Russia is redeploying some forces from Georgia, UK MoD says

Russia is redeploying elements of its forces from Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Thursday.

Between 1,200 and 2,000 of these Russian troops are being reorganised into 3x Battalion Tactical Groups, Britains ministry of defence said.

It is highly unlikely that Russia planned to generate reinforcements in this manner and it is indicative of the unexpected losses it has sustained during the invasion.

Updated at 23.33EDT

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An oil depot is reportedly on fire in the Russian city of Belgorod as the regional governor blames Ukrainian military helicopters for the attack.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel on Friday morning that the fire was caused by air strikes from two Ukrainian helicopters.

Belgorod sits just north of the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any of the blasts.

Heres the latest:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier his forces are preparing for fresh Russian attacks on the Donbas region in the southeast after they repelled Russias assault on the capital Kyiv.

Zelenskiy said Russian troops continue to leave the countrys north but described the move as a tactical withdrawal.

Watch his video address from the streets of Kyiv below.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australia will send armoured Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy specifically asked for them during a video appeal to Australian lawmakers.

Zelenskiy addressed the Australian Parliament on Thursday and asked for the Australian-made, four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Morrison told reporters the vehicles will be flown over on Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport planes. He didnt specify how many would be sent or when.

Were not just sending our prayers, we are sending our guns, were sending our munitions, were sending our humanitarian aid, were sending all of this, our body armor, all of these things and were going to be sending our armoured vehicles, our Bushmasters, as well, Morrison said.

Zelenskiy specifically asked for Bushmaster vehicles during his address to Australian Parliament.

You have very good armed personnel vehicles, Bushmasters, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment, Zelenskiy said.

Updated at 22.47EDT

Russian troops have reportedly taken an unspecified number of captive Ukrainian servicemen hostage after leaving Ukraines Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to officials.

State nuclear agency Energoatom released a statement on Telegram, citing plant workers:

As they ran away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Russian occupiers took members of the National Guard, whom they had held hostage since Feb 24, with them.

The Guardian is unable to verify these claims and it remains unclear how many, if any, Ukrainian servicemen were taken away.

The Biden administration has approved the drawdown and sale of petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) citing a severe energy supply interruption.

In a recently published memorandum, Biden said Russias invasion on Ukraine has had a profound impact on global oil markets prompting the International Energy Agency Governing Board to agree to a collective release of petroleum reserves.

He said the United States committed to a drawdown and sale of 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Secretary is authorised and directed to draw down and sell petroleum from the SPR at public sale to the highest qualified bidder at a rate the Secretary may determine, in accordance with section 161 of EPCA and the SPR competitive sales procedures in 10 CFR Part 625, the statement read.

Russia will respond to European Union sanctions and says the 27-nation bloc might realise that a confrontation with Moscow is not in its interests, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti cited a senior foreign ministry official as saying on Friday.

Nikolai Kobrinets said in an interview with the news agency:

The actions of the EU will not remain unanswered ... the irresponsible sanctions by Brussels are already negatively affecting the daily lives of ordinary Europeans.

Are they ready from their own pocket to pay for further killings of civilians in Ukraine, the transformation of Europe from a region of cooperation and stability into a zone of conflict? I dont think so.

Updated at 21.51EDT

Earlier, we heard remarks from US president Joe Biden who suggested Putin appears to be self isolated with indications that he has either fired some of his advisers or put them under house arrest.

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has seemingly concurred with this assessment, saying Putin is not the force he used to be as he becomes increasingly more isolated.

Speaking with Sky News, Wallace said:

President Putin is not the force he used to be. He is now a man in a cage he built himself. Hes isolated.

His army is exhausted, he has suffered significant losses. The reputation of this great army of Russia has been trashed.

He has not only got to live with the consequences of what he is doing to Ukraine, but he has also got to live with the consequences of what he has done to his own army.

Wallace added that he believed Russian forces appear to be regrouping and shifting their focus towards the south and east of Ukraine.

We have seen it before. It always gets worse. It goes for more civilian attacks, more civilian areas.

Russian troops began leaving the Chernobyl nuclear plant after soldiers contracted significant doses of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site, Ukraines state power company has alleged.

Ukraines state agency in charge of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Energoatom, published an update late on Thursday confirming Russian troops had left the site.

According to the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there are currently no outsiders at the NPP site.

It will be recalled that today the Russian occupation forces left the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the satellite city of Slavutych.

Energoatom said Russian troops had dug in the forest inside the exclusion zone around the now-closed plant.

