LATEST HEADLINES

• President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would counter "failed" Western attempts to impose an economic "blitzkrieg" against Russia and Belarus, using his first public comments on the Ukraine crisis in a week to defend the conflict as a "noble" mission that would achieve its goals. 

• Speaking after a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, the Russian leader added that peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end – a strong indicator the conflict could continue for a long time – claiming that Kyiv had derailed negotiations by fake claims of Russian war crimes and demands for unacceptable security guarantees.

• Putin went on to stress that images and footage of dead bodies strewn across Bucha were fake, just hours after the town's mayor reported the discovery of 403 bodies of people believed to have been killed by Russian forces there. Putin compared the allegations that his troops carried out the extrajudicial killings to what he said was the West's staging of a chemical weapons attack in Syria aimed at incriminating Bashar al-Assad. "It's the same kind of fake in Bucha," he said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed concern that Russian forces could use chemical weapons in Ukraine after officials claimed its troops dropped a toxic substance from a drone on the besieged city of Mariupol. However, some observers have expressed skepticism over the claims.

• Ivanna Klympush, a Ukrainian MP and chair of the parliamentary committee on integration of Ukraine to the EU, said the unknown substance was "most likely" chemical weapons. However, an aide to Mariupol's mayor said the attack had not been confirmed.

• UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said work was under way to verify details of the alleged attack, adding: "Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account." Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said he could not confirm the reports.

• "Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against Ukraine and our defenders," Zelenskyy said during his Monday night address. "One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible."

• He was referring to comments made on Monday by separatist official Eduard Basurin, who said on Russian TV that pro-Moscow forces should seize a Mariupol metals plant by blocking the exits, "and then we'll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there."

• Ukrainian forces are "surrounded and blocked" in Mariupol as Russia pushes to capture the city, according to the president's office. While the Ukrainian army continues to fight back, the city's mayor said the latest estimate was that about 21,000 civilians had been killed there.

• Russian forces are regrouping around the Donbas region, notably near the town of Izyum, but have not yet launched a full offensive, Pentagon officials say. However, Ukraine's defense ministry says that preparations are almost over and a major assault will likely happen soon. 

• Donetsk's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Tuesday that Russia was shelling the eastern region round the clock, adding that Moscow was now in the final stages of regrouping its forces in the area. 

• Asked about Putin's pessimism over the peace talks, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said negotiations were very hard but were continuing.

• The World Bank is preparing a $1.5 billion support package for Ukraine and plans to aid developing countries struggling to keep up with surging food and energy prices.

• Russia's economy is on track to contract by more than 10 percent this year, the biggest fall in GDP since the years following the fall of the Soviet Union, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin has said. Germany's leading economic institutes are also slashing their 2022 growth forecast for from 4.8 to 2.7 percent due to the impact of the Ukraine conflict. 

• Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he was "rather pessimistic" about the chances of diplomacy ending the Ukraine conflict after he met with the Russian leader. He described Putin as having "massively entered into a logic of war."

• Officials at a UN Security Council meeting called for an investigation into reports of rape and sexual violence against women during the conflict. "These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability," said Sima Bahous, director of the UN women's agency.

• The task of exhuming the bodies of victims from mass graves in Bucha got underway on Monday. French police and forensic doctors arrived in the city to help the investigation into the score of bodies found in civilian clothing found after Russia's withdrawal from the region. Ukraine says it has discovered 1,222 bodies in Bucha and other towns. 

• Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed for Tuesday to evacuate civilians, including from Mariupol by private cars.

• NATO would not rule out any possible new members but it is up to countries such as Sweden and Finland to decide if they wanted to join, according to the head of the alliance's military committee. Both non-aligned countries are considering accession.

• EU foreign ministers have started talks on a sixth round of sanctions, but have failed to reach an agreement on oil and gas, Josep Borrell, the bloc's top diplomat, said.

