However in Russian media there has been no mention of the thousands of arrested protesters, or of the many more who took to the streets in support of Ukraine. Last week the Kremlin sent out letters to ten publications, warning them not to use the words "invasion," "attack" or "declaration of war" in their coverage. Ukraine's armed forces have been fighting against the Russian military for a year now, and countries around the the world have been supporting Ukraine by supplying weapons and armed vehicles, such as tanks, to defend themselves.

• Hungary has signalled it is ready to compromise on EU funding for Ukraine - after Brussels reportedly prepared to sabotage its economy if it did not comply.
• "There are no really good choices. A direct attack on Iran would be one way but that could also open Pandora's box. And we've already seen how little the retaliatory strikes on the Houthis in Yemen have achieved.
• People have young children to look after, cancer and other illnesses to manage, aging parents to care for.
• "I think the West should ramp-up military assistance to Ukraine, that's the only option," Mr Gudkov says.
• Now a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Pomerantsev shuttles between Washington, D.C., and Ukraine.

Nato defence chiefs have re-examined his lengthy speech of July 2021 and concluded they urgently need to reinforce Nato's eastern borders lest Putin is tempted to make a move on countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. After eight years of fighting a Russian-backed breakaway insurgency in the east of their country they are now watching it being shelled, bombed and rocketed by their giant nuclear-armed neighbour. The invasion plan broadly consists of a three-pronged line of attack, from the north, east and south, using artillery and missile strikes to soften resistance before following up with infantry and tanks. Putin would ideally like to see the Zelensky government quickly capitulate and surrender, to be replaced by a Moscow-leaning puppet government.

Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

A bus service has started up connecting the city to the local cemetery where growing numbers of soldiers killed in Ukraine are being buried. In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told. If they are troubled by Russia bombing a city where many have friends and relatives, then they're trying not to show it. But surrounded by reminders of Russia's often relentlessly violent past I felt war was now inevitable. My daily walks were my way of saying goodbye to a world, and perhaps even a country, that could never be the same again.

Even so, rather than taking place in different public locations around the city, as usual, the forum was convened in an underground theatre on the hilltop campus of Ukrainian Catholic University, a ten-minute drive from the city center. There, for three days, panelists addressed topics related to Ukraine, Russia, war, and culture. Earlier today, a Russian official said air defences had thwarted a drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. Even so, the messages made for some jarring moments for some of those present, featuring as they often did ultra-patriotic and sometimes militaristic declarations. In a panel I moderated, the Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina began her remarks by expressing her gratitude to the Ukrainian armed forces for their defense of the homeland. Were all living on credit given to us by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, she said.

Russian advances in the east

Lithuania will consider cases individually, but the prime minister clarified that it was "not the duty of other countries to save Russians fleeing mobilisation". Protesters came out in several cities shouting "no to war!" and even "Putin to the trenches!". More than a thousand people were detained and some were then served with call-up papers at the police station. Among the most prominent outlets are the Meduza and Mediazona websites - both have been blocked in Russia and both are labelled as "foreign agents" by the Russian government.

• Many who study and report on Russia, me included, believe a small percentage of people actively support the war, and a small percentage actively oppose it.
• "Nothing is inevitable, but the Ukraine invasion in particular has shown that Russia sees war as an instrument of policy, as a tool to change the world order in its favour, and not simply as a means of defence.
• Resistance has already begun, with a nationwide call-up of men of fighting age and 18,000 automatic weapons being handed out to the citizens of Kyiv, in addition to the uniformed army and reserves who are already putting up stiff resistance.

We may be far from a large-scale antiwar movement, but the seeds have been sown. And once they flower into outright defiance, it could spell trouble for Mr. Putin. Mr. Kovalev is the investigations editor at Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet. https://rentry.co/hfhiq29k was unnerved when an uprising in 2014 replaced Ukraines Russia-friendly president with an unequivocally Western-facing government. He called Fox News to say that he didn't believe that Putin "wanted to do this, initially".

"In the short term," says Brig Ben Barry from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, "a successful Russian seizure of Kyiv would be a military and political success with strategic impact. They have been offered the opportunity to live in other countries like Germany, France, Poland and the UK, with a chance of safety, food, healthcare and education for young people. Since the invasion, the price of everyday items across the world has increased. This is because many countries are no longer using gas supplied by Russia, so there is greater demand and a higher cost for gas supplied from other places. Countries around Europe along with the United States, have also put significant limits on Russian trade and supplies, (called sanctions) with the aim of forcing Putin to stop his actions.

• Russia did not want to occupy Ukraine, he said, but would demilitarise and "de-Nazify" the country.
• Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left Russia, including me and my BBC Russian colleagues.
• But surrounded by reminders of Russia's often relentlessly violent past I felt war was now inevitable.
• About 10 civilians are believed to have been killed, including six in an air strike in Brovary near the capital Kyiv.
• Phillips P OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, wrote in an analysis piecethat the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House could see the US "neuter" the Western military alliance.

The gloves are off, the pretences dropped, diplomacy is dead - at least for now. Ukraine is under full-scale Russian invasion and is fighting for its very survival. It is not clear exactly how many refugees have travelled to the UK, but recent government figures show around 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have officially settled here.

Perhaps most significant is the activity around Avdiivka, a strategically important town on the front line in eastern Ukraine. Russia has also made advances north east of Kupiansk, north of Bakhmut, and south west of Avdiivka, according to the latest ISW assessment. The village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region could offer a similar stepping stone but Russian forces are reported to have made some advances in the area. Ukraine first announced it had made a breakthrough in mid-November - the river had separated Ukrainian and Russian forces since Moscow's troops withdrew from Kherson a year ago. A source familiar with the situation said the drone fell at about 7am local time but had not affected fuel output.

• To indicate which parts of Ukraine are under control by Russian troops we are using daily assessments published by the Institute for the Study of War with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.
• These are people who made very small salaries when they could have made much more by going over to the Kremlin side.
• It has cut diplomatic ties with Russia, offered weapons to anyone who wants them and declared an overnight curfew for Kyiv.
• Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian attacks are increasing again in some parts of the country but they have not yet had any significant impact.

To show key areas where advances are taking place we are also using updates from the UK Ministry of Defence and BBC research. By October 2022, the picture had changed dramatically and having failed to take Kyiv, Russia withdrew completely from the north. Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022. It notes the building gives Ukraine a "localised defensive advantage" and says Russian forces will probably suffer significant losses if they attempt to assault the facility.