Ukraine war day 51 LIVE: After Russia's 'consequences' warning, Finland 'highly likely' to apply to join NATO

Kyiv is bracing for retaliation after it claimed to have destroyed the Moskva, flagship vessel of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and residents were warned not to rush back. Moscow hasn’t acknowledged a Ukrainian strike on the vessel. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked 50 days of Ukrainian resistance in his nightly video address.

Russian strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed seven people and left another 34 injured, the region's governor said Friday, as Moscow's forces stepped up attacks.

Finland’s Minister for European Affairs said Friday Finland is “highly likely” to join NATO, news agency AFP reported.

Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, India has received the simulators and other equipment from Moscow for the training squadron of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile system.

Russian strikes pounded a military factory near Kyiv that makes the missiles Ukraine claims it used to sink the Moskva naval flagship, with Moscow on Friday vowing further such attacks.

Ukraine said Friday that seven people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a Russian attack on buses ferrying civilians from the war-torn east of the country.

Russia's communications watchdog has blocked access to the website of The Moscow Times, an English language newspaper that has covered Russia for three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Unbroken by a Russian blockade and relentless bombardment, the key port of Mariupol is still holding out, a symbol of staunch Ukrainian resistance that has thwarted the Kremlin's invasion plans.

Ukraine said Friday it swapped several captured soldiers with Russia in the south of the war-scarred country. 

Russia says it has hit a military plant outside Kyiv and will intensify attacks on Kyiv as Ukraine strikes Russia. 

Russia claims killing up to 30 'Polish mercenaries' in Ukraine, reports AFP. 

Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Friday to evacuate civilians.

Russia may be in default after it tried to service its dollar bonds in roubles due to Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, said Moody's Investors Service, reporter Reuters. 

The governor of Kharkiv region said four civilians had been killed and 10 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv city, reported Reuters.

France is relocating diplomatic staff to its embassy in Kyiv after personnel were evacuated to Lviv in early March.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in a late night address told the people of the war-torn country that they should be proud of having survived 50 days under Russian attack when the Russians “gave us a maximum of five.”

A Russian ally has warned, as per multiple reports, the NATO that if Sweden and Finland joined the U.S.-led military alliance then Russia would deploy nuclear weapons. 

The head of the UN World Food Program said people are being “starved to death” in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. 

Canada is sending soldiers to Poland to help with the care, co-ordination and resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv early on Friday, and air raid sirens blared across Ukraine as residents braced for new Russian attacks after Russian flagship sinks, reported Reuters.

Russia's Black Sea flagship sank Thursday after an explosion and fire that Ukraine claimed was a successful missile strike.