• U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a "candid exchange of views" on the conflict, according to Washington, but there was no sign of real progress toward a unified position.

• The World Trade Organization has said the conflict could almost halve world trade growth this year and drag down global GDP growth.

• Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said he is still open to talks with Moscow if it meant "prevent[ing] at least one massacre like in Bucha."

• France will expel six Russia's diplomats accused of working as spies in Paris, after the French intelligence services said it had uncovered a clandestine operation.

• Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children have fled their homes since the start of Russia's military operation, with the UN refugee agency saying that more than 4.5 million refugees had now left the country. 

IN DETAIL

Chemical weapons claims

Ukraine is checking unverified information that Russia forces may have used chemical weapons while besieging Mariupol, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Tuesday.

"There is a theory that these could be phosphorous munitions," Malyar said in televised comments, adding: "Official information will come later."

Although condemned by human rights groups, white phosphorous is not banned under international law. 

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Russia-backed separatist forces involved in the siege denied the accusations.

Mariupol's city council wrote on the Telegram messaging service that because of enemy fire, it was not yet possible to examine the area where the toxic substance had allegedly been used. It said civilians had minimal contact with the substance, but Ukrainian soldiers were now being observed for possible reactions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Monday that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine, but did not say outright that such weapons had been used. Britain said it was working with partners to verify the alleged attacks.

Russia has previously accused Ukraine of preparing to use chemical weapons, without providing evidence, last month saying that U.S. talk of Russia using such weapons was a tactic to divert attention away from awkward questions for Washington.

The battle for Mariupol

The battle for the strategic city of Mariupol has reached a decisive phase as Moscow readies its troops for a renewed assault in Ukraine's east. At the same time, Kyiv said it was checking reports that Russian forces had used chemical weapons in the besieged port city.

Despite the Ukrainian army insisting that "the defense of Mariupol continues," pro-Kyiv forces were reportedly surrounded by Russian forces, according to Myhaylo Podolyak, an official from the president's office.

Ukrainian marines are holed up in the Azovstal industrial district. Should the Russians seize the area, they would be in full control of the city. 

Capturing Ukraine's main eastern port would allow Moscow to link troops advancing from the east with those from Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and shift their focus to a new attempt to encircle the main Ukrainian force in the east.

READ MORE

Smart facemask technology

The landfill waste coming back to haunt us

Michael Wood: telling China's story

The city has already been laid waste by weeks of Russian bombardments, which local officials say have killed possibly thousands of civilians.

However, the number of people leaving has fallen because Russian forces slowed pre-departure checks, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of the city. Around 10,000 people were awaiting screening by Russian forces, he said. 

Russia does not allow military personnel to leave with civilian evacuees and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not pause the fighting for any new round of peace talks.

The potential fall of Mariupol would coincide with Moscow's decision to regroup its troops in the country's east, where it hopes to solidify military gains after a sluggish start to Russia's military campaign.

The Ukrainian army said in its morning briefing that aside from trying to take control of Mariupol, Russian forces were also going after Popasna, a town about two hours' drive west of Luhansk, and were about to launch a new assault in the direction of Kurakhove, in the Donetsk region. 

It added that several attacks in both Luhansk and Donetsk had been repelled, but the former's governor Serhiy Gaidai still urged residents to evacuate using the five humanitarian corridors agreed for the east. 

"It's far more scary to remain and burn in your sleep from a Russian shell," he wrote on social media. "Evacuate, with every day the situation is getting worse. Take your essential items and head to the pickup point."

Russian forces are yet to launch a full offensive, Pentagon officials said, but Ukraine's defense ministry expects a major assault soon. The UK's defense ministry said fighting in eastern Ukraine will likely intensify over the next two to three weeks.

Zelenskyy overnight called on the West to supply more weapons to help it end the siege of Mariupol and fight back the expected Russian offensive. "Unfortunately we are not getting as much as we need to end this war faster... in particular, to lift the blockade of Mariupol," he said.