Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Sunday, March 27, 2022
UK says Russia concentrating efforts on attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in east

A Ukrainian soldier stands next to rifles of dead and injured troops, close to the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, on March 19, 2022. (Bulent Kilic/AFP)
The latest UK intelligence report says Moscow is concentrating its forces on an attempt to encircle Kyiv’s troops in the east of Ukraine.
“Russian forces appear to be concentrating their effort to attempt the encirclement of Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the east of the country, advancing from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south,” the UK Ministry of Defense says.
“The battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static with local Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian attempts to reorganize their forces,” the ministry says.