Ukraine-Russia war: Ukrainian army struggling to evacuate Bakhmut residents as fighting closes in

Only five to 10 civilians are fleeing Bakhmut each day compared to as many as 600 when evacuations were at their highest, the city's deputy mayor said.

Oleksandr Marchenko told CNN that defending soldiers are prevented from reaching residents by Russian attacks.

He said: "The enemy is striking the city with everything they can. There is no way we can get there.”

It is believed there are between 4,000 and 4,500 civilians left in the city, which has been largely destroyed after intense fighting. Mr Marchenko said there were four medical workers remaining.

04:58 PM

Today's top stories

That’s all for our live blog today. Here’s a round-up of the top stories:

• Evacuations from Bakhmut have slowed to just five to 10 residents a day as Ukrainian forces are finding it tough to get to civilians amid enemy bombardment

• Russian forces are attempting to encircle Bakhmut and appear to have a positional advantage, but no sign yet of a Ukrainian retreat as Kyiv vowed to defend “fortress Bakhmut”

• Civilians, including two children, have been killed in missile strikes and shelling in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, while the death toll from a strike on an apartment block in Zaporizhzhia rose to 13

• At least 13,000 children have been separated from their parents and deported to Russia, often under the guise of summer camps, a Ukrainian MP said

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, warned of “shell hunger” and appeared to threaten the withdrawal of his troops, saying it would lead to a collapse of the frontline.

• Ukraine claimed Russia will run out of weapons by the end of Spring, while British intelligence said that Russian soldiers had been sent into battle armed with shovels amid a munitions shortage

• Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who fled her home last year, won gold in the high jump at the European Athletics Championships in Istanbul

• Turkey said it is working to broker a renewal of the vital grain deal which expires on March 18

04:18 PM

In pictures: defending the trenches in Bakhmut

03:47 PM

Ukrainian pilots in US for flying ability assessment

Two Ukrainian pilots are at a military base in Tucson, Arizona, to be evaluated on their ability to fly advanced fighter jets like the F-16.

Reports suggested they are currently using simulators and will shortly be joined by 10 of their colleagues.

“The programme is about assessing their abilities as pilots so we can better advise them on how to use [the] capabilities they have and we have given them,” an administration official told NBC News.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, has been pleading for the West to send advanced aircraft to supplement the Ukrainian air force, which is currently largely relying on Soviet-era MiG-29s.

You can read the full story here.

03:10 PM

Ukrainian prosecutors investigating more than 2,600 war crimes against children

Ukraine's deputy prosecutor general has told an international conference that Russia is using children as spies and telling them to assist in the construction of checkpoints.

Hromadske reports that Viktoria Lytvynova said that the Office of the Prosecutor General is investigating 2,600 criminal cases against children, including rape, abduction and recruitment of children.

03:04 PM

Russian forces secure 'positional advantage' in Bakhmut, but haven't won yet

The Institute for the Study of War think tank said on Sunday that Russian forces appear to have secured a "sufficient positional advantage" in parts of Bakhmut, but will not likely be able to encircle the city soon.

The ISW had earlier said that Ukrainian forces are likely to be setting up to carry out a "controlled fighting withdrawal", but they have not yet been forced out.

The purpose of a "turning movement" is to force the enemy to abandon their planned defensive position in order to encircle and trap them.

02:07 PM

Air raid alerts for eastern Ukraine

Air raid warnings have been issued for six regions in east Ukraine in the past few minutes.

The air raid alert map showed warnings for Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad and Poltava, which borders the Kyiv district.

Air raid alerts in these regions are not uncommon.

Luhansk has been under a constant air raid warning since April last year.

You can view the live map here.

02:03 PM

Evacuations from Bakhmut slow to a trickle as Ukrainian forces cut off

Civilian evacuations from Bakhmut have slowed to just five or 10 a day, down from 600, the city's deputy mayor told CNN.

