WATCH: Tatyana Bushlanova ignores loud nearby shellfire while telling her story of life in the ruins of Mariupol.

TOP HEADLINES

• At least 10 people were killed and 15 wounded by Russian shelling of a coking plant in the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

• The UN and Red Cross said 101 civilians were evacuated from the tunnels of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, but warned that others remain trapped.

• The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russian forces had launched an offensive on the besieged Azovstal steel plant where Kyiv's forces are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol. The Russian defense ministry accused members of the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian troops of using a pause in fighting to once again take up their combat positions at the plant.

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced another $376 million in UK military aid for Ukraine, as he hailed resistance to Russia as its "finest hour" in a video address to the parliament in Kyiv.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin could be set to formally declare war on Ukraine within days, moving from his term "special military operation" in an effort to mobilize more troops and equipment, some UK and U.S. sources say. British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said he believes Putin, unable to claim victory on the day that marks the Nazi surrender to the Russians in 1945, could well formally declare war instead on May 9.

• French President Emmanuel Macron told Putin in a phone call on Tuesday that he is willing to work with international organizations to help lift the Russian embargo on Ukrainian food exports via the Black Sea, Macron's office said.

• Putin told Macron the West must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and accused Kyiv of not taking talks to end the conflict seriously, the Kremlin said. 

• Finnish state-owned utility Fortum said it would take a $2.2 billion hit due to "geopolitical tensions and uncertainties" related to its Russian operations.

• Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned of the "very big" risk of cyberattacks targeting the financial sector, a threat it said had become "more likely" since Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

• Russian high-precision missiles have hit a logistics center located at a military airfield near Ukraine's Odesa which was used to deliver weaponry given to Kyiv by the West, the Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday.

• Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine, focused on the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, killed at least three civilians in the city of Vuhledar, the Ukrainian president's office said. Ukraine's military said Russian forces were trying to take the frontline town of Rubizhne.

• Russia is planning imminently to "annex" the two eastern regions of Ukraine battered by its military campaign after failing to overthrow the government in Kyiv, a senior US official says. Their plan is to annex the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Lugansk People's Republic" to Russia using referenda on the question, says Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the OSCE. 

• In Brussels, the European Commission is expected to finalize a sixth package of European Union sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil. In a major shift, Germany said it was prepared to back an immediate EU embargo on Russian oil. The European Commission may spare Hungary and Slovakia from the embargo because of the two countries' dependence on Russian crude, two EU officials said.

• The EU warns member states to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, insisting it will not give in to Moscow's demand that imports be paid for in rubles.

• A fresh European Union sanctions package is set to include "more Russian banks" being pushed out of the global SWIFT network, the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday.

• Russia's foreign ministry accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, further escalating a row which began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins.

• A World Health Organization spokesperson confirmed that its European region would hold a special meeting next week on the impact of Russia's offensive in Ukraine on health and healthcare.

IN DETAIL

Mariupol: 'We will do everything we can to repel this assault'

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russian forces had launched an offensive on the besieged Azovstal steel plant where Kyiv's forces are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol.

"A powerful assault on the territory of the Azovstal plant is underway with support from armored vehicles and tanks," Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov military unit said in a statement on social media.

Russian forces are also attempting "to land a large number of infantry by boat," he said. 

"We will do everything we can to repel this assault, but we call for immediate measures to evacuate civilians who are on the territory of the plant," he said.

The Russian army said earlier that its forces and pro-Moscow separatists were using artillery and planes to target Azovstal where Ukrainian fighters are making their last stand.

The Russian defense ministry accused members of the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian troops of using a pause in fighting to once again take up their combat positions at the plant.

"Using artillery and aircraft, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People's Republic are beginning to destroy" the "firing positions" of the Ukrainian troops, the defense ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Europe prepares for possible breakdown in gas supplies

The EU warned member states to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, insisting it would not give in to Moscow's demand that imports be paid for in rubles.

The European Commission will on Tuesday propose to member states a new package of sanctions to punish President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin for its offensive in Ukraine, including an embargo on Russian oil, officials said.

Energy and environment ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday addressed the larger and potentially more complicated issue of Russia's natural gas, upon which several countries - including EU's top economy Germany - depend for much of their power generation.

Moscow has demanded clients from "unfriendly countries" - including EU member states - pay for gas in rubles, a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against its central bank. It has cut off Bulgaria and Poland after their firms refused to comply.

After the talks the French chair of the meeting, ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili, and the European commissioner for energy, Kadri Simson, said the 27 member states were united with Poland and Bulgaria and would stockpile gas to be prepare for a breakdown.

Simson said that "following the full procedure as set out by Russia constitutes a breach of sanctions" imposed by the EU.

She said that, to her knowledge, no European company was preparing to follow Putin's decree and change its payment methods.