Fire reported at nuclear plant after Russian shelling, as France warns ‘worst is yet to come’ based on Macron call with Putin

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Videos of PoWs used for Ukraine propaganda, but there is an authentic sense of regret among Russian servicemen

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Five Russian soldiers sit in a brick building. They are blindfolded: the latest prisoners to be captured inside Ukraine. A Ukrainian voice interrogates them. “Speak,” he says to the group’s Russian officer. What message would he like to send to his soldiers and to Russians back at home?

“Frankly speaking, they tricked us,” the officer replies, referring to his military superiors sitting in Moscow. “Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.”

Drone footage filmed months apart shows the scale of destruction at Borodyanka, a small town 60km north-west of Kyiv.

The video on the left was filmed in August 2021, while the video on the right – shot 3 March 2022 – shows smoke rising from a residential building destroyed by the shelling as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues

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• Concern mounting over Russian military convoy outside Kyiv

Students, mostly Nigerian, stranded in town 40km from the northeast border which has become a war zone

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More than 500 international students are trapped in Sumy, a town 40km from Ukraine’s northeast border which has been battered by days of shelling by Russian forces.

Most of the students are Nigerian, while others are from Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ireland, India, Lebanon and Turkey. They have all suddenly found themselves stranded in a war zone.

Thousands of Russians flee country as rumours spread government is preparing clampdown

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The Kremlin has said it is not planning to institute martial law in Russia as rumours have spread that the government is preparing for a clampdown tied to its invasion of Ukraine.

Thousands of Russians have begun fleeing the country amid unsourced reports that the borders could close as soon as this weekend after an extraordinary session of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, scheduled for Friday.

Speculation that massive column of Russian vehicles and troops may be regrouping for assault on capital

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Concern is mounting over the movements of a huge column of Russian military vehicles outside Kyiv, amid a lack of fresh information about its position and the threat it poses.

While a US defence official suggested it appeared to have “stalled”, there was also speculation that an estimated 15,000 troops attached to it may be regrouping, and potentially waiting for logistical supplies before an assault on Kyiv.

Russian forces claim capture of city and also tighten siege of Mariupol as large amphibious taskforce threatens Odesa

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Russian forces appeared to be moving to cut Ukraine off from the sea on Thursday via its key southern ports, claiming the capture of Kherson and tightening the siege of Mariupol, as a large amphibious taskforce threatened Odesa to the west.

With the Russian naval assault in the south spreading, a second merchant ship – the Estonian-owned carrier Helt – was hit and sunk after a Bangladeshi-owned cargo ship had been hit by a projectile that killed one of its crew.

A missile appeared to hit a residential building in central Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, in footage captured on a dashcam. The state emergency service of Ukraine said an oil depot in Chernihiv was also on fire after being hit by a shell

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