Russia claims to have taken Azovstal steelworks and full control of Mariupol
ITV News Presenter Rageh Omaar and ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger discuss the latest from Kyiv.
Russia is claiming its forces have taken full control of the steel plant in Mariupol that was the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the city.
The claim has not immediately been confirmed by Ukraine and ITV News has not verified Russia's claim.
If true, it would mark the end of a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of Mariupol to ruins and left more 20,000 people feared dead.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol has been “completely liberated” from Ukrainian fighters.
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Elsewhere, a Ukrainian official claimed Russian troops had killed three adults after firing at a school hiding more than 200 people.
Serhiy Haidai, head of the regional state administration, said police in the city of Severodonetsk are trying to move those who survived the attack to another location.
Earlier in the day, Mr Haidai said 12 people were killed and more than 60 houses destroyed when Russian forces shelled Severodonetsk and neighbouring city Lysychansk.
It is unclear whether the death toll of 12 includes those Mr Haidai said were killed while sheltering at the school.
Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are both located in Donbas, an eastern area where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for the past eight years.
President Putin's forces launched an all-out offensive there last month after failing to overrun Kyiv.
Speaking of Donbas, President Zelenskyy said: “It is hell there and that’s not an exaggeration.”
He added that Severodonetsk's bombardment was “brutal and completely senseless".
ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers reports on the new frontlines in Ukraine as Russians are pushed out of Kharkiv
In order to bolster their offensive in Donbas, Russian commanders will come under increasing pressure to reallocate troops from the southern city of Mariupol, Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
Russian forces there have been engaged in a nearly three-month siege, with the Azovstal steel plant remaining a key focus.
An unknown number of defenders remain in the sprawling complex, which is the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the city.
In Ukraine's northeastern Chernihiv region, strikes include that on the village of Desna, President Zelenskyy said. He added that many were killed and rescuers were still going through the rubble. “The bombing and shelling of our other cities, the air and missile strikes by the Russian army, are not simply military operations in a time of war... It is a conscious and criminal attempt to kill as many Ukrainians as possible,” Zelenskyy said.
He then accused Russian troops of genocide, an accusation he's levelled at Moscow throughout the war.