It did not say if there were any people killed or wounded.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey said a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, were among the people who had sought safety in the mosque.
Moscow has denied targeting civilian areas in what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine.
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Ukraine has accused Russia of refusing to allow people out of Mariupol, where a blockade has left hundreds of thousands trapped.
Russia blames Ukraine for the failure to evacuate people.
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0:25
Melitopol residents protest mayor's 'kidnap'
Meanwhile, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also accused Russia of kidnapping the mayor of Melitopol, a port city in the south of Ukraine.
He described the abduction "a new stage of terror".
US officials had warned before the invasion of Russian plans to detain and kill targeted people in Ukraine.
Mr Zelenskyy himself is believed to be on that list.
UK and US intelligence officials have warned there is "serious concern" Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
Western allies have accused President Vladimir Putin and his forces of planning a "false flag" operation, which would use a false claim that Ukraine has such weapons as an excuse for Russia to deploy its own.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the strategy as "straight out of their playbook", as it is the same one Russian-backed Bashar al-Assad used for carrying out chemical attacks during the civil war in Syria.
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0:41
PM concern over Putin chemical weapons
Here Sky News takes a closer look at Russia's history of using chemical weapons - and what it could be planning to use now.
Why does the West think Russia will use chemical weapons in Ukraine?
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Although it is signed up to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans it from developing, using or stockpiling them, Russia is still known to have used them.
Pentagon and Ministry of Defence intelligence chiefs have repeatedly warned the Kremlin is fabricating claims Ukraine and its Western allies have chemical or bioweapons.
They say Mr Putin wants to use that as justification for using similar weapons on the Ukrainian people. Russia first started making these accusations last year - before the invasion.
On 21 December, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 120 US mercenaries in the occupied Donbas region of east Ukraine that had been given "tanks of chemicals to commit provocations".
One week into the conflict on 3 March, his colleague foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said US intelligence officials were worried fighting could result in its chemical and biological facilities there being damaged.
The US has no chemical or biological facilities inside Ukraine - it just helps it safeguard its non-military biological laboratories.
On 9 March, a spokesperson for Mr Lavrov's department said it had discovered a military biological weapons programme inside Ukraine, with labs in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa investigating how to use bats and birds to spread deadly pathogens such as anthrax.
But Dr Brett Edwards, senior lecturer in public policy and security at Bath University, told Sky News: "There are labs in Ukraine, which have been there since before the Cold War, but they are registered, legitimate laboratories, there's nothing shady about them."
The US dismissed the claims as "absurd propaganda", for which there is zero evidence.
In his latest daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy added: "No chemical or any other weapons of mass destructions were developed on my land. The whole world knows that."
What are chemical and biological weapons?
Chemical weapons use chemicals with toxic properties to intentionally cause death or harm.
They are categorised by the effect they have on the human body.
Nerve agents stop people’s nerves sending messages to their muscles and result in paralysis and loss of bodily function.
Types of nerve agents include sarin, used in Syria, Novichok, used in the Salisbury and Navalny poisonings, soman and tabun.
Blistering agents come in gas, aerosol or liquid form and cause the skin to blister on contact. Examples include sulphur mustard, used in the First World War and nitrogen mustard.
Choking agents cause respiratory failure if they are inhaled or digested. The main one used in the past has been chlorine.
Blood agents affect the body’s ability to send oxygen through the blood stream, with examples including hydrogen chloride and cyanogen chloride.
Biological weapons – or bioweapons – are ones that deliberately spread viruses, bacteria, fungi or toxins in order to cause death or harm.
Examples include:
Anthrax, a serious bacterial disease previously used as a means of bioterrorism. It can be deadly and results in skin sores and vomiting.
Botulinum toxin, a bacteria that produces a toxin which blocks people’s nerves and can result in respiratory and muscular paralysis.
Plague, caused by bacteria, has been used by countries in the past as a bioweapon.
When has Russia used them before?
During the Second Chechen War, in October 2002 Russian troops used a gas containing the opioid carfentanil after Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theatre and took people hostage.
