What you need to know:
- Ukraine said it wants to discuss a ceasefire, immediate withdrawal of troops and security guarantees with Russia on Monday after both sides reported rare progress at the weekend, even as fierce Russian bombardments continued.
- A weekend Russian strike at an army base in western Ukraine brought the fighting close to its border with Nato member Poland. A British minister said it was "very unlikely" Russian missiles would land on Nato territory.
- Ukraine reported more air strikes on an airport in the west, heavy shelling on Chernihiv northeast of Kyiv and attacks on the southern town of Mykolayiv, where officials said nine people were killed. Ukraine's forces counter-attacked in Mykolayiv and the eastern Kharkiv region, an Interior Ministry official said.
- Speaking ahead of a new round of talks, Russian and Ukrainian officials suggested there could be positive results within days.
- Top diplomats from the United States and Ukraine said they agreed more action was needed to stop Russian aggression.
- More than 2,500 residents of the besieged port of Mariupol have been killed since the start of the invasion, according to Ukrainian presidential adviser.
- Ten evacuation "corridors" have been agreed on Monday, but aid again failed to reach Mariupol because of Russian shelling, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said.
- Nearly 2.7 million people have fled Ukraine, almost 1.7 million of them to Poland, according to the latest tally from the UN refugee agency.
- Stock markets firmed and oil prices eased on hopes for progress in Russian-Ukraine peace talks.
- The Kremlin has denied US officials' reports that Russia asked China for military equipment after invading Ukraine. Beijing called the reports "disinformation".
9.37pm: Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy submitted a bill to parliament late on Monday that seeks to extend martial law for another 30 days from March 24th, according to the president's website.
The war in Ukraine began on February 24th when Russian president Vladimir Putin launched what he called a "special military operation," the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.
8.53pm: Ukraine was able to evacuate more than 4,000 people from frontline cities on Monday via seven humanitarian corridors, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video statement.
She said three other humanitarian corridors did not operate successfully and accused Russian forces of firing on civilians who were evacuating in the Kyiv region.
Russia has repeatedly denied firing on civilians.
8.15pm: An anti-war protester interrupted the main news programme on Russia's Channel One with a banner that called on viewers to "not believe the propaganda" and "stop the war" in Ukraine.
The channel, which describes the Russian invasion as a "special operation" to "denazify" Ukraine, said it was undertaking an internal review into the incident, the Tass news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is looking for evidence of good faith talks by Russia but not seeing any evidence thus far, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday.
7.24pm: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said it will rule in the case that Ukraine has brought against Russia on March 16th.
In a hearing which was boycotted by Russia on March 7th, Ukraine asked the court to order Russia to cease military activities because it said the invasion was based on a faulty interpretation of the UN genocide treaty.
6.56pm: Senior Ukrainian presidential official Kyrylo Tymoshenko on Monday accused Russia of blocking a humanitarian aid convoy sent to relieve the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Civilians have been trapped in Mariupol by Russian shelling for more than two weeks and have been without heating, electricity and running water for most of this time, the Ukrainian authorities say.
However, at least 160 cars left the city on Monday in the first successful attempt to evacuate civilians in a humanitarian corridor after over a week of trying.
Around 150,000 people had been evacuated through humanitarian corridors so far, Mr Tymoshenko said.
6.30pm: The Kremlin has not received any requests in the past week from the office of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to arrange a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin, RIA news agency quoted Mr Putin's spokesman as saying on Monday.
The Kremlin has previously said that Mr Putin will not refuse a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss how to end hostilities in Ukraine.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for direct talks between the men, and Mr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukraine's negotiators were trying to secure such a meeting.
Similarily, a Kremlin spokesperson has said no discussions are taking place about the possibility of a meeting between Mr Putin and US president Joe Biden, according to the Tass news agency.
A White House spokesperson said on February 22nd, two days before Russian armed forces entered Ukraine, that a summit was "certainly not in the plans", and that a de-escalation of Russia's conflict with Ukraine would be needed before any such meeting took place.
