Alex Thomson , Chief Correspondent

Mass graves, civilians tortured and shot, an entire town virtually obliterated as residents took whatever shelter they could.

Ukraine’s defence ministry has warned that Russia is preparing to launch a new assault in the east to try and take the city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv came under shell attack again today, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others.

Our Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson is in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, which is partially surrounded and under attack by Russian forces.

The Ukrainian government says it has retaken over 30 towns and villages near the capital Kyiv from Russian forces, who have left behind scenes of death and destruction. 

Ukrainian troops have been reclaiming a swathe of territory from Russian control, especially around the capital Kyiv

There’s been more heavy shelling around the capital, Kyiv today despite Moscow’s claim to be “de-escalating” operations around the city with fighting in some of the suburbs which Ukrainian troops have seized back from Russian control.

A gesture of trust or a chance for Russia to regroup in Ukraine? Vladimir Putin’s military have signalled that they will “fundamentally” scale back operations around two of Ukraine’s key battlegrounds.

The Ukrainians are attempting a number of counter offensives, liberating people who’ve been under Russian occupation as they move forward.

Russia has been pushing hard to capture the southern city of Mykolaiv but they have been met with fierce resistance, with Ukrainian forces launching a counter offensive around Kherson, 50 miles to the southeast. 

In the south, there are reports the Ukrainian military is fighting Russian forces on the edge of the region of Kherson. The city of Kherson was the first big urban center taken by the Russians at the very beginning of the war. Both Kherson and Mykolaiv are strategic towns on the Black Sea linking the…

In the south, Ukraine’s military says it has been making gains against the Russians.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, streets are lined with sandbags and barbed wire, buildings are emblazoned with the Ukrainian flag, and citizens are training to fight.

In the south of Ukraine, the outskirts of Odesa were hit by shelling for the first time this week – and the historic port city is now bracing itself for battle.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spent her first day as a free woman after her six-year detention in Iran.