenses in nearby countries.

There is also $8.5 billion in economic aid to help keep Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government functioning and $3 billion for food and humanitarian programs to help civilians, including the more than five million refugees created by the war.

Russia has released over 45 Ukrainian soldiers, including 13 officers, in an exchange of prisoners of war with Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday.

"We are also bringing home 12 civilians," Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Five of the troops exchanged on Thursday had been wounded, she said.

Vereshchuk did not say how many Russians were involved in the exchange.

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi has expressed "concern" over not being able to access the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe. 

Russia seized the power plant almost two months ago, on March 4. 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Grossi, who has just returned from a trip to Chernobyl, has been in talks with both Ukrainian and Russian authorities to try to ensure its safety.

"Zaporizhzhia is at the top of my list of concerns when it comes to the situation of the nuclear facilities in Ukraine," Grossi told reporters.

"There is a lot to be done there... we need to go back to Zaporizhzhia. It's extremely important," he said.

He said his agency was still checking on reports that missiles had flown low over Zaporizhzhia, adding this would be "extremely serious" if confirmed.

Finland has welcomed a Nato alliance vow to protect the Nordic country from any Russian interference during its potential application process.

Finland and Sweden, both militarily non-aligned, are debating whether to seek Nato  membership as a deterrent against potential Russian aggression in the wake of Moscow's invasion.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, speaking to reporters in Brussels on Thursday, said he was "certain that we will be able to find arrangements for that interim period between (the time when) Finland and Sweden apply and until the formal ratification is finalised."

Stoltenberg later spoke to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in a telephone call. "Stoltenberg again gave strong support for Finland's decision," Niinisto said in a statement

Gazprom said in a statement on Thursday that its net profit hit 2.09 trillion roubles ($29 billion) in 2021, up from 135 billion roubles in the pandemic-stricken 2020 financial year, thanks to rising oil and gas prices.

The Kremlin-controlled company also said its 2021 sales increased to 10.2 trillion roubles, from 6.3 trillion roubles in 2020. 

Gazprom had previously expected its 2022 profit to surpass 2021's record high, but sanctions by the United States and the European Union over what Moscow calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine have taken their toll on Russia's economy.

The Russian oil giant has been at the forefront of Russia's response, banning gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday after they refused to meet Moscow's demand to pay in roubles.

Although the sanctions had led to an increased level of economic uncertainty in Russia, Gazprom said the situation did not "call into question the consistency" of its operations.

The United States accused Russia on Thursday of planning to stage fake independence votes to justify its conquest of territory in Ukraine.

The U.S. mission to the OSCE security body said the Kremlin might attempt "sham referenda" in southern and eastern areas it had captured since the February 24 invasion, using "a well-worn playbook that steals from history’s darkest chapters".

"These falsified, illegitimate referenda will undoubtedly be accompanied by a wave of abuses against those who seek to oppose or undermine Moscow’s plans," the US mission said.

"The international community must make clear that any such referendum will never be recognised as legitimate."

Ukraine and Bulgaria have reached an agreement on transporting Ukrainian grain via the Bulgarian port of Varna, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after talks on Thursday with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.

He gave no timeline and provided no details of the volumes of grain to be shipped via Varna on the Black Sea. Ukrainian exports have been hit by Russia's invasion.

"Bulgaria will be more than happy to have Varna as a logistics hub for grains and sunflowers and distribute all the grains that you cannot through your ports," Petkov told a joint news conference in Kyiv. 

A £259 million superyacht thought to belong to a sanctioned oligarch sailed for 18 days across the Pacific Ocean, but now faces being seized in Fiji.

The 347-foot Amadea had aimed to reach Australia after leaving Mexico, but choppy waters forced it to return to harbour in the Pacific nation early on 14 April.

The US government is now trying to seize the Amadea, which it claims belongs to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian economist worth an estimated £12 billion.

Read the full story here from Charlie Metcalfe

Poland's border guard agency has recorded 3 million crossings into Poland from neighboring Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.

Polish authorities say some 1.6 million refugees have applied for and received special ID numbers that will allow them to work and receive free health care and education in Poland.

Ukrainian prosecutors said on Thursday that they were investigating 10 Russian soldiers suspected of committing war crimes in Bucha, where bodies in civilian clothes were found dead after Moscow's troops retreated.

"Ten servicemen of the 64th motorised infantry brigade of the Russian armed forces, part of the 35th army, are suspected of cruel treatment of civilians and other violations of laws and customs of war," the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Vladimir Putin that Ankara is ready to do more to end the war in Ukraine after helping arrange a Russian-US prisoner swap.

Erdogan's office said that Putin "thanked" the Turkish leader in a phone call for helping put together Wednesday's exchange of ex-Marine Trevor Reed for the former Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

The swap took place in Turkey "under the coordination and supervision of the National Intelligence Organisation," Erdogan's office said in reference to Turkey's MIT intelligence service.

