[World] Ukraine round-up: Beauty blogger row and UK sweets to refugees
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Image source, ReutersImage caption, More Ukrainian soldiers arrived from Mariupol on buses to areas controlled by Russian-backed rebels, Reuters reported
Russia has all but gained control of Mariupol as hundreds of Ukrainian fighters holed up at the city's steelworks plant for more than two months have now been evacuated.
More than 260 fighters were on Monday taken to hospitals held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine - but a number of soldiers, the city's last defenders, are still trapped in underground bunkers.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv was doing "everything possible and impossible" to save the remaining fighters with the hope of exchanging them for captured Russian soldiers.
However, Russian lawmakers already plan to declare some of the evacuated fighters "Nazi criminals" who must not be part of any prisoner swap with Ukraine.
On the battlefield, Russian troops continued their offensive in the eastern Donbas region - but Ukraine said Moscow had no success.
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View video in browser: Media caption, Watch: Fighters evacuated from Mariupol arrive in Russian-held town
Read more about the evacuations here.
Away from Mariupol, both Ukraine and Russia admitted that peace talks aimed at ending the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on 24 February were currently on hold, blaming each other for this impasse.
Mariupol: Key siege moments
Image source, ReutersImage caption, Destruction of hospital in Mariupol, 9 March 2022
After more than 80 days of fierce fighting, the strategic port is almost entirely in Russian hands - with only the Azovstal industrial complex still under Ukrainian control.
Capturing Mariupol would give Russia a strategic advantage: a land bridge to Crimea and full control of the Sea of Azov, cutting off Ukraine's maritime trade. It would also deliver a propaganda coup for President Putin.
But this has come at an enormous cost to the city. From the start of Russia's invasion, Mariupol has been shelled relentlessly, leaving the city almost totally levelled, despite fierce resistance.
We've divided it down move-by-move to see how Russian forces secured victory in a military campaign that shocked the world.
Read our full piece with photos and maps here
How many Ukrainians have fled their homes?
Image source, Reuters
Almost 13 million people are believed to have fled their homes in Ukraine since the conflict began, according to the UN.
More than six million have left for neighbouring countries and at least another 6.5 million people are thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.
So, where are Ukraine's refugees going and what help are they getting abroad?
Ukrainian beauty blogger used in Russian propaganda
Image source, APImage caption, The beauty influencer was accused of being an actor after this photo was published
A photo of a heavily pregnant woman fleeing a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol has become one of the most iconic images of the war.
But after surviving the attack, Marianna Vyshemirsky, 29, was then targeted by a Russian disinformation campaign, receiving hate from both sides.
A beauty blogger before the war, Ms Vyshemirsky was falsely accused of "acting" and using make-up to fake the blood on her face - falsehoods which were repeated and amplified by senior Russian officials and state media.
She told the BBC's specialist disinformation reporter, Marianna Spring, what happened next.
'My picture was used to spread lies about the war'
Retired colonel speaks out on Russian TV
Image caption, Mikhail Khodarenok said Russia was in total political isolation
Russia's mainstream media outlets offer a view of the Ukraine war that is unlike anything seen from outside of the country. For a start, they don't even call it a war.
But on Monday night, viewers witnessed an extraordinary piece of television.
The programme was 60 Minutes, the flagship twice-daily talk show on Russian state TV: studio discussion that promotes the Kremlin line on absolutely everything, including on President Putin's so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine.
The Kremlin still maintains that the Russian offensive is going according to plan. But studio guest Mikhail Khodarenok, a military analyst and retired colonel, painted a very different picture.
He warned that "the situation [for Russia] will clearly get worse" as Ukraine receives additional military assistance from the West and that "the Ukrainian army can arm a million people".
Read the full story here, as told by our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.
Sweet packets driven from Somerset to Ukrainian refugees
Image caption, The sweets have been put into 1,000 packets with hand-written messages
Hundreds of packets of sweets are to be driven from Somerset, south-west England, to the Ukrainian border, and given to refugees who have fled the war.
Paul and Dawn Cotterell, from Wembdon near Bridgwater, said they want to put a smile back on children's faces.
The couple, who own a confectionary business, will take a car-load of sweets to the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Each package has a handwritten "With Love" label, and the name of the person who donated it.
"We decided we wanted to do our little bit." said Mr Cotterell.
War in Ukraine: More coverage
- BUCHA: The children's camp that became an execution ground
- ANALYSIS: The spy war within the war
- FRONTLINE: Pinned down by Russian fire in key village
- READ MORE: Full coverage of the crisis
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