The substance - 10,000 more powerful than morphine - killed 120 of the hostages.
Two years later in 2004 toxicologists found that Ukraine's pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko had been poisoned by the chemical TCDD.
Mr Yushchenko, who had beaten Mr Putin's preferred candidate Viktor Yanukovych in the elections that year, claims the attack was carried out by Russia.
The widest-scale example of Russia using chemical weapons was in Syria, where it fought alongside Bashar al-Assad's government forces in the country's civil war.
Studies estimate there were 85 chemical weapon attacks during the war.
Syria forms a key part of Russia's so-called "playbook", as each time an attack was carried out, President Assad would say terror groups ISIS and Al-Qaeda had the weapons first.
Dr Edwards, an expert in the history of chemical and biological weapons, said: "It all comes back to Syria. Russia lied repeatedly about there being chemical weapons in Syria, while working hand in hand with a Syrian regime that was using chemical weapons. In that context, we know Russia lies on these issues."
The worst attack in Syria was in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013 when up to 1,700 people died as a result of the nerve agent sarin.
People tried to escape from their homes only to collapse, foaming from their mouths and noses, and suffocate to death.
After the atrocities in Ghouta, the Russians agreed to negotiate with the US on behalf of President Assad and eventually struck a deal to allow them to destroy Syria's illegal stockpile of chemical weapons.
During the operation, US officials found about 1,300 tons of mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin and VX.
But despite Syria joining the Chemical Weapons Convention that year, chlorine and other chemical weapons were still used numerous times by Russian-backed Assad forces.
Russia has also repeatedly used chemicals to poison wanted individuals abroad.
In November 2006, former KGB officer-turned British spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by Russian agents in a London hotel.
They contaminated his tea with the highly radioactive chemical polonium 210.
He died of acute radiation poisoning three weeks later.
In March 2018 former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal, who had also turned spy for the British, was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok alongside his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
Both survived the attack, but two others - Dawn Sturgess and Charley Rowley - came into contact with the same nerve agent via a contaminated perfume bottle months later seven miles away in Amesbury. Ms Sturgess died almost instantly, but Mr Rowley survived.
The dose found on the perfume bottle is thought to have been strong enough to harm 10,000 people.
After receiving treatment in Berlin five certified laboratories confirmed the use of the nerve agent.
What weapons does Russia have - and what could they use in Ukraine?
Asked about the prime minister's "playbook" warning of a potential chemical weapons attack in Ukraine, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele told Sky News he "wouldn't rule it out at all".
He said: "I think as the Russian army becomes bogged down and clearly not realising its objectives militarily, you are likely to see more indiscriminate killing and bombardment and possibly the use of chemical weapons."
But Dr Edwards says that Russia being a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) means it does not have the capacity to launch chemical attacks like the ones seen in Syria.
"The CWC is the most intrusive and successful disarmament convention we have," he tells Sky News.
"Because of its collaboration with the CWC, Russia is subject to on-site inspections and investigations.
"So we know they don't have major stocks, because they've either been destroyed or are in the process of being destroyed."
Dr Edwards also claims there would be more widely-available intelligence if such weapons were being mobilised in Ukraine.
"We'd see it in the intelligence, it's a whole infrastructure, so we'd see specialist units moving it all - which we haven't."
But he says Russia could be producing chemical weapons on a smaller scale.
"The smaller use of weapons - akin to terrorism - is more likely," he explains.
"The CWC can't capture smaller, clandestine production. And we have good reason to assume there is small-scale production of nerve agents in Russia - but that doesn't have any relationship with the tonnes needed for chemical warfare.
"It's nowhere near on the scale the West has been talking about."
On bioweapons, he said there is "little reason to believe" Russia has the capability or intent to use them. But he fears incapacitants - such as tear gas and opiate-based substances - could be used to cause harm on a wide scale.
"Russia is very likely to use tear gas in a way that violates people's human rights - and there are also concerns other incapacitants could be used in the same way," he says.
"We should be as worried about that as we are chemical weapons."
India’s military has admitted to ‘accidentally’ firing a missile into Pakistan.