5.12pm: At least nine people were killed and nine more wounded in an air strike on a television tower in Ukraine's northern Rivne region on Monday, governor Vitaliy Koval said.
"There are still people under the rubble," he said in an online post.
Elsewhere, the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, has said the area has been under constant attack by Russian forces, who had fired at central districts causing an unspecified number of casualties. "They're firing at us constantly," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on national television.
4.46pm: German chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials and other diplomatic activity addressing the war in Ukraine but said the meetings must soon produce results that allow a ceasefire.
"We have to make sure that results are achieved soon that will make a ceasefire possible," Mr Scholz told reporters after meeting Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has urged the Council of Europe, a European body designed to uphold human rights and the rule of law across the continent, to expel Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union, suspended Russia's membership on February 25th and is now debating whether to bar it altogether, which would be a first since the pan-Europe institution was set up after World War Two.
"We demand that a decision is approved to immediately oust Russia from the Council of Europe," Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmygal told Council of Europe lawmakers via videolink.
Russia's foreign ministry last week said Moscow would stop participating in the Council of Europe.
4.15pm: Defence ministers from Nato member states will meet in Brussels on Wednesday for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Turkey's defence ministry said on Monday.
In a statement, it said the Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar would fly to Brussels to take part in the meetings and hold bilateral talks with his counterparts.
3.43pm: Russian gas will continue to flow to Europe through Ukraine as long as the operators of Ukraine’s gas networks are able to function, the head of Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz told Reuters on Monday.
Russia is the European Union's top gas supplier and its invasion of Ukraine has led to concerns over possible disruptions, sending prices to record highs.
Some 41.6 billion cubic metres of Russian gas was transported through Ukraine to Europe in 2021, making it a key supply route.
3.22pm: Russia's defence ministry has said the mass evacuation of people from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol had started, Russian news agencies have reported.
The defence ministry added that out of 10 routes that had been proposed for "humanitarian corridors" for evacuation on Monday, the authorities in Kyiv had agreed to only three, none of which lead to Russia, the agencies reported.
However, Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vershchuk said shelling by Russian forces was still preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Mariupol, adding that a convoy had been trying to reach the city on Monday to deliver aid and help evacuate women and children, but, as with similar attempts over the past week, it had not been able to get through.
Despite this, she confirmed some civilians had managed to leave Mariupol in a convoy of cars on Monday.
2.47pm: One of Russian president Vladimir Putin's closest allies has said Russia's military operation in Ukraine had not all gone as quickly as the Kremlin had wanted, the strongest acknowledgement yet from Moscow that its invasion is not going to plan.
Viktor Zolotov, chief of Russia's national guard and a member of Mr Putin's security council, said progress had been slower than expected, blaming what he called far-right Ukrainian forces hiding behind civilians.
"I would like to say that yes, not everything is going as fast as we would like," Mr Zolotov said in comments posted on the National Guard's website. "But we are going towards our goal step by step and victory will be for us."
1.50pm: The world's top association of ship certifiers has withdrawn membership from the Russia Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) due to the impact of sanctions on Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine, in another blow to the country's vital shipping sector.
Classification societies provide services such as checking that ships are seaworthy, and this certification cover is essential for securing insurance and entry into ports.
1.30pm: The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Monday it had confirmed the deaths of at least 636 civilians in Ukraine through to March 13th, including 46 children.
The actual toll is likely much higher, it said, since there have been delays receiving and corroborating reports from places with intense hostilities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol.
OHCHR has some 50 staff members involved with human rights monitoring in the country.
1.15pm: The city council of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said on Monday that 160 private cars had been able to leave the city, which is encircled by Russian troops, and were en route to the Russian-occupied town of Berdyansk.
"It is known that as of 1300 (11am Irish time) more than 160 private cars managed to leave," it said in an online post. Over the past week, repeated efforts to evacuate civilians trapped in Mariupol - a city of 400,000 in peacetime - have failed.
