Ukraine War Live Updates: Russia Claims Destroyed Western Arms Stockpile in Kharkiv

US CIA Director William Burns said Vladimir Putin believed doubling down on the military conflict in Ukraine would improve his outcome in the war.

“He’s in a state of mind that he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” said Mr Burns, who was speaking at a FinancialTimes event in Washington. “I think he’s convinced right now that overtaking again will allow him to progress.”

All women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from a Mariupol steel plant long besieged by Russian forces, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister said.

“The president’s order was carried out, all women, children and elderly people were evacuated from Azovstal,” Iryna Veheshchuk said.

“This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over.” She did not specify.

Russian news agency Tass had reported 50 others evacuated from the factory earlier in the day.

Ukraine’s military command said on Saturday that Russia was continuing its assault on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

“With the support of artillery and tank fire, (the enemy) continues its assault actions,” he wrote during an evening Facebook briefing.

Ukraine says many civilians remain trapped in the plant alongside Ukrainian troops. Earlier on Saturday, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as saying another 50 people had been evacuated from besieged steel mills.

Six missiles hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Saturday, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Military Command told the country’s state television channel.

Spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk said four rockets hit a furniture factory in a residential area, while the other two hit an already damaged strip of runway. She added that information about the victims was being clarified.

Odessa regional administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said earlier that four missiles hit the Odessa region on Saturday, with no casualties.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm details of the report.

The UK will provide an additional £1.3billion in military support to Ukraine, in a dramatic escalation of aid to Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces as they fight the Russian invasion.

It is the highest rate of British military spending on a conflict since the height of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The £1.3billion, taken from UK reserves, includes £300million worth of military hardware pledged by Mr Johnson earlier this week, such as anti-battery radar systems to target artillery Russian, GPS jamming equipment and night vision devices.

Pro-Moscow separatists were pictured removing Ukrainian and English language signs and replacing them with Russian ones outside the besieged city of Mariupol.

A statement from the Donetsk People’s Republic said on Thursday that ‘updated road signs’ had been erected outside the southeastern port city, which has been the focal point of some of the Russian bombings. the most formidable.

“Work to change traffic signs in the liberated territory will continue,” the statement added.

My colleague Joe Middleton reports:

The governor of Kharkiv reported three shellings overnight on the city and in the village of Skovorodinyvka, which caused a fire that almost destroyed the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum.

Oleh Sinegubov said the museum’s collection was not damaged as it was moved to a safer location.

Writing on social media, he said: “The occupiers can destroy the museum where Hryhoriy Skovoroda worked the last years of his life and where he was buried. But they will not destroy our memory and our values.