The Vizar military factory outside Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was partially destroyed by Russian blows at night, according to a French Agency reporter at the scene. It comes as Moscow pledged on Friday to launch new attacks on the capital. Russia had earlier said it had used Kalibr long-range naval missiles to strike the plant, which Ukraine’s state-owned arms maker Ukroboronprom says produced Neptune missiles. “There were five beatings. My employee was in the office and was thrown off his feet by the blast,” said Andrei Sizov, a 47-year-old owner of a neighboring wood workshop. Read more from Nataliya Vasilyeva here.

3. Russian soldiers accused of exhuming buried corpses

Russian troops have been accused of exhuming the bodies of “people killed by them” in the devastated port city of Mariupol to prevent further burials. “A guard has been appointed in every yard and does not allow Mariupol residents to lie down to rest dead relatives or friends,” the city council said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “Why the exhumation is taking place and where the corpses will be transported is unknown.” The claim could not be independently verified.

4. The UN warns that civilians are dying of starvation

The United Nations has demanded access to Ukrainians trapped in war zones, saying those besieged are dying of starvation. The organization’s food aid division, the World Food Program (WFP), which has been operating in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, says it has delivered food aid to 1.4 million people. It has not been allowed access to conflict zones, including the southern port city of Mariupol and the heavily bombed Mykolaiv east of Odessa. “We call on everyone to give us the access we need to reach people in besieged cities,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “It’s one thing when people suffer from the ravages of war. It’s another when they die of starvation.”

5. Seven Kharkiv citizens were killed in an attack

Russian airstrikes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv have killed seven people and left 34 others injured, the region’s governor said on Friday. It comes as Moscow forces step up their attacks.
“The occupiers shot at a residential area in Kharkov. Unfortunately, 34 people were injured, including three children. Seven people were killed, one of the dead was a child,” Oleg Sinegubov said on social media.