Delegates from both sides of peace talks have sounded positive, ahead of more negotiations in the next few days.

Ukrainian negotiator and presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said talks had become more constructive.

“We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively. I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days,” he said in a video posted online.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian delegate said there had been significant progress and they hoped to soon arrive at a “joint position”, Reuters reports.

The state-owned RIA news agency said he was comparing the state of talks now with those when they first started, saying there had been “substantial progress”.

This comes a day after the French and German presidents, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz said Vladimir Putin did not show a willingness to end the war during a call on Saturday.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman has claimed Russia used banned phosphorus munitions in an attack overnight in Popasna in eastern Ukraine.

Luidmila Denisova shared a photograph purporting to the alleged attack, Reuters reports, but did not say if Ukraine had any concrete evidence.

“The bombing of a civilian city by the Russian attackers with these weapons is a war crime and a crime against humanity according to the Rome convention,” she said in an online statement

A New York Times journalist has been killed near Kyiv, the region’s head of police has confirmed.

Two journalists were attacked near Irpin when Russian forces opened fire.

One has been killed, with the injured journalist he was travelling with taken to hospital for treatment.

A steady hand was needed in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, earlier on Sunday as an unexploded bomb was removed from the window of a house.

The Orthodox world’s spiritual leader Barthomew I has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine while praising the nation’s “powerful resistance” against invading Russian forces.

Making a rare political intervention during a mass attended by the visiting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the ecumenical patriarch appealed for the violence and bloodshed to end.

Orthodox Christianity is the main religion in Ukraine, split between various strands.

“We are watching the drama of the Ukrainian people and admire its powerful resistance against the invader,” Bartholomew said in unscripted comments from the pulpit. “We appeal for an immediate ceasefire … the war has to end. The United Nations charter explicitly forbids the use of violence in international relations and binds all the organisation’s members to resolve their differences with peaceful means … an unjust war is happening in the heart of Europe, human blood is being shed, children and women are being killed and towns and villages destroyed. Our thoughts are with our brothers.”

He then thanked Mitsotakis for the assistance Athens has sent to Ukraine which incudes shipments of Kalashnikov rifles and other weapons.

This is not the first time that Bartholomew has sided with Ukraine.

As head of eastern Orthodox Christians, the spiritual leader took the unprecedented step in early 2019 of officially recognising the Orthodox church of Ukraine, granting it the status of autocephaly or self-governorship within the communion of Orthodox churches.

The move, which rendered it independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, caused uproar in Moscow, which subsequently broke ties with the ecumenical patriarchate.

More than 14,000 people in 112 cities have been arrested in Russia for anti-war protests since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent human rights body in the country.

OVD-Info, a monitoring site, said that at least 359 people in 28 cities have been detained since 24 February – but says the real figure could be higher.

Another $31.5m (£24.16m) of military aid will be sent from the Czech Republic to Ukraine, the Czech defence minister said on Sunday.

Jana Černochová told TV that more aid would be provided, but did not give any further details citing security concerns.

It comes as Russia has been left feeling the impact of sanctions. The country’s finance minister Anton Siluanov said it had taken $300bn (£230bn) out of its gold and forex reserves that total $640bn, according to Reuters.

Siluanov told Russian state TV that pressure was being put on China to limit its trade with Russia, and in turn affect the reserves Russia holds in Chinese yuan.

A bus carrying dozens of Ukrainians has overturned in Italy, killing one woman.

About 50 people were on board, with one woman killed and several left injured according to fire fighters and police.

Reuters reports that the bus left the road between Cesena and Rimini on the north east coast of Italy. It was heading to the coastal city of Pescara, Reuters reports.

Western intelligence believes that Vladimir Putin’s personality has changed dramatically over the past five years, with the 69-year-old Russian leader displaying increasing and obvious paranoia about his health.

But while the shift in character is marked, intelligence sources say, there is an underlying mystery about what could be the cause – with possible explanations ranging from cancer, Parkinson’s disease, the onset of dementia or the use of steroids for treatment of another condition.

“The big tell that Putin is concerned about his health is that he is so obviously worried about coronavirus,” an intelligence source said, citing his insistence on sitting at a distance from foreign leaders such as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, or some of his own key figures, such as defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

He only met China’s president, Xi Jinping, last month after elaborate coronavirus precautions were taken on both sides.

“Coverage of Russia is pretty good from both a human and signals intelligence perspective,” a western source added. “But there is a grey spot when it comes to Putin’s personal health. What we know is that there has been an identifiable change in his decision making in the past five years.”

Speculation about Putin’s long-term health is widespread amongst Russia experts in the West’s intelligence agencies.