No one was killed in the ‘deeply regrettable’ incident on Wednesday, New Delhi’s Defence Ministry said.
A ‘technical malfunction’ has been blamed, with officials ordering a high-level investigation.
The confession came after Pakistan’s armed forces accused India of putting lives in danger with the ‘unprovoked violation of its airspace’.
A warning has been issued for the country ‘to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence off such violations in future’.
The neighbours – which both have nuclear weapons – have fought three wars and have engaged in numerous military clashes.
The ‘high-speed flying object’ crashed near the eastern city of Mian Channu after coming from the northern Indian city of Sirsa, in Haryana state.
It travelled at an altitude of 40,000 feet, at three times the speed of sound, and flew 77 miles in Pakistani airspace before crashing.
In dramatic scenes, Pakistan’s foreign office summoned India’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad to lodge a protest over the incident.
Military spokesman Major-General Babar Iftikhar said in a late evening news conference on Thursday: ‘The flight path of this object endangered many national and international passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace as well as human life and property of ground.’
A statement released by India’s Ministry of Defence today read: ‘On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile.
‘The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry.
‘It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan.
‘While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the incident.’
Facebook and Instagram posts calling for Vladimir Putin's death - and violence against Russian soldiers - are going to be temporarily allowed in some countries, according to Reuters.
Meta, which owns both social networks, has reportedly sent emails to moderators that explain the company is making "allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules".
The encouragement of violence against Russian civilians will continue to be prohibited - and posts calling for the president's death will be deleted if they contain other targets or discuss a location or method.
Rules have also been relaxed surrounding posts about Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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2:41
Ukraine invasion: Day 15
The temporary policy only applies to users in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, according to the news agency's report.
An email seen by Reuters told moderators: "We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it's clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion, self-defence, etc.)"
The message went on to explain that the rules are being changed because "Russian soldiers" is being used as a proxy for the military in relation to this invasion.
Meta said: "In light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we made a temporary exception for those affected by war to express sentiments towards invading armed forces such as ''death to the Russian invaders'.
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1:25
Maternity hospital hit by airstrike
"These are temporary measures designed to preserve voice and expression for people who are facing invasion. As always, we are prohibiting calls for violence against Russians outside of the narrow context of the current invasion."
Key developments: • A US defence official says Russian soldiers are edging closer to Kyiv • Satellite images suggest a large convoy of Russian troops has dispersed and redeployed • Boris Johnson has told Sky News it has been "deeply upsetting" to reject calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine • The UN Security Council will meet today to discuss Russia's claims that the US and Ukraine are developing biological weapons - despite firm denials from both countries • Ukraine has told the UN's nuclear watchdog that all contact with the Chernobyl power plant has been lost
On Thursday, both sites removed posts from the Russian Embassy in the UK about the bombing of a children's hospital in Mariupol because they broke rules that prohibit denying violent events.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, three people - including a child - were killed in Wednesday's airstrike, which also hit a maternity unit.
One of the posts from the Russian Embassy shared images with a red label that branded them as "fake" - and went on to claim that the maternity unit was non-operational and was being used by Ukrainian soldiers at the time.
Twitter has responded to Russia's blocks by launching a privacy-protected version of its site - known as an "onion service" - that can be accessed via the dark web.
Russia rebuffed Ukraine’s proposals for a temporary ceasefire and humanitarian aid for the besieged city of Mariupol at high-level talks that made little progress on Thursday.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said that at a 90-minute meeting with Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, he had insisted on a 24-hour pause in fighting and help for the devastated port city on the Sea of Azov.
“Unfortunately, FM Lavrov seemed to have come to talk, not to decide,” Kuleba said on Twitter. “I hope he will convey Ukraine’s requests back in Moscow.”
The talks in the Turkish city of Antalya were the most senior interaction between Moscow and Kyiv since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24 — and they coincided with worsening conditions in Mariupol.
People in the city, which had a population of more than 400,000 before the war, have been living in appalling conditions for more than a week after basic services including light, heating and water were knocked out by Russia’s bombardment.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, accused Russia of “war crimes” after missiles destroyed a Mariupol children’s hospital on Wednesday. The attack killed three people including a little girl and injured 17 others, an assistant to the city’s mayor told the Financial Times.
