· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was a "terrorist state" in his last speech. "The world needs to know. The world must accept this, "he said, adding that Russian forces had also attacked a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Mariupol.
· Zelenskyy said no one was evacuated from Mariupol on Thursday, but almost 40,000 people had left five other cities on Thursday.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it would open humanitarian corridors on Friday to evacuate civilians from Kiev, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Mariupol. She also accused Ukraine of using security personnel to drive aid trucks and spy on Russian military positions.
US President Joe Biden will announce another rise in economic pressure on Friday.
· A report recently published by the UK Ministry of Defense states that Russian forces "are engaging an increased number of their forces to encircle major cities" due to strong resistance from Ukraine.
· Air sirens were heard in Lviv in the early hours of Friday. Explosions were also reported in Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine, near the Polish border, as well as in the Dnipro, a major stronghold in central-eastern Ukraine. Three airstrikes in the Dnipro killed at least one person.
· High-level talks between Russia and Ukraine - the first of their kind since Moscow invaded Ukraine two weeks ago - ended without a ceasefire. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there had been no progress towards reaching a ceasefire with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Mariupol are facing a humanitarian situation "increasingly dire and desperate," the International Committee of the Red Cross said. A delegation leader said people in Mariupol had "started attacking each other for food" and many people reported that they had no food for their children.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has reportedly met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich is among seven of Russia's richest and most influential oligarchs who have been hit by sanctions from Britain in a bid to further punish Vladimir Putin's allies.
