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Forty children are among hundreds of civilians trapped in a chemical plant in Severodonetsk, with the last bridge to the eastern Ukrainian city destroyed by Russian forces. The city has in recent weeks been the site of intense violence and has become a focal point for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions to seize enough territory so that he can increase pressure on Kyiv. Sergiy Gaiday, the Governor of the Luhansk region, said the Azot plant was under heavy bombardment by Russian forces, putting the lives of those trapped inside at risk. "About 500 civilians remain on the grounds of the Azot plant. Forty of them are children," he said. The situation is similar to Russia's siege of the Azovstal steel plant in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians were holed up for weeks with limited food, water and medical supplies. Ukrainian fighters there surrendered in May, bringing an end to the most brutal siege of the war to date. Read Mo...

 KHARKIV: Ukrainian forces fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country’s industrial Donbas region, and a senior US defense official said Moscow’s offensive is going much slower than planned. While artillery fire, sirens and explosions were heard Friday in some cities, the United Nations sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol, where the mayor said the situation inside the steel plant that has become the southern port city’s last stronghold is dire. Citizens are “begging to get saved,” Mayor Vadym Boichenko said. “There, it’s not a matter of days. It’s a matter of hours.” In other developments: — A former US Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, his family said in what would be the war’s first known death of an American in combat. The US has not confirmed the report. — Ukrainian forces are cracking down on people accused of helping ...

 The US secretaries of state and defence on Sunday night met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the highest-level visit to the war-torn country's capital by an American delegation since the start of Russia’s invasion. The meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed by presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych on Ukrainian TV. Ukraine pressed the West for more powerful weapons against Russia’s campaign in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces sought to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol. “Yes, they’re meeting with the president. Let’s hope something will be decided on further help,” Mr Arestovych said. Before the session, Mr Zelenskyy said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, in arms and security guarantees. “You can’t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and spe...

 Russia has called for a special UN Security Council meeting to address claims that its forces committed atrocities against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha. On Sunday, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, requested a meeting of the council “in the light of heinous provocation of Ukrainian radicals”, he said in a post on Twitter. Ukraine and Western leaders have expressed outrage over the discovery of mass graves and hundreds of dead people in the small town north-west of Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directly blamed Moscow for the “killings” of civilians. A Ukrainian soldier inspects a burnt Russian tank in Dmytrivka, Kyiv region. Russia denied the accusations and said Kyiv staged footage of the corpses. Senior Washington official Samantha Power, a former US ambassador to the UN, slammed Moscow's UN move and said it was designed to “feign outrage.” “Russia is drawing from the playbook it used for Crimea and Aleppo,” Ms Power, the administrator of...

 Russian forces are being pushed back from towns around Kyiv by Ukrainian counter-attacks, Britain has said, as President Vladimir Putin’s troops struggle to push towards the capital. Ukrainian troops have recaptured towns occupied by the Russians and are likely to continue with their pushback towards Hostomel Airport. The airfield on the outskirts of the capital is a key target for Moscow which hopes to use the base to fly in extra troops. Invading forces briefly took control of the site at the beginning of the war but the Ukrainians managed to retake it shortly afterwards. In an intelligence update issued on Friday Britain’s Ministry of Defence said the Russians continue to be blighted by logistical issues. “Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian Forces falling back on overextended supply lines, has allowed Ukraine to re-occupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometres east of Kyiv,” the MoD said. “Ukrainian Forces are likely to continue to attempt to push Russian Forces ...

 Tigrayan rebels agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" on Friday in a new turning point in the nearly 17-month war in northern Ethiopia. It comes after the government's announcement of an indefinite humanitarian truce a day earlier. The rebels said in a statement sent to AFP early on Friday that they were "committed to implementing a cessation of hostilities effective immediately", and urged Ethiopian authorities to hasten delivery of emergency aid to Tigray, where hundreds of thousands face starvation. ETHIOPIA, WAR Since war broke out in November 2020, thousands have died, and many more have been forced to flee their homes as the conflict expanded from Tigray to the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar. On Thursday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government declared a surprise truce, saying it hoped the move would ease humanitarian access to Tigray and "pave the way for the resolution of the conflict" in northern Ethiopia. It called on the Tigra...

 Major British businesses including retailers Marks & Spencer and Asos are offering jobs to Ukrainian refugees as they arrive in the UK. A coalition of more than 45 large businesses have pressed the government to make the route into the UK easier for refugees fleeing the war. Marks & Spencer and more than 40 other major brands will offer jobs to Ukrainian refugees. The group, which also includes high street cosmetics brand Lush and recruitment firm Robert Walters, has told the government it has up to 10,000 jobs available. Entrepreneur Emma Sinclair, the chief executive of Enterprise Alumni, is leading the drive to help Ukrainian refugees find work. “The companies involved, especially the recruitment firms, have got thousands of jobs to fill every week,” Ms Sinclair said. While the move will help those entering the UK support themselves during their time away from their home country, it could also boost Britain’s labour market with the number of unfilled vacancies hitting a...

 Russia’s forces have stalled on several fronts in Ukraine after almost three weeks of fighting, surprising analysts who felt Moscow's vast military would overwhelm defenders, despite making strategic errors. The Russian military boasts world-class tanks, the second-largest air force in the world and fearsome attack helicopters. While its military doctrine stresses overwhelming the enemy with terrifying barrages of rocket artillery, it also has large stockpiles of ballistic and cruise missiles. Ukrainian soldiers are on guard in Irpin,  north of Kyiv, on March 12, 2022.  Ukraine, despite the support of allies, lacks most of these arms. Western military simulations conducted in 2016 indicated Russia could take over the Baltics, overrunning local and Nato defenders in a matter of days. A US general recently said the assessment for Ukraine holding out following the February 24 offensive was 72 hours. Russia’s setbacks have refocused analysts on the human aspects of war rath...

 A new round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will start on Monday even as Russian troops edge closer to Kyiv and keep up their relentless bombardment of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. Talks are set to begin via video link at 10.30am Kyiv time (8.30am GMT), said Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior minister. Neither side has said what they would cover, Reuters reported. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, focused mainly on humanitarian issues. A residential building heavily damaged by a Russian  rocket in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, on Sunday.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the countries' delegations have been speaking daily by video and a clear aim of his negotiators was to "do everything" to arrange for him to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Amid the diplomatic efforts, fighting has continued to rage. The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv has been shelled by Rus...

 The UK is considering sending Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles to Ukrainian forces trying to fend off the Russian attack. The missiles use a guidance system that could give them an edge over older anti-aircraft missiles that use infrared seeking technology. “We believe that this system will remain within the definition of defensive weapons but will allow the defending force to better defend the skies,” UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace said on Wednesday. The offer of the portable, short-range weapon is seen as significant, because it relies on a laser beam riding guidance system. Most short-range anti-aircraft missiles are “heat-seeking” and can be sent off course by magnesium flares dropped by aircraft as a defence, although some modern heat-seeking systems can differentiate between engine heat and flare heat sources. Ukraine has already received around 1,000 Stingers from the US, Germany and the Netherlands ― both systems are man-portable air defence systems, or Manpads. The Sta...