Ankara was now "ready to take the initiative to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to mediate a path to peace".

Russia's Gazprom said on Thursday that Poland is still buying Russian gas in Germany, and that reverse supplies to Poland via the Yamal pipeline amount to around 30 million cubic metres per day.

Gazprom halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday over their refusal to pay in roubles, and threatened to do the same to others.

The White House has proposed using assets seized from Russian oligarchs to compensate Ukraine for damage caused by Moscow's invasion of the country.

This would enable "transfer of the proceeds of forfeited kleptocratic property to Ukraine to remediate harms of Russian aggression," the White House said in a statement.

The compensation idea is part of new proposed rules ratcheting up economic punishment on the Kremlin, two months after it invaded its neighbor in an attempt to topple the government and seize territory.

President Joe Biden was to announce the proposed legislation alongside his request to increase funding by Congress for Ukraine's military later Thursday.

Already Washington has provided more than $three billion worth of weaponry to Ukraine since Russia's invasion was launched on February 24. Now the White House is eyeing a fund sufficient to last through to October.

Volodymyr Zelensky's parents wish that he had chosen a quiet life and "didn't understand" why he became president, according to an Israeli newspaper interview with their rabbi in Ukraine, James Rothwell reports.

“They didn’t want to be famous. They didn’t understand why their son needed it, what got into him," Rabbi Liron Ederi said in an interview with the Orthodox newspaper Ktifa.

"They wanted their quiet. A peaceful family life. Having their son become president was more of a nightmare than a dream to them," he added.

Mr Zelensky's parents have steered clear of the spotlight since he entered politics, while the president himself tends not to highlight his Jewish background.

Rabbi Ederi lives in Kryvyi Rih, a town in eastern Ukraine, which has so far been spared intense Russian attacks but risks being caught up in the ongoing battle for the Donbas region. 

Germany is preparing for the eventuality Russia stops gas exports given it can only speculate about what the Kremlin will decide to do, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday during a trip to Tokyo.

"One has to prepare for it and, as I said, we started that before the war broke out and we know what we have to do," he said at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Nato is ready to support Ukraine for years in the war against Russia, including helping Kyiv to advance from old Soviet-era weapons to modern Western military equipment, the alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

"We need to be prepared for the long term... There is absolutely the possibility that this war will drag on and last for months and years," Mr Stoltenberg told a youth summit in Brussels, adding that Nato allies were preparing to help Ukraine to move on to Nato-standard weapons.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has delivered a further "huge negative shock" to sub-Saharan Africa, driving food and energy prices higher and putting the most vulnerable people at risk of hunger, the head of the IMF's Africa Department told Reuters.

The food security crisis had piled pressure on countries already grappling with a protracted Covid-19 pandemic, disrupted education, loss of income and serious debt problems, Abebe Aemro Selassie said in an interview. That is making it difficult for those countries to mitigate the impact of inflation, he said.

All those factors also stoked the chances of social unrest, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its biannual regional economic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa, published Thursday.

"It's a recipe for very, very difficult policymaking, but also the social environment," Mr Selassie said. "This is a crisis, which is almost laser-focused on hitting the most vulnerable people in the most vulnerable countries acutely."

Greece plans to pay Russian gas supplier Gazprom next month in a way that will not breach European Union sanctions against Russia, the country's energy minister said on Thursday.

Gazprom said on Wednesday it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after they refused to pay in roubles, marking the Kremlin's toughest retaliation yet over international sanctions following its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Greece, which relies on Russian gas for more than 30% of its annual needs, has a supply contract with Gazprom that ends in 2026.

The next payment from Greece's main gas utility DEPA to Gazprom for April's gas supplies is due on May 25, Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas told Greek Skai radio, without clarifying in what currency the payment would be made.

"We will pay in a way which will not violate the sanctions and safeguard our country's energy security," Mr Skrekas said.

Russia has still not received a response from Ukraine regarding its latest proposals for a possible peace agreement, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"As of this morning, at the time of preparing for the briefing, the Russian side has not received an answer," she said.

A UN representative to Ukraine said Thursday she was preparing for a "hopeful" evacuation from the encircled Ukraine port city of Mariupol, where Kyiv says civilians and injured fighters are trapped.

"I am going to Zaporizhzhia to prepare for hopeful evacuation from Mariupol. The UN is fully mobilised to help save Ukrainian lives and to assist those in need," UN in Ukraine Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator Osnat Lubrani wrote on Twitter.

A Ukrainian presidential aide said on Thursday the world recognises that his country has the right to defend itself by carrying out attacks on Russian military bases and warehouses.

"Russia has attacked and (is) killing civilians. Ukraine will defend itself in any way, including strikes on the warehouses and bases of the killers. The world recognizes this right," presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a "special military" operation in Ukraine.

Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a petition on support for Ukraine backing the delivery of weapons including heavy arms to the country to help it fend off Russian attacks.

"Alongside the broad economic isolation and decoupling of Russia from international markets, the most important and effective means to stop the Russian invasion is to intensify and speed up the delivery of effective weapons and complex systems including heavy arms," the petition read.

The petition was backed by both the three parties in the ruling coalition as well as the opposition conservatives, passing with 586 votes in favor, 100 against and seven abstentions, according to Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki.

Russia sees recent incidents in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria as an attempt to drag it into the wider conflict in Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

Tensions have been rising in Transnistria, a Russia-backed region that borders Ukraine, after local authorities said it had been subject to several attacks.

The head of Ukrainian parliament's energy committee said on Thursday that Ukraine has enough gas and electricity to meet its needs at the moment but that he was less certain it would be able to do so in the late autumn.

"Today, if we talk about gas volumes, we have enough. We consume less gas than is produced and even today gas is pumped into underground storage facilities," Andriy Herus said on national television. "The same goes for electricity."

He added: "There are enough gas and electricity resources in the country."

A Russian court has fined social media network Twitter three million roubles ($41,000) for not removing banned content from its site, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

The fine was imposed after Twitter failed to delete content banned in Russia including posts with instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails, Interfax said, citing the court.

Earlier, Interfax reported that Russia fined US internet giant Google the same amount for refusing to remove banned content from video-sharing site YouTube.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged Russia to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on investigations into possible war crimes carried out during its invasion of Ukraine.

"I fully support the ICC and I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept, to cooperate with the ICC. But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself," the UN's chief said during a visit to Bucha outside Kyiv, where hundreds of dead civilians were discovered after Russian troops pulled out.

Some 27,100 people have arrived in the UK under Ukraine visa schemes, according to Government figures published on Thursday. This includes 16,000 people under the family scheme, and 11,100 people under the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme as of Monday.

The figures also show that, as of Wednesday, around 117,600 applications have been made for visas, and 86,100 visas have been issued.

These include 42,900 applications under the family scheme, of which 34,900 visas have been granted, and 74,700 applications under the sponsorship scheme, of which 51,300 visas have been granted.

Finland and Sweden will be able to join Nato quickly should they decide to ask for membership in the Western military alliance, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

"If they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed and I expect the process to go quickly," Mr Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, adding he planned to speak with the Finnish president later in the day.

He said he was sure arrangements could be found for the interim period between an application by the two Scandinavian countries and the formal ratification in the parliaments of all 30 Nato members.

"I am confident that there are ways to bridge that interim period in a way which is good enough and works for both Finland and Sweden," Mr Stoltenberg said.

Russia, with which Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border, has said it will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad if Finland and Sweden decide to join Nato.

The UN chief called war "an absurdity" during a visit to Ukraine Thursday, after Brussels warned Russia it will not waver in its support for Kyiv following Russia's decision to cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called war "an absurdity in (the) 21st century" as he visited Borodianka outside Kyiv, the scene of alleged civilian killings by Russian forces.

Mr Guterres will later meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the visit, which follows talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that Russian missiles had struck four Ukrainian military targets overnight, destroying two missile and ammunition depots near the settlements of Barvinkove and Ivanivka in the east of the country.

It said Russian forces had also downed a Ukrainian Su-24 aircraft near Luhansk.

Ukraine's southern Kherson region will start using the Russian rouble from May 1, an official from a pro-Russian committee which styles itself as the region's "military-civil administration" told Russian news agency RIA.

The official, Kirill Stremousov, said that the transition to the Russian rouble will take up to four months, during which time it will circulate alongside Ukraine's official currency - the hryvnia, RIA reported.

On Tuesday, Russia said it had gained full control of the Kherson region, which is strategically important as it provides part of the land link between the Crimea peninsula and Russian-backed separatist areas in the east.

Local authorities in Ukraine say Russia has appointed its own mayor in the city of Kherson and taken over the regional headquarters, the first big urban center to be seized after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Canadian MPs on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion recognizing Russia's "acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people" and acknowledging evidence of "systematic and massive war crimes and crimes against humanity."

"Today every MP in the House of Commons supported my motion to recognize that the Russian Federation is committing genocide against the Ukrainian people," tweeted Heather McPherson of the leftist New Democratic Party, who introduced the motion.

The motion states that the crimes are being committed "by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, directed by President Vladimir Putin and others within the Russian parliament."

The "mass atrocities" include "systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians and the desecration of corpses," torture, rape, and the "forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian territory."

By passing the motion, the House of Commons recognized "that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people," according to the document.

