Ukraine conflict: Your guide to understanding day seven

On day seven of the Russian invasion, Ukrainians came under heavy bombardment in residential areas, and at least two key cities, Mariupol and Kharkiv, were in the process of being encircled.

Russian troops claimed they had captured another strategic city in the south, Kherson, though local officials said it was still in Ukrainian hands.

Mariupol's deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov described a situation close to humanitarian catastrophe after more than 15 hours of continuous shelling.

He said hundreds of people in one residential district were feared dead, including Mr Orlov's own father, who lived in the area and hadn't been heard from since the attack.

In Kherson, a city of 250,000 just north of Crimea, 58-year-old paramedic Larysa Pavlovska said some residential areas had been "bombed out", while video verified by the BBC appeared to show Russian troops in the city centre.

Ukrainian forces said Russian paratroopers had landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, and there was street fighting on the outskirts.

You can see more maps showing what we know of the day's developments here: Tracking Russia's invasion in maps

As our screens are filled with the horror of loud explosions and bombed out apartment blocks, what are Russian TV viewers seeing of the war?

Our colleagues at BBC Monitoring did some channel-hopping across a few of the country's key TV stations to find out.

They came across a heavy focus on events in the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists seized territory in 2014 and have now launched a further offensive.

A number of Russian outlets have also been accusing Ukraine of war crimes - saying they are using civilians as human shields - and focusing on Russian military successes on the ground.

While Ukrainian cities are bombarded, many of their residents are fleeing. The UN says more than 800,000 have already left the country.

The BBC's Mark Lowen met Joanna, a Polish mother-of-three, who is sheltering a woman and her daughter who fled Kyiv.

In an emotional interview, she said that she needed to help because there were "thousands of children who are cold and alone".

On Tuesday, we reported that Kyiv's Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial had been hit in a Russian missile attack.

Jewish groups have condemned the bombing of the site where 33,771 Jews were shot dead over two days in 1941 as the Nazis advanced through Ukraine.

Here is our report on the aftermath of the attack, and the troubled history of this deeply symbolic area.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir - both internationally renowned boxers - have made an impassioned appeal to Ukraine's allies for more support to fight the invasion.

Ukrainians needed military equipment, money and medicine, Vitali said.

Ukrainians are "fighting for democracy and our choice".