1pm: Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that at least 20 people had been killed and 28 wounded when what it said was a Ukrainian missile with a cluster charge exploded in the capital of the Donetsk region, without providing evidence.
Pro-Russian separatists who control the region in east Ukraine said earlier a child was among those hit in Monday's strike, accusing Kyiv of committing a war crime.
Ukrainian officials denied the Russian reports. Reuters was unable to independently verify it.
12.45pm: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday he had asked Ukraine's government to ease tax pressure on small and medium-sized businesses because of his country's war with Russia.
"The economic suppression of Ukraine is one of the war's aims," Zelenskiy said in a video address.
He said he had told the government "to relax taxes as much as possible, to remove all difficulties, absolutely everything".
12.30pm: Nearly 250,000 refugees have arrived in Russia from Ukraine, Russian news agencies quoted the acting head of the emergencies ministry on Monday as saying.
12.20pm: Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday sanctions pressure should be increased on Russia and called for a global boycott of international companies that have kept their operations open in Russia.
In a briefing, Kuleba also called for international ports to bar passage to Russian ships and cargo.
12pm: The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia could take full control of major Ukrainian cities and cautioned the West that it had sufficient military clout to fulfil all of its aims in Ukraine without any need for help from China.
"The defence ministry of the Russian Federation, while ensuring the maximum safety of the civilian population, does not exclude the possibility of taking major population centres under full control," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov said that some of Ukraine's major cities were already surrounded by Russian forces.
When asked by Reuters about remarks by US officials who had said that Russia had asked China for military equipment, Peskov said: "No."
"Russia possesses its own independent potential to continue the operation. As we said, it is going according to plan and will be completed on time and in full."
11.45am: At least one person was killed when a Russian shell smashed into an apartment block in Kyiv on Monday and a second person was killed by falling debris after a missile strike on another part of the Ukrainian capital, city authorities said.
Three Russian rockets also hit the Antonov aircraft factory in Kyiv and firefighters "localised" a blaze at the plant, Deputy Mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said. There were no immediate reports of any deaths at the factory.
11.30am: Russia has not asked China for military assistance and has sufficient military clout to fulfil all of its aims in Ukraine in time and in full, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said that Russia had asked China for military equipment.
11.2oam: Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing foreign planes leased by Russian airlines to be registered as the airlines' property, news agency Tass reported on Monday.
Sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine give leasing firms until March 28th to free themselves from deals with Russian airlines.
11am: A high-voltage power line to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant was damaged by Russian forces not long after electricity supplies were restored to the facility, grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement on Monday.
It did not say if all external power supply to the plant had been lost as a result of the damage, but demanded access to the area to carry out repairs.
Ukrenergo did not produce evidence of the damage or the actions of the Russian forces and Reuters was unable to independently verify the extent of the damage or the cause of it.
10.45am: Top European Union diplomats have agreed to add Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich to the EU list of Russian billionaires sanctioned after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, two diplomatic sources said on Monday.
10.30am: Talks between Russia and Ukraine on Monday have started and communication between the two sides is hard but ongoing, Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
Tweeting a photo of the talks, which are being conducted via video conference, Podolyak said: "The parties actively express their specified positions. Communication is being held yet it's hard. The reason for the discord is too different political systems."
The parties actively express their specified positions. Communication is being held yet it’s hard. The reason for the discord is too different political systems. 🇺🇦 is a free dialogue within the society & an obligatory consensus. 🇷🇺 is an ultimatum suppression of its own society pic.twitter.com/O00fnCd1WP
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 14, 2022
10.15am: Russia is gradually resuming wheat exports from its Black Sea ports while navigation in the Azov Sea remains restricted, analysts said on Monday.
10am: Russians rushed to buy electronics and pharmaceuticals and spent more on clothes and food in the first week of March, Promsvyazbank (PSB) said, stockpiling goods as the rouble plunged in value and Western sanctions cut off trade.
Prices for goods have increased across the board since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th, prompting sanctions that have isolated Russia economically and sent the currency to historic lows. Many of the world's top companies have suspended operations in the country, and it is largely excluded from the international financial system.