Oleksandr Marchenko said that the enemy is striking the city repeatedly with shelling from artillery and mortars, and air raids.

Ukrainian soldiers are unable to reach civilians to help them leave.

It is believed there are between 4,000 and 4,500 civilians left in the city, which has been largely destroyed after intense fighting.

01:48 PM

Reports suggest 65-year-old killed by shelling in Kharkiv region

A 65-year-old man has reportedly been killed in a residential building following shelling in Kupyansk, in Kharkiv Oblast.

The Hromadske news agency reported the shelling this morning after comments by the regional governor Oleg Synegubov.

The Telegraph was unable to verify the report.

01:41 PM

Polish ambulance torched the night before it was set for Ukraine

Polish media has reported that a 35-year-old man was charged with arson after an ambulance was set alight in Radłów.

The ambulance was due to head to Ukraine as part of a humanitarian convoy the following morning.

12:39 PM

Russian army hits Ukrainian command centre in Zaporizhzhia

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Sunday to have hit a command centre used by the Azov Regiment in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

It made the claim in its daily update on what it calls the "special military operation".

Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

The Azov Regiment is sometimes known for its far-right and ultra-nationalist origins, but is now a unit of Ukraine's national guard.

There was no mention in the Russian's bulletin of the ongoing battle around Bakhmut, a key Moscow target.

12:35 PM

In pictures: the defence of Bakhmut

12:14 PM

Two children killed by shelling in southern Ukraine

A woman and two children were killed in Russian mortar shelling of a village in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, Reuters reports.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said on Sunday: "Mortar shelling of Poniativka village in Kherson region. A private house was hit."

"Russian terrorists continue to kill civilians," he added, providing no additional details of the attack.

Kherson was occupied by Russian troops from the early days of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine until its recapture by Kyiv's forces in November.

Since its liberation, the city has regularly been shelled from Russian positions across the Dnipro river.

12:11 PM

Ten air strikes on Donetsk in past 24 hours

At least 16 residential buildings have been destroyed in attacks in the Donetsk region in the past 24 hours, Sky News reported.

In a Telegram post, Ukraine's national police said a child had been injured but that further civilian casualty figures were being collated.

Pictures showed craters in the ground where the strikes hit. There were 10 air raid alerts in the past 24 hours for the Donetsk region.

The death toll from a separate air attack in Zaporizhzhia earlier in the week has now hit 13.

11:49 AM

Ukrainian who fled war wins gold medal at European Indoor Athletics Championship

Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh has won gold in the high jump at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul this morning.

The 21-year-old retained her title from two years ago, while fellow Ukrainian Kateryna Tabashnyk won a bronze medal.

Mahuchikh fled her home city of Dnipropetrovsk last year and travelled to the world championships in Belgrade – which she won – by car, taking three days.

11:40 AM

At least 13,000 children deported to Russia, Ukrainian MP says

A Ukrainian MP has told Sky News that at least 13,000 children had been taken from Ukraine to Russia since the war began – and there could be tens of thousands more.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said: "Some of them have been taken to so-called summer camps or vacation camps for a week, then never returned. And some of them were even given already for adoption to Russian families as if they didn't have their own families back in Ukraine."

Russia claims that it has "evacuated" more than 700,000 children, but Ukrainian officials have described it as abduction. Ukrainian estimates of numbers are far lower, but still as many as a few hundred thousand.

The Sunday Times today reported the story of a single mother in Kherson who was told to present her daughter for a summer camp in Russian-held Crimea, along with her documentation. Instead of returning after two weeks she was told the child had been moved to another camp, but she has not seen her daughter since September.

11:32 AM

Ukraine vows to defend 'fortress Bakhmut'

Russian soldiers are "continuing attempts to encircle" Bakhmut, the defending forces said on Sunday morning.

Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces, said on Saturday the situation was "difficult but under control" in the city he described as a "priority target for the enemy".

