Biden warns U.S. intervention in Ukraine will mean World War3

US President Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden restates that his country will not directly intervene militarily against.

Russia in UkraineHe warns that US forces fighting Russia would mean WW3.

Russia makes claims - without evidence - of US biological weapons activities in Ukraine at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu says the UN is not aware of any biological weapons programme in Ukraine.

Ukraine has suggested Belarus could join Russia's invasion in the coming hours.

Russia has expanded its offensive in Ukraine, attacking the cities of Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipro. - BBC News summery.

Preparing to fight in Odesa

With fierce fighting in cities along Ukraine’s south coast, the key city of Odesa is preparing its defences.

Russian landing craft have been seen off the coast, and several aircraft have been reportedly shot down.

Odesa is seen as an important target, both strategic and symbolic.

The BBC has obtained footage of the volunteers preparing to defend the city, just 50km (30 miles) from the border with Moldova.

Ukraine repairing power lines to Chernobyl - IAEA

Ukraine has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that technicians have begun efforts to restore the external power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said the site currently occupied by Russian troops was taken off the power grid. They later claimed that the Russians were preparing a "terrorist attack" that had been thwarted.

Ukraine told the IAEA, the UN's nuclear energy watchdog, that work on Thursday evening successfully prepared one section, but that failures persist due to damage in other places.

The agency said the work was continuing "despite the difficult situation outside" the former Soviet power plant, the site of a nuclear disaster in 1986. - BBC News