An ordinary Russian spent 21 per cent more in the first week of March compared to the average for February, driven both by inflation and a rush to stockpile, state bank PSB said in a note after analysing credit and debit card transactions.
9.45am: US national security adviser Jake Sullivan plans to meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday and will stress the economic penalties Beijing will face if it helps Russia in its war in Ukraine, US officials say.
Sullivan will warn of the isolation China could face globally if it continued to support Russia, one US official said, without providing details.
9.30am: Frontline towns near Ukraine's capital city in the Kyiv region are being successfully evacuated for the fifth day in a row, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said in a televised interview on Monday.
"The ceasefire in our region is holding, albeit it is very conditional," said Kuleba, adding that occasional explosions could be heard in the distance from the place he was stationed.
9.15am: Euro zone government bond yields rose on Monday with investors bracing for the outcome of the central banks’ policy meetings due this week, while hopes for progress in peace talks over Ukraine propped up risk appetite.
9am: Ukraine's general prosecutor office has said that 90 children have been killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
8.45am: The fourth round of talks between Ukraine and Russia on Monday will focus on achieving a ceasefire, troop withdrawals and security guarantees for Ukraine, one of the Ukrainian negotiators Mykhailo Podolyak said.
Ukraine's position remained unchanged in insisting on a ceasefire before talks on future relations could happen, he said in a social media post and accompanying video.
"Negotiations. 4th round. On peace, ceasefire, immediate withdrawal of troops & security guarantees. Hard discussion," he wrote, adding that he believed Russia "still has a delusion that 19 days of violence against (Ukrainian) peaceful cities is the right strategy."
Russia denies targeting civilians. The Kremlin describes its actions as a "special operation" to demilitarise and "deNazify" Ukraine.
Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice.
8.30am: Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the West on Monday to supply Ukraine with weapons and apply more sanctions on Russia to help prevent other countries being dragged into a wider conflict.
Ukraine has repeatedly urged its allies to do more to help it resist the Russian invasion that began on February 24th. Some Western governments fear that doing so could pull other countries, including Nato member states, into the war.
"To those abroad scared of being ‘dragged into WWIII’. Ukraine fights back successfully. We need you to help us fight. Provide us with all necessary weapons," Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
"Apply more sanctions on Russia and isolate it fully. Help Ukraine force Putin into failure and you will avert a larger war."
To those abroad scared of being ‘dragged into WWIII’. Ukraine fights back successfully. We need you to help us fight. Provide us with all necessary weapons. Apply more sanctions on Russia and isolate it fully. Help Ukraine force Putin into failure and you will avert a larger war.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 14, 2022
8am: Russian gas flows into Germany via Nord Stream 1 and Poland and into Slovakia via Ukraine were steady early on Monday, pipeline operator data showed on Friday morning.
Russian natural gas company Gazprom said it was continuing gas shipments via Ukraine, with volumes at 109.5 million cubic metres per day, marginally down from 109.6 million a day earlier.
7.45am: A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday assertions from US officials that Russia asked Beijing for military equipment for its campaign in Ukraine were "disinformation" from the United States.
The comments came during a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing in Beijing.
7.30am: Ukraine's deputy prime minister has said that 10 humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Monday.
7.15am: Australia said on Monday it was imposing new sanctions on 33 Russian oligarchs and business people, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich and Gazprom Alexey Miller, over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign minister Marise Payne said Australia supported moves by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and New Zealand to take action against key Russians.
7am: Russia sees no reason for United Nations peacekeepers to be sent to Ukraine, RIA news agency quoted the Russian foreign ministry as saying.
Pyotr Ilyichev, director of the ministry's international organisations department, said there was no need for peacekeepers as Russia was in control, RIA reported.
6.50am: A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russian forces bombed the maternity hospital in Ukraine where she was meant to give birth, medics have revealed.
6.40am: At least one person was killed and three injured when a shell hit a residential building in Kyiv on Monday morning, state Ukrainian TV reported.