Similar claims were reported in the Mail on Sunday over the weekend, but ultimately there is no firm evidence to back up any of the theories circulating. Putin is believed to have had three Covid vaccine treatments. One western source said he had taken the Pfizer vaccine, although the president himself said in June last year that he had received Russian Sputnik jabs.

India is temporarily relocating its embassy in Ukraine to Poland, its government confirmed on Sunday.

Its ministry for external affairs said it was in light of recent attacks in the western part of the country and a deteriorating security situation.

“The situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments,” it added.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s government said it had helped evacuate about 20,000 Indian students from areas of the country under attack – but some were still stuck.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to hold direct talks with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy according to an Indian government source speaking to Reuters.

About 1 million people are without gas and heating in Ukraine amid the ongoing invasion, according to the country’s gas transmission system provider.

GTSOU said its workers were out trying to fix damage caused by shelling and get supplies back up and running.

Shelling has damaged infrastructure in Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv. Engineers were stopped from getting to a gas distribution centre in Bashtanka because of ongoing fighting. One centre in Prybuzke was shut down because of damage to equipment.

Ukraine is working with Israel and Turkey as potential mediators in peace talks.

A location and a framework for discussions is being finalised for negotiations with Russia, said Ukrainian presidential advisor and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak.

“When it is worked out, there will be a meeting. I think it won’t take long for us to get there,” he told national television according to Reuters.

Turkey’s foreign minister said he hoped progress could be made on evacuating Turks stuck in a mosque in Mariupol.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the mosque had been shelled where more than 80 adults and children have taken refuge.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said there had not been any damage, and that buses were waiting to evacuate them. He added that he had sought help from his Russian counterpart.

Nine people were killed in airstrikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Sunday.

Reuters reports that regional governor Vitaliy Kim gave the death toll in an online statement.

The city is seen as key in any future assault on the port of Odesa, further down the Black Sea coast.

The UK’s Minstry of Defence said on Sunday that Russian forces advancing from Crimea were looking to circumvent Mykolayiv as they move towards Odesa.

The mayor of a city in southern Ukraine is the latest to have been kidnapped by Russian forces, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister.

Dymtro Kuleba said that Yevhen Matveyev has been “abducted” by Russian forces.

This comes after the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fyodorov was arrested by Russian forces on Friday, with the city seeing intense fighting in recent days.

Gove adds that he wants to look at using the homes and properties of individuals who are under sanctions for humanitarian and other purposes.

“We are saying you are sanctioned, you are supporting Putin, you have no right to use your home or profit from it, while you are not using or profiting from it, if we can use it to help others, let’s do that.”

Gove says they’re not talking about permanent measures. Raworth points out that people can still live in their home if they are under sanctions, they just can’t sell it.

He responds: “We want to make sure we can go further. In my view, it is the case that if your wealth and your influence is being deployed to support or provide comfort to Putin given what he’s doing, you have to bear the consequences.

“We’ve moved as rapidly as we possibly can. If we can use those assets for as long as someone is sanctioned, then we should.”

Kyiv has a two-week supply of food in case of a blockade, its local authority has reported.

“The city has prepared for possible actions in the event of a blockade. The 2 million Kyiv residents who have not left their homes will not be without support if the situation worsens,” it said in an online statement, according to Reuters.

Reports of the death toll in the airstrike attack on a Ukrainian air base in near Lviv appear to conflict. Some sources on the ground in Yavoriv said it could be as high as 20.

However, the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy says nine have been killed with 57 injured. We have updated our blog entry at 8.19 and blog headline to reflect this.

A rocket attack on a Ukrainian military base is a “significant escalation”, according to a UK government minister.

Michael Gove, who appeared on Sky News earlier on and is now speaking to BBC One’s Sophie Raworth said: “We know that Vladimir Putin has no moral limits when it comes to the actions he’s willing to take and he’s pushing the boundaries in military terms.

“We’ve already seen the abuse of humanitarian corridors. The Russians say on the one hand they are allowed to leave but when they seek to leave they are then killed and bombed.”

A Ukrainian MP has said countries such as France and Germany have not gone far enough with sanctions against Russia.

Lesia Vasylenko told Sky News: “They are not doing nearly as much as they could be doing.

“The same goes for the purchase of Russian oil and gas – Germany made the decision yesterday to stop with the purchases of oil and coal, but gas still remains a big one.

“Every penny that goes into the Russian economy goes to finance the Russian army, which essentially is committing genocide of the Ukrainian people by massacring civilians every single day.”

Duda says that transferring MiG-29 jets to Ukraine is not possible, and thinks that having a no-fly zone could be the start of world war three.

