This live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Thursday, April 27:
- Russia’s defence ministry says its troops have taken four blocks in Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city where bloody battles have raged for months.
- At least one person was killed in the southern city of Mykolaiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, as Ukraine mourns several civilians killed in recent attacks.
- NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg welcomes the first known wartime call between China’s Xi Jinping and Zelenskyy but says Beijing has still not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Russia rejects a request from the US embassy to visit imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.