Ukraine war highlights: UK PM Boris Johnson, Xi discuss Ukraine over phone

President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of trying to cancel Russia's rich musical and literary culture, including composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninov, in the same way he said it had cancelled "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling. Also read

Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive in Kherson, the country's only major city seized by Russian troops, and it is once again "contested," a senior US defense official said Friday.

"The Ukrainians are trying to take Kherson back, and we would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again," the Pentagon official told reporters.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister says there is no consensus yet in peace talks, says Russia is sticking to ultimatums, reports news agency Reuters.

Ukraine's top security official has said that there is no way the forces will surrender Mariupol to the Russians. This comes amid claims by the regional governor that the strategic city is still under Ukrainian control

The audio streaming platform Spotify closed its office in Russia indefinitely earlier this month in response to what it described as Moscow's "unprovoked attack on Ukraine."

Russia's new legislation makes it illegal to report any event that could discredit the Russian military.

The governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region on Friday said Ukrainian forces still controlled the besieged southern city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, Reuters reported. Speaking on national television, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said around 65,000 people had so far fled the city in private vehicles or on foot although official efforts to organise mass evacuations under temporary ceasefires have mostly failed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to China's President Xi Jinping on Friday and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest - including the situation in Ukraine, ANI reported. "The leaders discussed a range of issues of mutual interest - including the situation in Ukraine. It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour. They agreed to speak again soon," the British Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Russia's ambassador to France was summoned on Friday to the French Foreign Ministry over an earlier embassy Twitter post that Paris deemed unacceptable, AFP quoted the French foreign ministry. The Russian Embassy in Paris on Thursday had posted a picture depicting a body lying on a table called "Europe" with characters representing the United States and European Union jabbing needles into it

European Union leaders struggled on Friday to agree on steps to ease the energy market crunch exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, seeking difficult compromises on how to limit the impact for hard-hit consumers of soaring gas and oil prices, Reuters reported

President Joe Biden visited U.S. troops stationed near Poland’s border with Ukraine on Friday and was getting a first hand look at the growing humanitarian response to the millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing to Poland to escape Russia’s assault on their homeland, AP reported

China is likely to offer some support to Russia's economy amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but will engage in a "dance" to maintain economic ties with Europe and the United States, a senior White House official said on Friday according to Reuters

The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that as many as 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of war on February 24. 

Out of this figure, 2.2 million people fled for  Poland while more than half a million have made it to Romania and 20,000 have gone to Russia.

Russia has said it will focus on ‘liberating’ Donbas region, news agency AFP reported. "The main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed," said Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of Russia's armed forces.

Ukraine said Friday that talks with Moscow were "very difficult" and vowed not to back down on its demands, more than a month into Russia's invasion, AFP reported. "The negotiation process is very difficult," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed Friday an EU summit appeal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for weapons and tougher sanctions against Russia as it would be "against Hungary's interests", AFP reported.

The nationalist premier "rejected (Zelensky's) demands at the European Council because they are contrary to the interests of Hungary," said Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs.

A senior White House official said on Friday India's position at the United Nations over the crisis in Ukraine has been "unsatisfactory" but was also unsurprising given its historical relationship with Russia, Reuters reported. Mira Rapp-Hooper, director for the Indo-Pacific on the White House National Security Council, told a panel discussion it was necessary to provide India with alternatives to continued close ties with Russia.

Dozens of Ukrainian officials, journalists and activists have been detained or forcibly disappeared by invading Russian forces, the UN said Friday, warning that some cases resembled "hostage-taking".

The Russian army on Friday updated its losses in Ukraine to 1,351 soldiers, while saying that it had evacuated more than 400,000 civilians and condemning Western supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

The U.S. and the European Union announced an agreement to help Europe wean itself off Russian fuel imports. A European Union summit focused on Russia continues in Brussels with a modest tightening of sanctions likely.

Ukrainian authorities in the besieged ruins of Mariupol said Friday that about 300 people died when a Russian airstrike blew up a theater where hundreds of civilians were sheltering — a catastrophic loss of civilian life that, if confirmed, is likely to further crank up pressure on Western nations to step up military aid.

A huge plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday, AFP reporters saw, as Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles, reported AFP. 

Kremlin says Biden 'diverting attention' from US chemical, biological weapons programme, reports AFP.

The government of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol says 300 people died in a Russian airstrike on March 16 on a theatre being used as a bomb shelter, reported AFP.

Russian strikes killed four civilians and wounded several others while targeting a medical facility in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv on Friday, reported AFP.

Ukrainian officials in the strategic port city of Mariupol said Friday some 300 people could have died in last week's Russian strike on a theatre where hundreds were sheltering, reported AFP.