TOP HEADLINES

• Russia shelled a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing nine people, authorities said, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble but died on his way to hospital. READ MORE BELOW

• Russia said it was pushing to take the western districts of the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut, as sources told AFP Ukraine was still sending in fresh troops. The Russian defense ministry said mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary outfit were advancing further into the city, supported by Moscow's air force.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill to create a digital draft system, greatly facilitating mobilizing Russians into the army. The law creates a digital conscription notice system that could bar men from leaving the country and make dodging the draft nearly impossible. 

• Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the U.S. should stop "encouraging war" in Ukraine, as he wrapped up a state visit to China in which he has strengthened economic ties with his country's main trading partner.

• Eight Leopard 2 tanks that Canada promised to Ukraine to help the war-torn country fight Russian troops have arrived in neighboring Poland, Defense Minister Anita Anand said.

• Finland's border guard unveiled the first section of a 200-kilometer border fence with Russia. Finland joined NATO just a week ago and its 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border has also doubled the frontier between the U.S.-led military alliance and Russia. Three meters (10 feet) tall and topped with barbed wire, it will cost around €380 million ($417 million) and is due to be completed by 2026.

• Ukraine has been promised $5 billion in additional funding to support its ongoing fight against Russia amid "fruitful meetings'' in Washington this week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told reporters. Shmyhal met with representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank as well as top U.S. officials, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

IN DETAIL

Russian shelling of block of flats kills nine

Russia shelled a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing nine people, authorities said, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble but died on his way to hospital. Sloviansk lies in a part of the Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control. 

According to Kyiv, it was struck by seven missiles which hit five buildings, five homes, a school and an administrative building.

Vadim Lyakh, the head of Sloviansk's military administration, said that nine people died - including a woman whose body was recovered from the rubble overnight - and 21 were wounded. Five people were still under the rubble and their identities were established, he said.

Rescue workers were seen digging for survivors on the top floor of the typical Soviet-era housing block, and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.

"A child died in an ambulance after being pulled out from the rubble," Ukrainian police said on Twitter.

Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska sent her condolences to the child's family during this "indescribable grief." President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier denounced Russia for "brutally shelling" residential buildings and "killing people in broad daylight."