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At least five people were killed and 17 wounded on Friday by a Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, the regional governor said. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that seven more people remained under the rubble after S-300 missiles damaged five apartment buildings and five private buildings, among others. Sloviansk is one of two eastern cities coveted by Russian forces, currently bogged down in nearby Bakhmut, as they push ahead with their invasion of Ukraine.

The UKs Ministry of Defence has claimed in its daily intelligence briefing that Ukrainian troops have been forced to make orderly withdrawals from positions they previously held in the highly contested town of Bakhmut, and that the last two days have seen an intense artillery bombardment from Russian forces.

A Russian Su-35 aircraft carried out airstrikes on the settlement of Orihiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, the head of the Ukrainian presidents office said on Friday. In a post on Telegram, Andriy Yermak said private houses and the building of the DYSSH were damaged.

Ukraine will test and use any non-banned weapons to liberate its territory, including Russian-occupied Crimea, the secretary of Ukraines national security and defence council has said.

Rishi Sunak denounced a video purporting to show the beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner of war and said those responsible should be brought to book. Downing Street said the UK prime minister told Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a call on Friday that the footage was abhorrent. Sunak also discussed efforts to accelerate military support to Ukraine.

Ukraines security service has issued a warning to the millions of people in the country celebrating Orthodox Easter this weekend, Sky News reported. Ukrainians are asked to limit the attendance of mass events and avoid lingering unnecessarily in temples during the traditional blessing of the Easter basket.

Ukraine retrieved the bodies of 82 of its soldiers from Russian-controlled territory on Friday, a government ministry said. The ministry of reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories gave no details about how it retrieved the bodies, Reuters reports, but said it was carried out in accordance with the norms of the Geneva convention.

Jack Teixeira has been detained pending a detention hearing that is set for Wednesday 19 April. The member of the US air force national guard has been charged with the unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents and materials. The 21-year-old made his first appearance in a Boston federal court today after the FBI arrested him in Massachusetts on Thursday.

China approved the provision of lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine but wanted any shipments to remain a secret, according to leaked US government documents. A top-secret intelligence summary dated 23 February states that Beijing had approved the incremental provision of weapons to Moscow, which it would disguise as civilian items, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Chinas foreign minister on Friday said the country would not sell weapons to parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine and would regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use. Qin Gang was speaking at a news conference with his visiting German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock. He reiterated Chinas willingness to help facilitate negotiations to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict and said all parties should remain objective and calm. Baerbock urged China to step up to exert its influence on Russia over Ukraine. She said Germany wanted China to influence Russia to stop its aggression.

Ukrainian forces are finding a growing number of components from China in Russian weapons used in Ukraine, a senior adviser in Zelenskiys office told Reuters on Friday.

The UN secretary general, Antnio Guterres, has written to Russia, Ukraine and Turkey raising concerns about recent impediments to the Black Sea grain export deal. The move comes after the UN said no ships were inspected on Tuesday under the deal as the parties needed more time to reach an agreement on operational priorities.

The US secretary of defence will meet with his counterparts in Sweden and Germany next week, including hosting a Ukraine-related defence meeting with top officials from almost 50 countries, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday.

Alexei Navalny, Russias most prominent opposition politician, has been grappling with severe stomach pain in jail that could be the result of slow-acting poison, a close ally said on Friday. His situation is critical. We are all very concerned, Ruslan Shaveddinov said in a phone interview.

Russia has put its Pacific naval fleet on high alert as part of a surprise inspection aimed at building its defensive capabilities. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said: The main objective of this inspection is to increase the ability of the armed forces to repel the aggression of a probable enemy from the direction of ocean and sea.

Finlands embassy in Moscow has contacted the Russian foreign ministry after it received a letter containing powder.

The 15 Russian diplomats expelled by Norway this week had sought to recruit sources, conduct so-called signal intelligence and buy advanced technology, the Norwegian security police said on Friday.

Ukraine has barred its national sports teams from competing in Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic events that include competitors from Russia and Belarus, the sports ministry said. The decision published in a decree on Friday, criticised by some Ukrainian athletes, comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) angered Kyiv by paving the way for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals despite Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Chinas defence minister, Li Shangfu, will visit Russia from 16 to 19 April, and meet Russian military officials.

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