Kharkiv

Explosions rang out in the centre of Ukraine's capital on Thursday, following air alerts prompted by Russian missiles and drones, a day after several civilians were killed on both sides of the conflict.

Around ten loud blasts were heard by AFP journalists from 05:00 am (0300 GMT) in Kiev, as well as air defence fire.

Day 508 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Soledar in eastern Ukraine is now under Russian control

Russian forces have launched a massive offensive and probably surrounded the Ukrainian city of Kherson at the beginning of the 6th day of the war in Ukraine.

Turkey's embassies in Ukraine's capital Kiev and the second-largest city Kharkiv have announced that the second evacuation process to be actualized on Feb. 28, highlighting that hundreds of Turkish citizens have left Ukraine with trains via Romania.