Thread by @fulelo

Ukraine news 🧵 on @bbcworldservice at 2030 GMT on 18.03 - listen live: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/li…

At least 45 people have reportedly been killed in a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian army barracks in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv. Western reporters in the area

say the Ukrainians are continuing to defend the city, with Russian forces grouped outside, to the northeast. Mykolaiv, which is crucial to Russia's plans to take Ukraine's third city, Odessa, has been holding back a Russian offensive along the Black Sea coast. The port city

has experienced weeks of intense bombardments, after Russian troops were pushed back. They then tried to bypass Mykolaiv but were again thwarted by the Ukrainians. Friday saw continued shelling of major cities, incl Kyiv, Kharkiv and the airport just outside Lviv.

Western security officials have told the BBC that the seeming stalemate of the past two weeks is a result of ferocious fighting in contested areas of Ukraine. They say Russian forces have had to reorganise and regroup because apart from in the South, their progress has remained

slow. Personnel losses are so high that the Russians are reported to be looking to places like the Pacific Fleet, Armenia and private security companies for reinforcements. The officials also warn that because they have a finite supply of smart weapons, Russians forces will

increasingly resort to artillery -- leading to even higher civilian casualties. They also say that President Putin has tightened the inner circle around him. These people - say the Western officials - are united, not necessarily because they are satisfied with what's happening,

but because they know they're chained together as a group.

The White House says President Biden has warned China of the consequences if it gives support to Russia in its war against Ukraine. Mr Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, discussed the war in a conversation

lasting almost two hours - their first since the Russian invasion began. Washington has previously expressed fears that China was considering supplying weapons to Russia. Beijing said that during the call Mr Xi criticised the economic measures that the US and its allies

have imposed on Russia since the invasion - saying sanctions only hurt ordinary people. The Chinese leader said nobody wanted this crisis, but didn’t blame Russia for the conflict.

The United States says it has identified 100 aeroplanes that have recently flown to Russia in an apparent violation of export controls. It has warned that any refuelling, repairs or services of the aircraft anywhere in the world will invite strict action -including fines,

imprisonment or loss of export privileges. The planes include Boeings operated by Russia's passenger and cargo carriers and a Gulfstream used by the oligarch Roman Abramovich. Most of Russia's international flights have been cancelled since the invasion of Ukraine

after the US, Canada and much of Europe closed their airspace for them. Boeing has also suspended the sale of parts, service and maintenance of its planes for Russia.

President Putin has told a packed stadium in Moscow that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are fighting heroically, shoulder-to-shoulder. He repeated the unfounded claim that they were saving Russian-speaking people from genocide. The BBC Moscow correspondent says the event -

to mark eight years since Russia's annexation of Crimea - was meant to show that the public was fully behind the president and his offensive. The raucous crowd waved flags, chanted nationalist slogans and sang along with a pop group belting out patriotic pop songs.

But many told the BBC they'd been either pressured by their employers or colleges, or promised a day off if they came.

President Zelensky says hundreds of people remain trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre in the southern port city of Mariupol. He said a 130 survivors had so far been recovered. More than a thousand people - mostly women and children - were using the basement as shelter.

Mr Zelensky said Russian shelling had made humanitarian corridors to the besieged city unworkable. The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, has confirmed to the BBC that fighting has now reached the city centre.