The move comes about 10 days after the Ukrainian parliament passed a similar resolution.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived Thursday to the town of Borodianka outside Kyiv where Russian forces were accused of having killed civilians, an AFP journalist on the scene reported.

Mr Guterres, during his first visit to the war-scarred country since Russia invaded on February 24, was also expected to visit the town of Bucha ahead of talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it would be legitimate for Ukrainian forces to target Russian logistics, but if they did so they would be unlikely to be using British weapons.

"If Ukraine did choose to target logistics infrastructure for the Russian army, that would be legitimate under international law," Mr Wallace told BBC TV.

"They currently don't have British weapons that could do that, so it is unlikely that it is our weapons. We don't really have many long range weapons that are delivered in the way their army does."

Air defence systems were active in the Russian city of Belgorod in the early hours of Thursday, the TASS news agency cited the local government as saying.

The Belgorod province borders Ukraine's Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago. Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out strikes on targets in the region.

The European Union has warned Russia it will not bend to "blackmail" over its support for Kyiv after the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland.

The warning on Wednesday came ahead of UN chief Antonio Guterres arriving in Kyiv to meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin issued his own warning the same day, saying that if Western forces intervene in Ukraine, they will face a "lightning-fast" military response.

"We have all the tools for this, that no one else can boast of having," the Russian leader told lawmakers, implicitly referring to Moscow's ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal.

"We won't boast about it: we'll use them, if needed. And I want everyone to know that," he said. "We have already taken all the decisions on this."

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet retains the ability to strike Ukrainian and coastal targets despite losing its flagship Moskva earlier this month, said the Ministry of Defence.

The Moskva, which  could carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, sunk after Ukraine claimed to have struck it with missiles. 

"Despite the embarrassing losses of the landing ship Saratov and cruiser Moskva, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet retains the ability to strike Ukrainian and coastal targets," said the MoD in an update.

A majority of US adults say misinformation around Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a major problem, and they largely fault the Russian government for spreading those falsehoods.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 61 per cent of Americans say the spread of misinformation about the war is a major problem, with only 7 per cent saying it's not a problem.

Older adults were more likely to identify the wartime misinformation as an issue, with 44 per cent of those under 30 calling it a problem, compared with 65 per cent of those 30 and older.

Real disposable incomes in Russia dropped 27.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, the official statistics service said in an estimate, pointing to a dramatic slide in purchasing power since the Ukraine conflict began.

Russia's economy has been hit hard by unprecedented Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, the central bank said it will consider cutting its key interest rate further at upcoming board meetings amid the economic challenges.

Several countries and organisations, including the UN, pledged on Wednesday to bring to justice any perpetrators of war crimes committed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

They were urged on by the Lebanese-British barrister Amal Clooney, who said she feared "politicians calling for justice but not delivering it."

"My fear is that you will get busy and distracted and that each day there'll be a little bit less coverage of the war and people will become a little bit more numb to it," Clooney told an informal meeting of the Security Council.

"And that Ukraine will end up alone in pursuing the perpetrators of these atrocities. We cannot let that happen," said the lawyer, who runs the Clooney Foundation for Justice with her husband, actor George Clooney.

Ukraine has more than half of the 90 howitzers pledged to them by the US to help defend the east of the country, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

The weapons are part of an $800m military aid package to Ukraine announced by President Joe Biden last week, which includes heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers and tactical drones.

Mr Kirby said: “We finished up earlier this week the first tranche of more than 50 trainers that are going to go in and train their teammates,” Kirby said. “We're working on a second tranche of … more than 50 that [are] going to go through training in the same location outside Ukraine.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday blamed the war in Ukraine and COVID-related supply chain disruptions for a record rise in living costs which could jeopardise his chances of winning a national election to be held within weeks.

Australian consumer prices surged at the fastest annual pace in two decades last quarter, data out on Wednesday showed, as petrol, home-building and food costs rose, fueling speculation interest rates could rise from record lows as soon as next week.

"We are still feeling the effects of the rather extraordinary economic times that we are living in," Morrison said during a media briefing, adding the COVID-19 lockdown in China had strained supply chains along with the Ukraine conflict.

• Russian forces used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a pro-Ukraine rally in the occupied city of Kherson on Wednesday, Ukraine's Prosecutor General said, as Moscow tightened its grip over the southern region

• Western governments want to deny Russia any territorial gains from its invasion of Ukraine, officials have said in the clearest indication yet of the scale of the defeat they want to impose on Moscow

• A commander of Ukrainian troops making a last stand in Mariupol said he has 600 injured and no medicine to treat them

• A senior Gazprombank executive has vowed revenge against Russia after fleeing the country to join Ukraine’s territorial defence forces

• The EU was on Wednesday split over Russian “blackmail” to pay for gas in roubles after Moscow's state-controlled energy giant halted deliveries to two European countries

• An independent research group says Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months since the start of the war in Ukraine