Russia-Ukraine war: Lviv hit by missiles as cities targeted; Mariupol fighters ignore surrender demand – live | World news

• Unconfirmed reports are filtering in that five missiles struck Lviv early this morning. “5 aimed missile strikes on Lviv,” Lviv mayor, Andriy Sadovy, said in an update over his official Telegram account this morning, adding that authorities are seeking more detailed information.
• Ukraine has vowed that its forces will “fight to the end” in the besieged port city of Mariupol, after a Russian ultimatum for the remaining Ukrainian troops there to surrender expired.
• Russian troops said they will close the city for entry and exit on Monday and issue “movement passes” to those who remain, according to an adviser to the mayor.
• Residents of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine have been urged to evacuate immediately. The head of head of the regions military administration, Sergei Gaidai, maintained that the “decision is yours” but warned the cemetery was “getting bigger by the day” in a statement late on Sunday.
• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for more weapons, describing “every delay” as “permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians”. In his latest address, he appealed to countries to send arms, saying Ukraine’s fate “depends upon them”.
• Zelenskiy also claimed in the address that the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s south were being transferred to “the ruble zone” and subordinated to Russian administration. The Ukrainian president said Russia’s actions in the territories were following the example of the so-called separatist republics of the DPR and LPR.
• Ukraine has completed a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on its membership. “Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,” Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster on Sunday evening. “We expect the recommendation … to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states.”
• A second British soldier fighting with the Ukrainian army was paraded on Russian television after being captured in Mariupol. Shaun Pinner, 48, said he had been fighting alongside Ukrainian marines when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded nearly eight weeks ago.
• A fresh series of Russian airstrikes came as a reminder this weekend that the war in the Ukrainian capital is far from over, despite signs of more normal life returning to the streets in recent days.
• An unverified photo claiming to show the Russian warship Moskva moments after it was reportedly hit by a Ukrainian Neptune missile has surfaced online. The source of the image is unclear and the Guardian has not been able to immediately verify its authenticity.
• Zelenskiy said he has invited French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed “genocide”, a term Macron has avoided using.
• Earlier on Sunday Zelenskiy urged US president Joe Biden to visit Ukraine and reiterated that he is not willing to cede territory in the country’s east to end war with Russia. Zelenskiy said he was “hopeful” Biden would make the trip.
• The president of the European Commission has urged member states to supply Ukraine with weapons systems “quickly” and suggested that a next round of EU sanctions could target Russia’s powerful Sberbank.
• The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said she had a “very good call” with Ukraine’s president. She added: “Continued economic support by Ukraine’s partners is essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding a modern competitive Ukraine.”
• The United Nations refugee agency said 4,869,019 Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded in February – up 32,574 from Saturday’s total, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees chief, Filippo Grandi’s, said on Sunday.
• Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian forces were successfully pushing the Russians back to the east of the city and that several villages were liberated.
• At least two people were killed and four injured on Sunday in the shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said.
• Zelenskiy maintained Ukraine is not willing to give up territory in the east in order to end the war with Russia and acknowledged that the battle could influence the entire course of the war.

That’s all from me, Samantha Lock, for today. I will now pass you over to my colleague, Martin Belam.

More details are emerging from Lviv this morning.

CNN correspondent Jim Sciutto shared a photo purporting to show smoke rising on the city skyline.

“Five missile strikes on Lviv this morning. Smoke visible rising above the city,” he tweeted.

FOX reporter James Levinson added: “Black smoke seen from train station 4 reported missile strikes at Lviv train station no reports of casualties or damage yet. Can hear air raid sirens and ambulance in background.”

Lviv’s head of regional military administration, Maksym Kozytsky, has urged residents to seek shelter amid reports of missile strikes in the region.

“The air alarm continues. Stay in the shelters,” Kozytsky said in a Telegram post around 8:30am this morning.

An unverified photo claiming to show the Russian warship Moskva moments after it was reportedly hit by a Ukrainian Neptune missile has surfaced online.

The source of the image is unclear, and the Guardian has not been able to immediately verify its authenticity.

