Ukraine latest as the country's president says the situation in the Donbas region remains "the toughest"; Kremlin lashes out at NATO and seeks to draw China and India into Russia's rift with West; at least 21 people dead after a Russian rocket attack on residential areas in Odesa.

Some of the latest pictures coming out of Ukraine today show people salvaging some of their belongings from an apartment destroyed in a Russian rocket attack in the city centre of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region. 

In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia's bombardment in the Odesa region is "purposeful Russian terror".

He said: "In the Odesa region, the dismantling of rubble after the Russian missile attack on Serhiivka is underway. Three missiles hit an ordinary residential building, a nine-story building in which no one hid any weapons, military equipment, or ammunition, as Russian propagandists and officials always tell about such strikes. It was a simple house, about 160 people. It was inhabited by ordinary people, civilians. The recreation centre was also destroyed by this strike - an absolutely typical object for the seaside area.

"I emphasize: this is a deliberate, purposeful Russian terror, not some mistakes or an accidental missile strike. Four people from one family were killed... The murdered boy, 12 years old, whose name was Dmytro... As of now, there are 21 people on the list of the dead, and about 40 are wounded. The numbers have been changing all day, unfortunately, the death toll is increasing."

He added that he was grateful to the US and "personally to Biden" for the new support package for Ukraine announced today, which includes "very powerful NASAMS systems". 

The photographs below are the latest to emerge from Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, which has faced relentless Russian bombardment for weeks.

Previously home to more than 100,000 people, Severodonetsk is now largely destroyed following concentrated shelling during the Russian offensive.

Ukraine's nuclear power operator has re-established its connection to surveillance systems at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is occupied by Russian forces. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's atomic watchdog, has said it wants to inspect the plant in southern Ukraine urgently, but Ukrainian authorities oppose any such visit while Russian forces remain in control. 

It was the second time communications had been lost with the plant, made up of six reactors. 

Ukraine's Energoatom agency said on its Telegram channel that it had restored the connection "by its own efforts". 

The link, it said, had been lost "due to the cutting off by the occupiers in Enerhodar of all Ukrainian mobile operators, including Vodavone, with which the (IAEA) has a contract for data transmission." 

All "mandatory monitoring data are transmitted" and the IAEA had confirmed receipt, Energoatom said. 

The IAEA said earlier this week that the loss of communication links "only adds to the urgency to dispatch this mission" to Zaporizhzhia.

It said the connection had been lost "due to a disruption of the facility's communication systems".

The United States has confirmed its latest weapons package for Ukraine.

The Pentagon will provide Ukraine with two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and up to 150,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition.

The assistance package, worth about $820m, was broadly announced by US President Joe Biden on Thursday in Madrid following a gathering of NATO leaders that was focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The Pentagon offered more details on Friday as it formalised the announcement, and said the latest round of security assistance also included additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). 

The new aid is meant to bolster Kyiv as it confronts heavy pounding by Russian artillery. 

Russia's stepped-up campaign of long-range missile attacks on Ukrainian cities has come as its forces have ground out success on the battlefield in the east, with a relentless assault to try to force Kyiv to cede two provinces to separatists. 

Including the latest rounds of assistance, the US has now committed approximately $6.9bn since Russia forces rolled into Ukraine on 24 February and brought full-scale war back to Europe. 

Ukraine believes an attack on a residential area of Odesa was "payback" following the withdrawal of Russian troops from a strategic location a day earlier.

Moscow's fighters left Snake Island in the Black Sea after significant bombing from Ukrainian forces.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian warplanes fired three missiles which struck an apartment building and holiday camp in the Odesa region.

It is currently understood that 21 people were killed in the strike, including a 12-year-old boy.

Several dozen more people were injured in the same attack.

The map below details the situation in Ukraine as it stands today:

Poland’s northern city of Gdansk has honoured the resistance put up by the Ukrainian city of Mariupol against Russian forces by naming a city square after it. 

In a ceremony, the city also unveiled an open-air exhibition of photographs from inside Mariupol showing its residents' and defenders' suffering during the Russian siege.

Gdansk officials said that naming a city square "Heroic Mariupol" was a call for more help and support for Ukraine in its struggle to protect its sovereignty. 

The Russian siege saw the port city shelled for weeks, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. 

Poland — including Gdansk — has provided shelter to millions of refugees from Ukraine.

We reported earlier as Norway pledged to send $1.04bn to Ukraine over the next year as the country continues to face a war with Russia.

The news was confirmed by Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre in a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Photographs have now emerged of the two leaders meeting in Kyiv.

Earlier, defence and security analyst Michael Clarke spoke to Sky News about Snake Island - and why it is so important in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

You can watch what he had to say in the clip below...

By Sally Lockwood, news correspondent

We could smell the bodies before we saw them.

As we circled the mortuary towards the entrance, the smell became overpowering.

In the afternoon sunshine, a row of bodies lay in black bags. There was clearly no room for them anywhere else.

And it was clear by the stench these people had been dead for some time.

Warning: This article contains detail some may find distressing

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