Live blog: Russia aims to capture Chasiv Yar by May 9 — Ukraine

1752 GMT — Ukraine's top commander has said Russian forces aimed to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, setting the stage for an important battle for control of high ground in the east where Russia is focusing its assaults.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, who warned this weekend that the situation in the east had deteriorated, said Russia was focusing its efforts west of Bakhmut to try to capture Chasiv Yar before moving towards the city of Kramatorsk.

Kiev's brigades were holding back the assaults in the Donetsk region for now and had been reinforced with ammunition, drones and electronic warfare devices, he said in a statement on the Telegram messenger.

"The threat remains relevant, taking into account the fact that the higher Russian military leadership has set its troops the task of capturing Chasiv Yar by May 9," he said, without elaborating.

1917 GMT — Ukraine says situation 'tense' on eastern front

Ukraine has said the situation was "tense" on its eastern front, where the Russian army is doubling down on efforts to seize the strategic town of Chasiv Yar.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said he had visited troops on the frontier, where Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and running low on ammunition.

He said "the situation is tense", a day after Kiev warned that the situation on its eastern front was significantly worsening.

1813 GMT — Ukraine's Zelenskyy: We need help from our allies with air defence, like Israel

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine needed help from its allies to fend off air attacks, just as Israel had relied on its allies to destroy enemy threats.

"The whole world saw that Israel was not alone in its defence — the threats in the sky were also destroyed by its allies," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

"And when Ukraine says allies cannot turn a blind eye to Russian missiles and drones, it means that it is necessary to act, and act strongly."

1707 GMT — Reports of more civilian deaths in Ukraine

More civilians have died across Ukraine as analysts warned that delays in US military assistance would see Kiev struggle to fight off Russian offensives.

One man was killed after a Russian drone hit the truck he was driving in the Sumy region, the local prosecutor’s office said.

Elsewhere, a 67-year-old woman was killed after shelling hit an apartment block in the Donetsk region said Gov. Vadym Filashkin.

The news came as the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, warned that delays in Western military assistance would increasingly hamper Ukraine’s ability to push back Russian advances.

1009 GMT — Ukraine says strengthening defences in battered frontline town

Ukrainian troops defending the frontline town of Chasiv Yar under relentless Russian attack have received additional drones and weaponry, the commander-in-chief of Kiev's armed forces, Oleksandr Syrsky said.

Syrsky wrote on Facebook after visiting troops defending the battered town that "measures were taken to significantly strengthen the brigades with ammunition, drones, and electronic warfare equipment".

Russia is "concentrating its efforts to break through our defences west of Bakhmut," Syrsky said, referring to the destroyed town in the Donetsk region captured by Russia last May.

0525 GMT — Ukraine attack on Russia-controlled town kills 16: official

A Russia-installed official in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region said that the death toll from shelling by Ukraine's military on the town of Tokmak had risen to 16 people.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the region, said on the Telegram messaging app that 20 people had been wounded in the shelling on Friday night, with 12 in serious condition.

Reuters news agency could not independently verify the account of events. There has been no comment from Ukraine on the alleged attacks.

0505 GMT — Russia says it destroys 15 Ukraine-launched drones over Krasnodar, Black Sea

Russia's defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed 10 Ukraine-launched drones over the Krasnodar region in southern Russia and five drones over the Black Sea.

The ministry, in its statement on the Telegram messaging app, did not say whether there was any damage as a result of the attacks.

0412 GMT — Ukraine says it downs all 10 Russia-launched drones

Ukraine's air force said its air defence systems destroyed all 10 attack drones that Russia launched at Ukraine.

The air force said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia also attacked Ukraine with four missiles sent from anti-aircraft systems. The air force did not say what happened to the missiles.

2027 GMT — IAEA chief welcomes cold shutdown of all Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reactor units

Safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains precarious but the shift to a cold shutdown of all six reactor units, completed on Saturday, is positive, the UN nuclear watchdog chief said in a statement.

Drones attacked Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting a reactor building in the worst such incident since November 2022, though nuclear safety was not compromised, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that with the end of the winter heating season in nearby Enerhodar, where most plant staff live, unit 4 had been moved from the hot shutdown on Saturday, bringing "all six reactor units" to cold shutdown for the first time since late 2022.

"I welcome this development which has been recommended by the Agency for some time, as it enhances the overall safety of the facility," Grossi's statement said.

For our live updates from Saturday, April 13, click here.