A field worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the city said that people were starting “to attack each other for food” in remarks sent to journalists by the humanitarian group. Russian forces, which have encircled the city for days, took control of several neighbourhoods inside it, Moscow said.
In the talks, Kuleba said he had responded to Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s future neutrality with a proposal that would be backed by security guarantees from world powers, but that Lavrov would not discuss the issues.
The Russian foreign minister told reporters: “We want Ukraine to stay neutral, President Putin said that on many occasions.”
He added: “We are ready to talk about security guarantees for the Ukrainian state along with security guarantees for the European states and of course for the security of Russia.”
Lavrov also blamed the west for using Kyiv to threaten Moscow while telling his Ukrainian counterpart that Putin may enter negotiations if “specific” proposals were on the table.
Kuleba said: “The list of demands that Russia put together and forwarded to Ukraine — it is not a negotiation position, it is really an ultimatum,” he said after the talks, adding: “We shall not surrender”.
The meeting came after more than two weeks of war in which Russia’s faltering campaign has laid waste to urban areas but remains well short of its main objectives, with the biggest cities still under Ukrainian control and its skies contested. More than 2.1mn civilians have fled the country.
Lavrov claimed that Russia “did not attack Ukraine”, while adding that everything was “going according to plan” in his country’s military operation.
“We just explained to Ukraine many times that a situation had arisen which posed a direct threat to Russia,” he said. “Despite the fact that we talked about this over many years . . . no one listened to our appeals and exhortations.”
Western officials warned that Moscow might resort to more devastating unconventional weapons as it grew increasingly desperate over the war.
After his negotiations with Kuleba, Lavrov repeated Moscow’s claims that biological weapons were developed by Ukraine with US support. The White House has said the allegations are “preposterous” as it warned that Moscow might use the claims in a “false-flag” attack in Ukraine.
Before the talks Kuleba said Kyiv wanted a ceasefire, the liberation of territories under Russian control and humanitarian relief for its civilians.
In recent days, Moscow has subtly softened its language around regime change in Kyiv. But fundamental differences on other issues, including Russia’s territorial claims on parts of Ukraine, still make the prospects of a substantial breakthrough low.
For the third successive day, Ukraine proposed six humanitarian corridors to take people out of Mariupol as well as Volnovakha, Izyum and other besieged cities into “safe cities of our free Ukraine”, as it urged Russia to uphold a promised ceasefire.
Zelensky said that on Wednesday Ukraine had managed to organise evacuations from the eastern city of Sumy, from cities and towns under Russian siege in the Kyiv region and from Enerhodar, site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In total, about 35,000 people had been rescued, he added.
But repeated attempts to evacuate civilians from some of the hardest-hit cities have largely failed, with Russia and Ukraine trading accusations of ceasefire violations.
“Ukraine has already received a significant amount of humanitarian aid, but we cannot deliver it, and people are dying,” Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, told the FT on Thursday. “People are [being] used as human shields.”
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
While fighting continues on the outskirts of Kyiv across three fronts, western officials say a huge armoured column to the north-west of the capital has made little progress for more than a week.
British defence officials said on Thursday that it was “suffering continued losses” and that Russia had markedly decreased its air activity in recent days, probably as a result of “the unexpected effectiveness” of Ukrainian defences.
Western officials have said Russia is using brutal and indiscriminate weapons in urban areas, including cluster munitions. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that Russia had confirmed its use of a thermobaric weapon in Ukraine, which creates “incendiary and blast effects” that have a “devastating impact”.
Russia rebuffed Ukraine’s proposals for a temporary ceasefire and humanitarian aid for the besieged city of Mariupol at high-level talks that made little progress on Thursday.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said that at a 90-minute meeting with Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, he had insisted on a 24-hour pause in fighting and help for the devastated port city on the Sea of Azov.
“Unfortunately, FM Lavrov seemed to have come to talk, not to decide,” Kuleba said on Twitter. “I hope he will convey Ukraine’s requests back in Moscow.”
