Ukraine's military said its air defenses thwarted an attempted Russian missile attack on critical infrastructure in the main Black Sea port of Odessa.
Governor Maxim Marchenko said earlier that three missiles hit a residential area, adding that there were casualties.
"The enemy in an insidious way tried to hit critical infrastructure facilities, the destruction of which could be dangerous for the civilian population," according to a post on Facebook from the Southern Ukrainian military command.
"Thanks to the timely and effective response of the air defense forces, the rockets did not hit the enemy's targets," the statement said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the Ukrainian statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the military to strengthen the country's western borders "so that no one would think of launching an attack."
Peskov told Belarus' main TV network that unnamed nations were building up their military capabilities near Russia's western borders.
Peskov, Reuters reports, said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was working on the security plan.
"Of course, it will be done in a way that makes us safe and ensures that we reach the necessary level of parity so that no one would think... to attack us," said Peskov.
Putin sent troops on February 24 for what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine. Western countries call it unprovoked aggression.
The Bulgarian authorities announced that they are expelling the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Sofia, who is suspected of being involved in a spy affair, and this decision comes two weeks after the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats.
The diplomat, whose name has not been released, has 72 hours to leave Bulgaria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
The Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation against him for "unsolved intelligence activities, probably in favor of Russia", the statement added.
On March 18, Bulgaria expelled ten Russian diplomats.
Many countries have expelled Russian diplomats since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Among these countries are the USA, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, the Baltic and Eastern European countries.
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union and NATO, has traditionally maintained close relations with Russia, especially in the fields of culture and energy. However, bilateral relations have become strained since October 2019 due to a series of espionage scandals.
Ukraine has regained more territory around Kiev from Russian soldiers who left shattered villages and abandoned tanks on their retreat, reports Reuters.
In the hamlet of Dmitrivka west of Kiev, smoke could still be seen from the wreckage of tanks and the bodies of at least eight Russian soldiers lay in the streets, Reuters correspondents saw.
"On the one hand, we heard tanks shooting at us, and there was massive mortar shelling from the Buce area," said local resident Leonid Vereshchagin.
Three rockets hit a residential area in the Odesa region of southwestern Ukraine today, causing casualties, Governor Maksim Marchenko said, without specifying how many. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Marchenko said the missiles were fired from the Iskander missile system in Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukrainian authorities said they exchanged 86 of their soldiers for Russians, without specifying the number of Russians.
"An exchange has just taken place, 86 Ukrainian soldiers, including 15 women. They are already safe," said the representative of the Ukrainian presidency, Kirill Tymoshenko, on Telegram.
The Russian side has not yet announced this exchange.
Today, a total of 6.266 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors, a senior Ukrainian official said, as reported by Reuters.
Kirill Tymoshenko, the president's deputy chief of staff, said 3.071 people had left the besieged city of Marijupol.
A Red Cross convoy en route to the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to evacuate civilians had to turn back, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
The statement stated that it is currently impossible to continue the evacuation of citizens.
"The team of the International Committee of the Red Cross that was on its way to Mariupol on Friday to enable the safe passage of civilians had to return to Zaporozhye after the arrangements and conditions made it impossible to continue," the statement said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross announced earlier today that their teams are on their way to Mariupol, and the spokesman then said that they hope that the evacuation of thousands of civilians could begin today.
Ukraine's top security official rejected Russian accusations that Ukraine was behind the attack on an oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod.
Speaking on national television, Secretary of the Security Council Aleksij Danilov said:
"For some reason they say that we did it, but according to our information it does not correspond to reality".
The Russian Defense Ministry said two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters were responsible for the attack on a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, but added that the facility did not supply fuel to the military.
The ministry stated in its statement that two helicopters attacked the warehouse after crossing the border at an extremely low altitude.
Ukrainian forces have liberated the town of Bucha, near the capital Kyiv, its mayor said.
"March 31st will go down in the history of our city... as the day of its liberation from Russian (forces)," said Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk in a video that, according to Reuters, was allegedly recorded in front of the municipal building in Buca.
UNESCO announced that 53 historical and religious sites in Ukraine were damaged during the Russian invasion, France Press reports.
According to a preliminary estimate by local authorities, the Russian bombing of Mariupol caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure damage.
"Every crime, every murder and act of destruction committed by the aggressor must be recorded and forwarded to the International Court of Justice," Mayor Vadim Boychenko said, as quoted by the city council.
It said that a special committee of councilors will be responsible for recording such acts.
Ukraine's GDP will shrink by 20% in 2022 but could grow by 23% in 2023 if a ceasefire is reached quickly, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in a forecast published today, Reuters reports.
The EBRD said that if a ceasefire is signed "within months" and quickly followed by a major reconstruction program in Ukraine, it will "bring GDP back to close to, but still below, pre-war levels by the end of 2023." "
The EBRD also said sanctions on Russia are expected to remain in place "for the foreseeable future" and predicts that the Russian economy will stagnate in 2023 after a sharp decline in 2022.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that he will later tell his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must take a step to resolve the issues surrounding the Ukrainian region of Donbass and Crimea, reports Reuters.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said he would hold a phone conversation with Putin today and renew an offer to host the Russian and Ukrainian leaders for peace talks, which he said Zelenskiy had been cordial to after their talk on Thursday.
Ukrainian forces are pushing Russian troops north-east and north-west of the capital city of Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser said today, Reuters reports.
Political adviser Alexey Arestovich said the besieged port city of Mariupol was still holding after weeks of bombardment, but Russian forces were now trying to encircle the northern city of Chernihiv.
The German Ministry of Defense has approved the delivery to Ukraine of several dozen infantry fighting vehicles (IBMs) that originally belonged to the former communist East Germany, according to media reports, Reuters reports.
58 vehicles of the PbV-501 type are armed with cannons and machine guns, the Welt am Sontag newspaper reported today.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said today that he could not confirm or deny Ukraine's alleged involvement in the attack on a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod because he was not familiar with all the military information, reports Reuters.
Asked about the attack at a briefing in Poland, Kuleba said: "I can neither confirm nor deny the claim that Ukraine is involved in this only because I don't have all the military information."
A new explosion was heard today in the Russian city of Belgorod, where a local official said Ukrainian forces had hit a fuel depot earlier in the day, a witness told Reuters.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two Ukrainian military helicopters struck the depot early today, marking the first accusation of a Ukrainian airstrike on Russian soil since Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February.
Ukraine and Russia continued peace talks in an online format today, the Ukrainian president's office announced, referring to Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podoljak, but without providing further details, Reuters reports.
The delegations of the two countries talked on Tuesday in Turkey, after which Podoljak said he felt "positive".
Twenty-eight people have been confirmed dead in Tuesday's rocket attack on the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaly Kim said in an online announcement today.
Rescue workers had to pull victims from the rubble after the attack tore a hole in the side of a building in downtown Mykolaiv, Reuters reports.
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