Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday.

In its latest Defence Intelligence Update posted on social media, the MoD said that while the Russian invasion had largely stalled, the Ukrainian resistance remained well-coordinated.

"The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely stalled on all fronts," the MoD intelligence update reads.

Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses. Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands," it adds.

The city is encircled by Russian troops and remains under constant bombardment with almost 400,000 people still trapped without running water, and food and medical supplies quickly running out. The local authorities say the war there has left at least 2,400 civilians dead, but even they acknowledge that this is an underestimate.

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Some streets are so dangerous that few go out to pick up the dead. Many are being buried in mass graves. The almost non-stop Russian attacks have turned their old neighbourhoods into wasteland. New drone footage (pictured above) showed the vast extent of the damage, with fire and smoke billowing out of apartment blocks and blackened streets in ruins.

"On the left bank, there's no residential building intact, it's all burned to the ground," Ms Ponomareva said. "The city centre is unrecognisable."

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But no humanitarian aid was allowed into the city. Sergei Orlov, the deputy mayor of Mariupol, said things were "getting more difficult by the hour". Monday's convoy of vehicles had been organised by civilians who decided to leave, he said, and was not part of an official corridor.

"The situation is horrible," he said. "There isn't enough food, water, medicine, insulin, baby food. Everyone has specific needs." According to Mr Orlov, cars with supplies have been waiting for four days but the Russians have not let it in. "We get a lot of calls. For example, a mother who says 'I have a child in my hands [who] is dying from hunger.' Or we get a call 'Here's our address. We're blocked in the basement. What should we do?'," Mr Orlov said.

The Senate is set to vote Thursday evening to pass a massive $1.5 trillion government funding bill that includes $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine.

The chamber is first voting on several amendments backed by GOP senators that are expected to fail followed by final passage of the bill. The Senate is under pressure to act ahead of a looming deadline on Friday when government funding is set to expire. The House of Representatives passed the sweeping bill late Wednesday evening.
A shutdown is not expected to happen, however, as both sides signal they do not want that scenario to play out.

As part of the effort to prevent a shutdown, the House also passed on Wednesday night a stopgap bill to extend government funding through Tuesday. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the short-term funding extension at some point in addition to the broader spending bill so that congressional clerks have time to finish processing the text of the larger bill before sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a floor speech Thursday morning, touted the $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine in the omnibus and pointed to it as a pressing reason for the Senate to quickly pass the massive spending bill.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its armed forces had seized secret battle plans left behind by Russian soldiers. It said the documents suggested Russia's war with Ukraine would last 15 days.

The seized documents were posted on Facebook by the ministry and showed the war plans of one of the units of the battalion tactical group of the 810th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the ministry said.

An invasion map, a table of call signs, and a list of personnel were in the documents, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry.