Ukraine Russia LIVE updates as Zelensky says Putin's troops are 'confused, scared children' with plummeting morale

Russia has reportedly taken control of the Ukrainian port city of Kherson in the south of the country.

Invading troops are also said to have encircled Mariupol, with the city of Kharkiv reportedly hit by more heavy shelling overnight.

The capital, Kyiv, continues to be rocked by loud explosions of missile strikes and the Ukrainian parliament reported Russian shelling of a high-rise building and a private house in Izium, on the Donets River, killed six adults and two children.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday the 'main body' of the large Russian convoy advancing on Kyiv remains more than 30km from the city centre after being 'delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion'.

The MOD said Russia has been 'forced to admit that 498 soldiers have already been killed and 1,597 wounded in Putin's war'.

The situation in Kherson, UK defence chiefs said, 'remained unclear', although Russian forces have entered the city.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said last night that morale among Russian troops was low and 'constantly deteriorating'.

And he claimed in an address to the nation that 9,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far.

The President spoke after a video emerged on social media of a captured Russian soldier breaking down in tears as he is fed by a Ukrainian volunteer who allows him to speak to his mother on a mobile phone.

Mr Zelensky said: "All the captives say only one thing: they do not know why they are here.

"Despite the fact that there are dozens of times more than them, the morale of the enemy is constantly deteriorating."

A war crimes investigation has begun after Boris Johnson accused Vladimir Putin of committing atrocities by bombarding cities in his