TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine ordered its remaining troops holed up in Mariupol's besieged Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms after nearly three months of desperate resistance.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said the number of cyberattacks on Russia by foreign "state structures" had increased and that Moscow would need to bolster its cyber defenses by cutting the risk of using foreign software and hardware.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was talking to Western leaders about Turkey's objections to NATO membership for Sweden and Finland, whom he accuses of sheltering Kurdish militants.

• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Moscow would create new military bases in western Russia in response to the expansion of NATO. "By the end of the year, 12 military units and divisions will be established in the Western Military District," Shoigu said at a meeting according to reports by Russian news agencies.

• The renewed Russian offensive in Donbas has turned the eastern Ukrainian region into "hell", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says. "In Donbas, the occupiers are trying to increase pressure," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. "There's hell, and that's not an exaggeration."

• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow was nearing full control of the separatist region of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. "The liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic is nearing completion," Shoigu said. 

• Russian supply of natural gas to Finland will be cut on Saturday morning, Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum said, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in rubles.

• G7 industrialized nations have pledged $19.8 billion to shore up Ukraine's public finances as Kyiv battles Russia's invasion, said the closing statement of the group's finance ministers on Friday. 

• Germany's finance minister is ruling out any joint EU borrowing to help cover the massive cost of rebuilding Ukraine, after the idea was floated by top European officials.

• The lawyer for the first Russian soldier on trial in Kyiv asked for his acquittal, saying in closing arguments that his client was "not guilty" of premeditated murder and war crimes, even though he has admitted to killing a civilian.

IN DETAIL

Soldiers 'families' willing to do everything possible and impossible'

Ukraine ordered its remaining troops holed up in Mariupol's besieged Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms after nearly three months of desperate resistance.

Families of these fighters, who were in Turkey to ask for help from Turkish authorities, said they were worried about the fate of their family members.

At a news conference in Istanbul, the wife of an Azovstal fighter, Natalia Zarytska said she had not heard anything from her husband for the past two days, following a ten-minute message exchange via the Telegram application.

Zarytska, whose husband had surrendered to Russian forces, said she still believed her husband would come back home one day.

Asking for help from the international community, Zarytska said the family members of the Azovstal fighters were planning to come together to establish an international organization to protect their loved ones in captivity.

Sandra Krotevych's brother was in the steelworks but she does not know his whereabouts or if he is among those who have surrendered to Russian forces.

"Of course, I'm afraid. I don't trust Russia," she said, adding that relatives were willing to do "everything possible and impossible" to save their loved ones.

Nineteen year-old Mariia Zimareva knows where her husband is. He was on a list of soldiers who had left the steelworks and had been taken to the Russian-controlled town of Olenivka near Donetsk.

She said she worries about the conditions her husband and others will be kept in, but is hopeful that he will be able to come home soon.

'Supporting the pursuit of justice by Ukraine'

The justice chiefs of the members of the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance gave strong support on Thursday to Ukraine's efforts to prosecute war crimes arising from Russia's offensive.

The attorneys general of the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand said they fully backed Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova in ensuring accountability for war crimes committed since the conflict began on February 24.

Ukrainian authorities say they have opened thousands of cases into alleged crimes committed by Moscow's forces.

"We support the pursuit of justice by Ukraine and through other international investigations, including at the International Criminal Court and other bodies," they said in a statement. "We join in condemning the Russian government for its actions, and call upon it to cease all violations of international law, to halt its illegal invasion and to cooperate in efforts to achieve accountability."

The statement came out one day after a Russian soldier admitted killing an unarmed 62-year-old man four days into the conflict, in Ukraine's first prosecution arising from the war.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, asked for forgiveness in a hearing Thursday as prosecutors sought a life sentence. His lawyer has asked for his acquittal, saying in closing arguments that Shishimarin was "not guilty" of premeditated murder and war crimes.

"I know that you will not be able to forgive me, but nevertheless I ask you for forgiveness," Shishimarin said, addressing the court and the wife of the man he killed. 

"By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility," prosecutor-general Venediktova said.

Trials began Thursday in Ukraine for two other Russian soldiers.