It should be noted that the information about fortifications and trenches that the [Russians] built right in the Red Forest, the most polluted in the entire Exclusion Zone, was also confirmed, Energoatom said in a Telegram post.

So it is not surprising that the occupiers received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it manifested itself very quickly.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had not been able to confirm reports of Russian troops receiving high doses and was seeking more information in a statement on Thursday.

The IAEA has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.

Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Associated Press it seems unlikely a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.

He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a hot spot of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.

Russian troops on Tuesday left Ukraines Chernobyl nuclear power plant after weeks of occupation, officials said on Thursday.

Energoatom said Russian troops began leaving the station and other exclusion zones, which they had occupied since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February.

The IAEA also released a statement, saying: Ukraine informed IAEA today that Russian forces that had been in control of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant since 24 February have, in writing, transferred control of the nuclear power plant to Ukrainian personnel and moved convoys of troops.

Updated at 21.20EDT

Hello and thank you for joining us.

Here is a quick re-cap of where thing stand:

Updated at 20.34EDT

Russia is redeploying elements of its forces from Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Thursday.

Between 1,200 and 2,000 of these Russian troops are being reorganised into 3x Battalion Tactical Groups, Britains ministry of defence said.

It is highly unlikely that Russia planned to generate reinforcements in this manner and it is indicative of the unexpected losses it has sustained during the invasion.

Updated at 23.33EDT

EU and Chinese leaders will meet for a first summit in two years on Friday with Brussels keen for assurances from Beijing that it will neither supply Russia with arms nor help Moscow circumvent western sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

EU officials close to the preparations of the summit said any help given to Russia would damage Chinas international reputation and jeopardise relations with its biggest trade partners - Europe and the United States.

The presidents of the European Commission and European Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, will hold virtual talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and later President Xi Jinping.

An EU official said Chinas stance towards Russia would be the million-dollar question on Friday, as reported by Reuters.

Another pointed out that over a quarter of Chinas global trade was with the bloc and the United States last year, against just 2.4% with Russia.

Do we prolong this war or do we work together to end this war? That is the essential question for the summit, the official said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated Chinas call for peace talks this week, adding the legitimate concerns of all sides should be accommodated.

Here is a handful of some of the latest images to come from Ukraine today.

In another busy day of diplomacy Zelenskiy confirmed he addressed the parliaments of Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium.

I felt total support. I am waiting for concrete steps. I called for tougher sanctions against Russia. We have to put pressure on the aggressor until the aggression is over, he said.

In a discussion with President of the European Council, Charles Michel, Zelenskiy said the pair discussed additional sanctions on Russia, economic support for Ukraine and financing of priority projects.

The dynamics of our movement towards full membership in the EU, he added.

Zelenskiy said he was grateful for the new package of sanctions against Russia imposed by the United States.

We are grateful. It will not allow the current sanctions to be circumvented - we have already noticed such attempts. It will also limit the work of sensitive sectors of the Russian economy - its defence sector.

Finally, Zelenskiy said he also held talks with President of Turkey Erdoan.

We spoke very specifically. In particular, about the prospects of negotiations in Turkey with the Russian Federation. And also about the creation of an effective system of guarantees for our state. About the security we have always needed and to the real provision of which we have come closer.

I am grateful for Turkeys readiness to become a guarantor of security for Ukraine.

Zelenskiy also provided an update on Ukraines military defence, confirming Russian troops continue to leave the countrys north but describing the move as a tactical withdrawal.

To the north of Kyiv, in the Chernihiv direction, in the Sumy region, the expulsion of the occupiers continues. They themselves are aware that they can no longer withstand the intensity of hostilities they could have maintained in the first half of March ...

But we must also realise that for the Russian military, this is part of their tactics. All this is not occasional. We know their plans. We know what they are planning and what they are doing.

We know that they are moving away from the areas where we are beating them to focus on others that are very important. On those where it can be difficult for us.

Describing the extremely difficult situation in Ukraines south and in Donbas, Zelenskiy claimed Russian forces are accumulating in the temporarily occupied areas of region of Kherson.

They are trying to organise some of their incomprehensible structures there, they are trying to figure out how to consolidate their presence there, he said.

Also in Donbas, in Mariupol, in the Kharkiv direction, Russian troops are accumulating the potential for strikes. Powerful strikes.

Hello its Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we continue to deliver all the latest from Ukraine.

As expected, Zelenskiy has delivered another late-night address.

They [Russia] said - three or five days. They thought that this would be enough for them to seize our entire state. And its already 36. And we are standing. And we will continue to fight. Until the end.

Kari Paul here, signing off for the evening. Below are some of the top stories of the moment.

Read more:

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