Germany's Scholz urges ceasefire as 'quickly as possible' in call with Putin — live updates

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to his spokesman, Scholz pressed Putin to make progress in finding a diplomatic solution and told him the humanitarian situation needed to improve.

Putin blamed Ukraine for stalling the peace talks.

"It was noted that the Kyiv regime is attempting in every possible way to delay the negotiation process, putting forward more and more unrealistic proposals," the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.

The Russian leader also told his German counterpart they were doing everything possible to save the lives of civilians.

The call lasted just under an hour.

Lavrov warns West not to donate S-300 to Ukraine

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the state broadcaster RT that Russia wouldn't allow other countries to supply S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine.

He repeated an earlier threat that Russian troops could target supplies of weapons to Ukraine.

S-300 missiles are high on Ukrainian demands from the West because they are designed to hit targets at higher altitudes.

On Thursday, Slovakia's defense minister, Jaroslav Nad, speaking alongside his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, said Bratislava is ready to send long-range surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine.

"The only strategic air defense system that we have in Slovakia is the S-300 system," Nad said.

He added Western allies give them a "proper replacement" to avoid creating a security gap.

Deadly shelling in several Ukrainian cities

One person was killed and several others injured when the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv was bombed.

The city's mayor Vitali Klitschko shared a video from the district saying, "The enemy continues to attack the capital." He said six buildings, including a preschool, were damaged in the attack.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, the emergency services said one person was killed when a teaching building was struck.

Shells also hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing two people and wounding six, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Two million refugees cross into Poland

The Polish border guard has said that more than 2 million people have crossed from Ukraine into Poland since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.

The UN says more than 3.1 million refugees have fled the country in total.

Ukraine hopes to evacuate civilians through nine humanitarian corridors from cities and towns on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

Kyiv and Russia have agreed on the routes at ongoing peace talks.

Ofcom revokes RT's broadcast license in the UK

Britain's media regulator, Ofcom, has revoked Russian state broadcaster RT's license to broadcast in the UK with immediate effect.

"Freedom of expression is something we guard fiercely in this country, and the bar for action on broadcasters is rightly set very high," Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes said.

She said the decision was taken because it "appears impossible for RT to comply with the due impartiality rules" in its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Ofcom's decision is largely symbolic as RT has already been taken off air as a result of sanctions imposed in the EU.

Russia says they are fighting inside Mariupol

Russian forces were fighting in the center of Mariupol, the Russian defense ministry said.

"In Mariupol, units of the Donetsk People's Republic, with the support of the Russian armed forces, are squeezing the encirclement and fighting against nationalists in the city center," the ministry said in Moscow.

By seizing the strategic port city, Russian President Vladimir Putin could create a corridor between Russia, the Donbas area, and Crimea and take full control of the Sea of Azov.

Mariupol has been besieged for weeks and has endured relentless shelling by the Russians.

On Wednesday, Mariupol's theater was destroyed during a bombardment. Russia denied striking it. Italy said it would rebuild it.

Airplane maintenance facility destroyed in Lviv
Several missiles hit an aircraft maintenance facility in Lviv, according to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.

He wrote on Telegram work in the plant had stopped before the strike and no casualties were reported. A bus repair facility was also hit in the strike.

The Ukrainian air force's western command said the missiles that hit Lviv were launched from the Black Sea.

The city near the Polish border has been spared the worst of the Russian attacks so far.

However, last weekend, Russian troops launched multiple air raids on a large Ukrainian military facility outside the city, killing at least 35 people.

Japan and Australia announce additional sanctions against Russia

Australia and Japan on Friday increased the pressure on Russia by placing sanctions on individuals, banks and government organizations.

Canberra imposed sanctions on Moscow's Finance Ministry while adding 11 banks and government organizations, including the central bank, covering the majority of Russia's banking assets along with all entities that handle its sovereign debt.

"With our recent inclusion of the Central Bank of Russia, Australia has now targeted all Russian government entities responsible for issuing and managing Russia's sovereign debt," Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said in a statement.

Japan, meanwhile, said it would impose sanctions against 15 individuals and nine organizations, including defense officials and state-owned arms and dual-use technologies exporter Rosoboronexport.

The sanctions, which include asset freezing, are the latest in a series of measures by Tokyo since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia won't call for UN council vote on its Ukraine resolution

Russia announced it will not call for the UN Security Council to vote Friday on its draft resolution on humanitarian relief for Ukraine, which has been criticized for making no mention of the Kremlin's invasion of its neighbor.

The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, announced the change of plans in a separate session on Thursday called by western countries.

It will instead use the scheduled council session to repeat allegations that the United States has biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine.

Washington has denied these claims, in turn alleging that they are part of a potential "false-flag operation" by Moscow.

American soldiers alive, despite Russia claims, says US

Three current and previous members of the Tennessee National Guard were falsely identified as being killed in a Russian media report.

They are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee National Guard said on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of American troops from Ukraine ahead of Russia's invasion of the country.

But a report published in Russia's Pravda newspaper identified three Americans as being dead and gave military ranks for each of them, citing information from pro-Russian militia in Ukraine's Donetsk.

The story even offered a detailed explanation for how the three were identified, using items from a backpack "near the remains of one of the militants." Among the items was a Tennessee state flag, the report claimed.

"The Tennessee Guard is aware of the fake news coming out of Russia," said Tracy O'Grady, a spokesperson for the larger US National Guard.

The Tennessee Guard said in a statement: "They are accounted for, safe and not, as the article headline erroneously states, US mercenaries killed in Donetsk People's Republic."

Zelenskyy: Russia surprised by our determination

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had been surprised by the resistance it has been met with since it began its invasion.

"This is our defense," he said in his nighttime video address to the nation. "When the enemy doesn't know what to expect from us. As they didn't know what awaited them after February 24," the day Russia invaded. "They didn't know what we had for defense or how we prepared to meet the blow."

He said Russia expected to find Ukraine much as it did in 2014, when it seized Crimea without a fight and backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region. But Ukraine is now a different country, with much stronger defenses, he said.

Summary of Thursday's events in Ukraine-Russia crisis

The EU said that potential "war crimes" in Ukraine would be investigated and prosecuted, joining top US figures in labeling Moscow's actions thus.

The search for survivors continued at the Mariupol theater, which was bombed on Wednesday, with Ukrainian lawmaker Dmytro Gurin telling DW that the attack was "deliberate."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Bundestag, telling the German parliament that "help came too late to stop war." He also criticized the German government over its economic ties with Russia.

Local officials said shelling of the town of Merefa, outside the city of Kharkiv, killed at least 21 people and injured 25.

Bilateral talks also continued between Russia and Ukraine, albeit with neither side saying very much publicly on Thursday.