The talks in the Turkish city of Antalya were the most senior interaction between Moscow and Kyiv since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24 — and they coincided with worsening conditions in Mariupol.
People in the city, which had a population of more than 400,000 before the war, have been living in appalling conditions for more than a week after basic services including light, heating and water were knocked out by Russia’s bombardment.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, accused Russia of “war crimes” after missiles destroyed a Mariupol children’s hospital on Wednesday. The attack killed three people including a little girl and injured 17 others, an assistant to the city’s mayor told the Financial Times.
A field worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the city said that people were starting “to attack each other for food” in remarks sent to journalists by the humanitarian group. Russian forces, which have encircled the city for days, took control of several neighbourhoods inside it, Moscow said.
In the talks, Kuleba said he had responded to Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s future neutrality with a proposal that would be backed by security guarantees from world powers, but that Lavrov would not discuss the issues.
The Russian foreign minister told reporters: “We want Ukraine to stay neutral, President Putin said that on many occasions.”
He added: “We are ready to talk about security guarantees for the Ukrainian state along with security guarantees for the European states and of course for the security of Russia.”
Lavrov also blamed the west for using Kyiv to threaten Moscow while telling his Ukrainian counterpart that Putin may enter negotiations if “specific” proposals were on the table.
Kuleba said: “The list of demands that Russia put together and forwarded to Ukraine — it is not a negotiation position, it is really an ultimatum,” he said after the talks, adding: “We shall not surrender”.
The meeting came after more than two weeks of war in which Russia’s faltering campaign has laid waste to urban areas but remains well short of its main objectives, with the biggest cities still under Ukrainian control and its skies contested. More than 2.1mn civilians have fled the country.
Lavrov claimed that Russia “did not attack Ukraine”, while adding that everything was “going according to plan” in his country’s military operation.
“We just explained to Ukraine many times that a situation had arisen which posed a direct threat to Russia,” he said. “Despite the fact that we talked about this over many years . . . no one listened to our appeals and exhortations.”
Western officials warned that Moscow might resort to more devastating unconventional weapons as it grew increasingly desperate over the war.
After his negotiations with Kuleba, Lavrov repeated Moscow’s claims that biological weapons were developed by Ukraine with US support. The White House has said the allegations are “preposterous” as it warned that Moscow might use the claims in a “false-flag” attack in Ukraine.
Before the talks Kuleba said Kyiv wanted a ceasefire, the liberation of territories under Russian control and humanitarian relief for its civilians.
In recent days, Moscow has subtly softened its language around regime change in Kyiv. But fundamental differences on other issues, including Russia’s territorial claims on parts of Ukraine, still make the prospects of a substantial breakthrough low.
For the third successive day, Ukraine proposed six humanitarian corridors to take people out of Mariupol as well as Volnovakha, Izyum and other besieged cities into “safe cities of our free Ukraine”, as it urged Russia to uphold a promised ceasefire.
Zelensky said that on Wednesday Ukraine had managed to organise evacuations from the eastern city of Sumy, from cities and towns under Russian siege in the Kyiv region and from Enerhodar, site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In total, about 35,000 people had been rescued, he added.
But repeated attempts to evacuate civilians from some of the hardest-hit cities have largely failed, with Russia and Ukraine trading accusations of ceasefire violations.
“Ukraine has already received a significant amount of humanitarian aid, but we cannot deliver it, and people are dying,” Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, told the FT on Thursday. “People are [being] used as human shields.”
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
While fighting continues on the outskirts of Kyiv across three fronts, western officials say a huge armoured column to the north-west of the capital has made little progress for more than a week.
British defence officials said on Thursday that it was “suffering continued losses” and that Russia had markedly decreased its air activity in recent days, probably as a result of “the unexpected effectiveness” of Ukrainian defences.
Western officials have said Russia is using brutal and indiscriminate weapons in urban areas, including cluster munitions. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that Russia had confirmed its use of a thermobaric weapon in Ukraine, which creates “incendiary and blast effects” that have a “devastating impact”.