According to Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko, two people were killed and three were hospitalised.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine were stepping up on Monday, with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators set to talk again after both sides cited progress, even after Russia attacked a base near the Polish border and fighting raged elsewhere.
A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, a base just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border that has previously hosted Nato military instructors, killing 35 people and wounding 134, a Ukrainian official said on Sunday.
Russia's defence ministry said up to 180 "foreign mercenaries" and a large number of foreign weapons were destroyed. Reuters could not independently verify the casualties reported by either side.
Thousands of people have died since February 24th, when Russian president Vladimir Putin launched what he called a special military operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists and Nazis.
The United States, which had watched Russia's build-up on Ukraine's borders with mounting alarm for weeks, says it was a premeditated, unjustified and unlawful "war of choice".
In a telephone call, US president Joe Biden and France's Emmanuel Macron underscored their commitment to holding Russia accountable for the invasion, the White House said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, also discussed diplomatic efforts to stop Russia's invasion, the State Department said.
Hopes were boosted after Russia and Ukraine gave their most upbeat assessments after weekend negotiations.
"Russia is already beginning to talk constructively," Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video online. "I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days."
A Russian delegate to the talks, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying they had made significant progress, and it was possible the delegations could soon reach draft agreements.
Ukraine said talks via video are due to start at 10.30 am Kyiv time (8.30am GMT). Neither side has said what they would cover. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, had focused mainly on humanitarian issues.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the countries' delegations have been speaking daily by video link and a clear aim of his negotiators was to "do everything" to arrange for him to meet Putin.
"We must hold on. We must fight. And we will win," Zelenskiy said in a late night video speech.
Harsh sanctions
Global financial markets, battered by fears the conflict could spread and drag in Nato, rallied on hopes for progress in peace talks. Stocks rose while oil prices gave up some of their massive recent gains.
Soaring energy costs and disrupted supply chains caused by the fighting and sanctions have added to worldwide inflationary pressures.
Russian coal and fertiliser king Andrei Melnichenko said the war in Ukraine, a top producer of grains, must be stopped or there will be a global food crisis as fertiliser prices are already too high for many farmers.
"The events in Ukraine are truly tragic. We urgently need peace," Melnichenko told Reuters.
The West has sanctioned Russian businessmen, including European Union sanctions on Melnichenko, frozen state assets and cut off much of the Russian corporate sector from the global economy in an attempt to force Putin to change course.
Russia's finance ministry said on Monday it had approved a temporary procedure for repaying foreign currency debt, but warned that payments would be made in roubles if sanctions prevent banks from honouring debts in the currency of issue.
Also, Russia has asked China for military equipment, sparking concern in the White House that Beijing may undermine Western efforts to help Ukrainian forces defend their country, several US officials said.
US national security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is due to meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, warned Beijing it would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sanctions.
Asked about Russia's request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said, "I've never heard of that."
He said China found the current situation in Ukraine "disconcerting" and added, "We support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis."
Still, violence and bloodshed continued.
Air raid sirens sounded before dawn in many cities and regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy.
In the capital, authorities said they were stockpiling two weeks' worth of food for the 2 million people who have not yet fled from Russian forces attempting to encircle the city.
An American journalist was shot and killed by Russian forces in the town of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, and another journalist was wounded, the regional police chief said.
Britain's defence ministry said Russian naval forces had established a distant blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea coast, isolating the country from international maritime trade.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops were trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advance from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north, it added.
Russia's invasion has sent more than 2.5 million people fleeing across Ukraine's borders and trapped hundreds of thousands in besieged cities.
The United Nations says at least 596 civilians have died since the invasion began and the toll is probably considerably higher as it is difficult to confirm deaths in places such as Mariupol.
The city council in Mariupol said 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Reuters was not able to verify that toll.
Moscow denies targeting civilians. It blames Ukraine for failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusation Ukraine and its Western allies strongly reject. - Reuters