He tells BBC’s Sophie Raworth: “Due to allied responsibility, because of that we can’t transfer [the planes], because we believe our allies could make a grudge against us and it could place Nato in a difficult situation.

“Transferring planes, or trying to defend the skies over the Ukraine against Russian combat aircraft, well this is a decision which is a strictly military one and a serious one, because it means that Nato jets will have to be sent into Ukrainian airspace and there would be a confrontation between NATO aircraft and Russian aircraft, and it means the opening of a third world war.

Duda said he does fear Russia turning its attentions to a potential invasion of Poland, if it succeeds in Ukraine. He said he believed that Nato allies would defend them if it happened. He quotes Poland’s former president, Lech Kaczyński, who said “Today is Georgia, tomorrow it might be Ukraine, then the Baltic states an after that a time may come for Poland” after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008.

“We do not want to be in the Russian sphere of influence, we dragged ourselves out of it, and we don’t want to go back there.

“I was born in a state not fully sovereign, or free. When someone talks about Russian socialism or communism, a shiver goes down my spine. Never again do we want to have Soviet soldiers here, do we want a Russian sphere of influence here. It would be contrary to our laws and this is destroying us as a nation. This is a destruction of our traditions.”

Starmer says that the government should go “further and faster” with sanctions against people connected to the Putin regime, and should offer more humanitarian aid.

He told Sky News: “They should have been in place before this invasion started. The Russia Report two years ago set out these problems, the economic crime bill was talked about a year ago and is only now coming on to the statute book.

“On humanitarian aid, on refugees, I think the Home Office has got it completely wrong. Everybody knows they’ve got it completely wrong, and we need to see change.”

Opposition leader Keir Starmer says the current scheme for accepting refugees into the UK is “too slow, too narrow and too mean” and the government should learn from the refugee crisis in Afghanistan last year.

“What would comfort me more is to hear from Michael Gove that there’s plans for support that’s needed on arrivals,” he told Sophy Ridge on Sky News.

Starmer said there should be no cap on the number of Ukrainian refugees able to come to the UK.

He added: “What I saw in the summer was you need language experts, experts with traumatised family, experts to help them contact their family back in the country, help sorting out schooling quickly, and housing providers. That was all done in the summer. I’d like the reassurance knowing that was in place.”

Starmer calls for emergency protection visas, that can be dealt with on route as they travel to the UK. “The likelihood of an invasion of the Ukraine was known weeks ago, the Home Office have been too slow, far too mean in relation to this. Frankly, the last few weeks have been an embarrassment for the United Kingdom in terms of how it has dealt with refugees.”

Ukraine’s minister of defence, Oleksii Reznikov, has called Russia’s missile strikes on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security a “terrorist attack”.

Reznikov added that “foreign instructors” work at the military base.

“This is new terrorist attack on peace and security near the EU-NATO border. Action must be taken to stop this. Close the sky!” he said.

The cyber hacking group Anonymous has published a message specifically designed to reach Russian citizens, allegedly urging Russians to rise up against Putin and remove him from power.

According to a translation offered by various commentators over Twitter, the clip in part reportedly says:

You are being trapped behind an iron curtain of propaganda, with your government attempting to keep you from being a part of the international conversation, out of fear for what you might find out.

The regime of Vladimir Putin has been carrying out war crimes with his recent invasion of Ukraine, which has caused a massive refugee crisis and countless deaths.

It is a terrible situation that you have been put in, but your only option to prevent the impending economic collapse and potential world war is to take actions to resist the war and the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Putin has put the Russian population up as a sacrifice. At this point, the most peaceful way that this conflict could end would be for the people of Russia to rise up against Putin and remove him from power.”

The Ukrainian military has just released its daily operational report this morning, claiming Russian forces are continuing to use civilian infrastructure for military needs, placing units and equipment at high-risk objects and carrying out shelling on civilians in violation of international humanitarian law.

“The moral and psychological condition of enemy troops that participated in battles with the armed forces of Ukraine continues to deteriorate, desertion and refusal to comply with orders are increasing,” the report reads.

The military also claims a large number of wounded are undergoing treatment but a shortage of blood supplies is hindering surgical operations.

“The reserves accumulated for the citizens of the Republic of Belarus are being taken – about 2/3 of the reserve has been redirected to the needs of Russian soldiers,” the report adds.

The Ukrainian military says its forces have claimed more than 12,000 Russian personnel as well as 374 tanks, 1,226 armoured combat machines and 140 artillery systems.

The losses are reported to be from 24 February to 13 March, according to an update published by the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces just after 9am local time.

Echoing Zelenskiy’s earlier fears that Russia is trying to create new “pseudo-republics” in Ukraine to brea