Shelling hit a Kyiv shopping centre late on Sunday, killing at least eight people, wrecking nearby buildings and leaving smoking piles of rubble and the twisted wreckage of burned-out cars spread over several hundred metres.

Ukraine today rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water and power in a humanitarian crisis that is increasing pressure on European leaders to toughen sanctions on Moscow.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group fired missiles and drones at Saudi energy and water desalination facilities, causing a temporary drop in output at a refinery but no casualties, the Saudi energy ministry said yesterday.

Russia says for a second day in a row it has fired its newest hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, destroying a fuel storage site in Mykolaiv region. Hypersonic missiles travel faster than the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them hard to track and intercept.

Eastern Antarctica has recorded exceptionally high temperatures this week, more than 30 degrees Celsius above normal, say experts.

Turkey’s foreign minister said in an interview published yesterday that Russia and Ukraine were nearing agreement on “critical” issues and he was hopeful for a ceasefire if the two sides did not backtrack from progress achieved so far.

The United States has informally raised with Turkey the unlikely possibility of sending its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ukraine to help it fight invading Russian forces, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Ukrainian authorities yesterday said that Russia had bombed a school sheltering 400 people in the besieged port of Mariupol, as Moscow claimed that it had again fired hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, the second time it had used the next-generation weapon on its neighbour.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson found himself under fire yesterday, including from his own MPs, after saying that Brexit showed that Britons shared the same “instinct” for freedom as Ukrainians.

Turkey on Sunday said Russia and Ukraine made progress on their negotiations to halt the invasion and the two warring sides were close to an agreement.

Ten million people - more than a quarter of the population - have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia's "devastating" war, the United Nations refugees chief said Sunday.

Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine’s president said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for centuries to come.

Russia said Sunday it has again fired its newest Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, destroying a fuel storage site in the country's south.

An ordinary person's trip to the Middle East for work, then returning home and going back again in the Middle East. Crossing two countries with the help of an intermediary, reaching Ukraine. Invasion of Ukraine, 22 days of living in continuous fear of death, and finally escaping Ukraine to reach France.

The United States has informally raised with Turkey the unlikely possibility of sending its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ukraine to help it fight invading Russian forces, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Saturday that at least 847 civilians had been killed and 1,399 wounded in Ukraine as of March 18.

Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday made a fresh appeal for talks with Moscow, while Russia admitted using advanced hypersonic missiles for the first time in the conflict.

Russia is using the UN Security Council to spread disinformation and propaganda about its invasion of Ukraine, six Western members states said Friday.

The Ukrainian authorities yesterday released two remaining Bangladeshis from a detention centre.

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year running, in an annual UN-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.