Kyiv - Here are the latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine conflict:
The capital Kyiv may soon be encircled, with Russian forces moving in on areas north and west of the capital, the Ukrainian military says, with four other major cities effectively besieged.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says trucks carrying food and medicine to the besieged city of Mariupol - without water and power for 11 days - were attacked by Russian tanks.
The city's mayor says it is being shelled "every 30 minutes".
The Russian army claims the deadly bomb attack on Mariupol's children's hospital was "staged" by Ukraine.
A kindergarten and an apartment block are hit in the first airstrikes on the central city of Dnipro, with at least one person dead.
Ukraine says at least 71 children have been killed and more than 100 wounded since the Russian invasion began.
100,000 evacuated in two days - Zelensky says about 100,000 people have evacuated from areas surrounding Kyiv, Sumy and Izyum in two days.
The Ukrainian military says fighting is raging for control of the northern city of Chernihiv and Kharkiv and Severodonetsk in the east.
Moscow promises to open humanitarian corridors every day to allow Ukrainians to flee, but Kyiv has rejected routes leading into Russia or its ally Belarus.
UN meets on Russia bio-weapon claim - The UN Security Council will meet Friday after Russia says biological weapons are being developed in Ukraine, claims both Washington and Kyiv deny.
The US says the allegations are a sign Moscow could soon use the weapons itself.
The US and its European allies could impose additional penalties on Moscow because "the atrocities that they're committing against civilians seem to be intensifying", US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki says any decision by Moscow to seize assets of US or international companies "will ultimately result in more economic pain for Moscow".
European Union leaders tell Ukraine there is no fast way to join the bloc, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte saying membership is "for the long term, if at all."
The UN says more than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine -- more than half to Poland.
Asian stock tumble with Tokyo falling more than two per cent and the yen hitting a five-year low on fears of a long war in Ukraine.
The United States, together with the Group of Seven nations and the European Union, will move on Friday to revoke Russia's "most favoured nation" status over its invasion of Ukraine, multiple people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Russia's defence ministry said it would declare a ceasefire on Friday and open humanitarian corridors from Mariupol as well as Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv, although previous ceasefires have failed. *
About 222,000 people have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine and its two Russian-backed rebel regions, the TASS news agency said on Friday, citing an unidentified source. * Ukrainian authorities evacuated almost 40,000 people from five cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, but none from the encircled southern city of Mariupol, while Russian planes bombed an institute in Kharkiv that is home to an experimental nuclear reactor.
Three airstrikes in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least one person, state emergency services said, adding the strikes were close to a kindergarten and an apartment building. * Russian troops took out two military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, Russian news agencies quoted a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman as saying.
Russian forces had destroyed 3,213 Ukrainian military installations since the launch of what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, the spokesman said. * Russian-backed separatists have captured Volnovakha, north of the besieged Azov Sea port of Mariupol, the RIA news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying.
Satellite images showed a Russian military column threatening Kyiv from the north had dispersed to new positions, private U.S. company Maxar Technologies said, possibly in preparation for an assault on the capital.
The European Union will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Friday, amid a summit of EU leaders in France.
The US Senate voted on Thursday to approve legislation providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Over 2.3 million people have fled Ukraineso far, according to the latest U.N. tally, around half of them are children.
* Russian forces are operating with "reckless disregard" for civilians as they face stronger-than-expected resistance in Ukraine, U.S. spy chiefs said.
Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal e-mails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy. * Russia's embassy in the United States demanded that Washington stop the "extremist activities" of Meta Platforms.
The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters on Thursday. * The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia's request, diplomats said, to discuss Moscow's claims, presented without evidence, of U.S. biological activities in Ukraine.
QUOTES * "We're keeping our promises to support Ukraine as they fight for their lives against the evil Vladimir Putin," U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. * "We will do everything to ensure that we never again depend on the West in those areas of our life which have a significant meaning for our people," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
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