The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, said he believes the unverified photo may be the first of the Moskva cruiser to emerge after it was reportedly struck by a missile.

Rob Lee, a PhD student at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, tweeted: “Looks like a legit photo of the Moskva after it was struck by Ukrainian Neptun[e] anti-ship missiles.”

OSINTtechnical, an account that shares open-source intelligence information, wrote: “I can’t verify the authenticity, but this is a Slava class cruiser and I don’t think any of them have been destroyed in this manner.”

Five missiles have reportedly struck Lviv, according to the city’s mayor.

“5 aimed missile strikes on Lviv,” Andriy Sadovy said in an update over his official Telegram account this morning, adding that authorities are seeking more detailed information.

Presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, added: “Five powerful missile strikes on the civilian infrastructure of ancient European Lviv. The Russians continue to barbarically attack Ukrainian cities from the air, cynically declaring to the whole world their ‘right’ … to kill Ukrainians.”

Russian forces are “completing the creation of an offensive group” in the east and have regained combat capability and replenished their reserves in the Donetsk and Tavriya regions, Ukraine’s military has said.

According to a recently released operational report from the general staff of the armed forces, on the Donetsk and Tavriya regions, Russian forces have regained combat capability and replenished their reserves while concentrating their main efforts in the areas of the settlements of Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna and Rubizhne, trying to establish full control over the city of Mariupol.

It is also expected that Russian forces “will continue to fight to reach the administrative borders of the Kherson region,” officials said.

In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine repulsed 12 Russian attacks, destroyed ten tanks, fifteen armoured units and five vehicles, as well as five enemy artillery systems, according to the report. The Ukrainian air force hit five air targets: one plane, three helicopters and one UAV, it added.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged US president Joe Biden to visit Ukraine.

“I think he will,” Zelenskiy said when asked if he was aware of any plans for a US presidential visit during an extended interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday. “But it’s his decision, of course, and [it] depends on the safety situation, of course. But I think he’s the leader of the United States and that’s why he should come here to see.”

Biden told reporters on Thursday that the US would decide soon whether to send a senior official to Ukraine as a show of support, but sources suggested to Reuters the administration was considering defence secretary Lloyd Austin or Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Zelenskiy comments came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv last weekend.

On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, said in an interview that Biden had no visit scheduled.

In his nightly national address, Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy called for more weapons, describing “every delay” as “permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians”.

We are doing everything to ensure defence. We are in constant contact with partners. We are grateful to those who really help with everything they can. But those who have the weapons and ammunition we need and delay their provision must know that the fate of this battle also depends on them. The fate of people who can be saved.

The 53rd day of the war is over, and we have been waiting for answers to some points in our weapons inquiries for 53 days. And some answers are formulated so that delivery can begin only in May.

I speak directly in such cases: every delay in weapons, every political delay is a permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians. This is how Russia interprets it. That should not be the case in reality.”

In the wake of Russia’s censorship of independent news media and the banning of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the messaging app Telegram has become the largest remaining outlet for unrestricted information, the New York Times reports.

Since the war started, it has been the most downloaded app in Russia, with about 4.4m downloads, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, the publication cited.

“This is one of the few channels that are left where you can receive information,” Russian journalist Farida Rustamova told the outlet.

Ilya Shepelin, who used to cover the media for the now-shuttered independent TV channel Rain and has established a blog critical of the war, added: “Telegram is the only place in Russia where people can exchange opinions and information freely, although the Kremlin has worked hard to infiltrate Telegram channels.”

Ukraine has completed a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on its membership.

“Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,” Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster on Sunday evening.

The European Commission will need to issue a recommendation on Ukraine’s compliance with the necessary membership criteria, he added.

“We expect the recommendation … to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states.”

Zhovkva added that Ukraine expects to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting.

The European Council is to meet June 23-24th, according to the Council’s schedule on its website.

“Next, we will need to start accession talks. And once we hold those talks, we can already talk about Ukraine’s full membership in the EU,” Zhovkva said.

