Russia-Ukraine war live updates: US rushing $200 million in weapons for Ukraine's defence

US President Joe Biden is set to authorise the State Department to provide additional aid to Ukraine of up to $200 million.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to act as an intermediary: The Kyiv Independent

Ukraine President Zelenskyy proposes meeting Russian President Putin in Jerusalem.

Rosatom's statement said an external power supply was being restored to the defunct Chernobyl plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, with the help of Russian specialists.

The Ukrainian nuclear power plants at Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia, both now under the control of Russian forces, are being run and managed by their Ukrainian staff, Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom said on Saturday, according to the RIA news agency.

The eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha has been completely destroyed following the Russian invasion but fighting continues for territory there to prevent a Russian encirclement, Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Saturday. (Reuters)

The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since the Russian invasion two weeks ago is now nearly 2.6 million, the UN said on Saturday

Eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha destroyed after Russia invasion, local governor says

The Ukrainian chief prosecutor’s office said at least 79 children have been killed and nearly 100 have been wounded since the start of the Russian invasion.

Russian forces stepped up the pressure on Kyiv on Saturday and pummelled civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities, including hospitals in Mykolaiv and a mosque in Mariupol, the port city already devastated by two weeks of siege.

Youths who returned from Ukraine are saying that now they understand clout of rising India: PM Modi

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday slammed what he said was the "flagrant violation" of international humanitarian law by Ukraine's forces as he held phone talks with the leaders of France and Germany, the Kremlin said. (AFP)

Ukraine's Zelenskyy says around 1,300 Ukrainian troops have died so far

"During the night and today we are talking to our partners about the situation with our mayor. Our demand is clear: he must be released immediately... I have already phoned (German) Chancellor Olaf Scholz. I have spoken to (French) President Emmanuel Macron... I will speak to all the necessary people to get our people released," Zelensky said in a video released by the Ukrainian presidency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Saturday on the leaders of France and Germany to help secure the release of the mayor of Melitopol who Kyiv says was abducted by invading Russian forces.

"We will try to get people out every day, as long as it's possible to observe a ceasefire," he said.

Evacuations of civilians from frontline towns in Ukraine's Kyiv region were proceeding on Saturday and are planned to continue on Sunday, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba told local media.

"The conversation is part of ongoing international efforts to end the war in Ukraine," the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the participants agreed to say nothing further about the substance of the phone call.

German Chancellor Scholz, France's Macron called for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during phonecall with Putin: German govt spokesperson

Russia can only take Kyiv if it razes the city to the ground, says Ukrainian President Zelenskyy