There have been reports of intense fighting in the streets of the destroyed city and its outskirts.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces would likely withdraw rather than risk encirclement.

A video posted by pro-Russian separatists purported to show Wagner Group mercenaries in control of the Stupki railway station in the north of Bakhmut.

11:26 AM

Analysis - inside China's war machine

More analysis on the ongoing will-they, won't-they story of whether China will send military weaponry to Russia.

Here is some detailed analysis on China's sophisticated weaponry and what is at stake if it decides to support Russia.

Read the full story here.

11:15 AM

Russia will 'run out of weapons by end of Spring'

Ukrainian intelligence believes that the Russian army will run out of military tools by the end of this Spring, its spy chief said in an interview with USA Today.

Kyrylo Budanov said: "Russia has wasted huge amounts of human resources, armaments and materials. Its economy and production are not able to cover these losses. It's changed its military chain of command."

USA Today said Budanov did not evidence these claims, although other military analysts and even Yevgeny Prigozhin, a key Putin ally, have also suggested that Russia is running low on munitions.

10:58 AM

Ukrainians claim to have repelled 130 attacks in one day

The Hromadske news agency quoted claims from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that 130 attacks were pushed back in the eastern regions, including Bakhmut, on Saturday.

It said: "The Russians are focusing their main efforts on the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka and Shakhtarsk axes in the Donbas. Yesterday, on March 4, Ukrainian troops repelled more than 130 occupiers' attacks in these areas, reported the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

10:50 AM

Death toll in Zaporizhzhia flats blast rises to 13

Nezta, the eastern European news agency, reports that 13 people have died after a missile strike on an apartment block in the city on Thursday morning.

Last night, the death toll stood at 11.

On Saturday, the bodies of an eight-month old baby and her family were found in the rubble.

10:30 AM

Dispatch - China-Russia relations

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi last week became the first high-profile Chinese official to visit Russia since the war began.

This, combined with reports that China is considering providing weapons and ammunition to Russian forces, has thrown relations between the two countries into the spotlight.

Eva Rammeloo has been on the border between the two countries and filed this dispatch:

You can read the full piece here.

10:16 AM

Turkey working on extension of grain deal

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday that Ankara is working hard to extend a U.N.-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia.

The deal was brokered last year and enables Ukrainian grain to be shipped out of the country, but it is due to expire on March 18 unless an extension can be agreed.

Speaking a UN conference in Doha, Qatar, Mr Cavusoglu said: "We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal."

Earlier in the week, Russia said it would only agree to an extension if the interests of its own farmers are accounted for.

10:07 AM

Russian soldiers ordered to attack checkpoint armed with only 'firearms and shovels' due to munitions shortage

In its daily intelligence update on the war, the Ministry of Defence said that in late February Russian forces were told to attack a concrete strongpoint "armed with only firearms and shovels".

It said that the most recent evidence suggested an increase in close combat in the war, citing the lack of support from Russian artillery because of a munitions shortage.

British intelligence assessed the shovels involved to be MPL-50 entrenching tools. They are standard issue for Russian soldiers and have barely changed in design since 1869. They have become "mythologised in Russia", the MOD said.

10:02 AM

Intense fighting in and around Bakhmut continues

Ukrainian forces are under increasingly strong pressure in Bakhmut, British military intelligence said.

Reuters reports that there is intense fighting in and around the eastern city.

However, Oleh Zhdanov, a prominent Ukrainian military analyst, said in a Youtube interview that there was no sign of the defending forces retreating.

He claimed that the situation is "more or less stabilised".

09:53 AM

Wagner Group leader warns frontline could crumble if his troops withdraw

In a video posted on social media, Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to warn Putin of potential pay disputes among his mercenary army.

He said that if Wagner withdrew amid a shortage of ammunition his troops would be blamed but also appeared to warn Putin about agreements over pay.

He also warned of a "shell hunger" indicating that Russia is running low on ammunition.