Following the refusal of Ukrainian fighters to surrender the city of Mariupol, Russian troops will reportedly close the city for entry and exit on Monday and issue “movement passes” to those who remain, an adviser to the mayor has said.

Petro Andriushchenko made the claim in an update over the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, sharing a photo that appeared to show a line of people waiting for passes.

“Hundreds of citizens have to stand in line to get a pass, without which next week it will be impossible not only to move between districts of the city, but also to be on the streets,” he said.

Andriushchenko suggested that occupying forces were probably gathering information on, or filtering through, those who remain in the city.

In a separate update written on Saturday, Andriushchenko said Russian forces announced the city would be “closed for entry/exit for everyone from Monday, but there will also be a ban on moving around the districts for a week.”

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify these claims.

Residents of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine have been urged to evacuate immediately.

The head of head of the regions military administration, Sergei Gaidai, maintained that the “decision is yours” but warned the cemetery was “getting bigger by the day”.

“Next week may be difficult. [This] may be the last time we still have a chance to save you,” the head of the Luhansk regional military administration Sergei Gaidai said in a statement late on Sunday.

The decision is yours. Those who take risks every day are already on the verge.

An empty evacuation bus is a disrespect to the lives of a police officer, rescuer, volunteer and many more.

Have you seen the new Severodonetsk cemetery?! Getting bigger by the day… We don’t want to dig graves, we want to live and develop! Make that decision. This week can solve a lot.”

Ukraine’s armed forces have been preparing themselves for a brutal Russian offensive in the region predicted for the coming weeks.

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments until my colleague, Martin Belam, takes the reins a little later in the day.

It is just past 7am in Ukraine. Here’s what we know so far:

• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for more weapons, describing “every delay” as “permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians”. In his latest address, he appealed to countries to send arms, saying Ukraine’s fate “depends upon them”.
• Zelenskiy also claimed in the address that the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s south were being transferred to “the ruble zone” and subordinated to Russian administration. The Ukrainian president said Russia’s actions in the territories were following the example of the so-called separatist republics of the DPR and LPR.
• Ukraine has completed a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on its membership. “Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,” Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster on Sunday evening. “We expect the recommendation … to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states.”
• Ukraine has vowed that its forces will “fight to the end” in the besieged port city of Mariupol, after a Russian ultimatum for the remaining Ukrainian troops there to surrender expired.
• A second British soldier fighting with the Ukrainian army was paraded on Russian television after being captured in Mariupol. Shaun Pinner, 48, said he had been fighting alongside Ukrainian marines when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded nearly eight weeks ago.
• A fresh series of Russian airstrikes came as a reminder this weekend that the war in the Ukrainian capital is far from over, despite signs of more normal life returning to the streets in recent days.
• An unverified photo claiming to show the Russian warship Moskva moments after it was reportedly hit by a Ukrainian Neptune missile has surfaced online. The source of the image is unclear and the Guardian has not been able to immediately verify its authenticity.
• Zelenskiy said he has invited French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed “genocide”, a term Macron has avoided using.
• Earlier on Sunday Zelenskiy urged US president Joe Biden to visit Ukraine and reiterated that he is not willing to cede territory in the country’s east to end war with Russia. Zelenskiy said he was “hopeful” Biden would make the trip.
• The president of the European Commission has urged member states to supply Ukraine with weapons systems “quickly” and suggested that a next round of EU sanctions could target Russia’s powerful Sberbank.
• The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said she had a “very good call” with Ukraine’s president. She added: “Continued economic support by Ukraine’s partners is essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding a modern competitive Ukraine.”
• The United Nations refugee agency said 4,869,019 Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded in February – up 32,574 from Saturday’s total, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees chief, Filippo Grandi’s, said on Sunday.
• Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian forces were successfully pushing the Russians back to the east of the city and that several villages were liberated.
• At least two people were killed and four injured on Sunday in the shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said.
• Zelenskiy maintained Ukraine is not willing to give up territory in the east in order to end the war with Russia and acknowledged that the battle could influence the entire course of the war.

As usual, please feel free to reach out to me by email or Twitter for any tips or feedback.