Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed for a ceasefire to rescue civilians who are still trapped beneath the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, saying they need to be dug out by hand.

“We hope to continue rescuing people from Azovstal, Mariupol. There are still civilians. Women, children,” Zelenskyy said in his morning address to the nation.

To save them, he said, there needs to be a cease-fire, with Ukraine ready to agree to one.

“It takes time to just lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters. In the current conditions, we cannot use special equipment to clear blockages,” he said, adding: “Everything is done manually.”

Two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine have been shelled by Ukraine, the region’s Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed on Thursday.

“There is shelling from the Ukrainian side on Zhuravlyovka and Nekhoteevka,” he said, Reuters reported. Gladkov said there were no civilian casualties.

Russia had previously accused Ukraine of shelling towns within Russian territory, specifically those near the border.

Ukraine has not publicly admitted to targeting positions within Russia, although one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top advisors described such attacks several weeks ago as “karma.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia has claimed to have “destroyed” 600 Ukrainian fighters it described as “nationalists” in its latest military update on Thursday. The term “nationalists” is routinely used by Russia to refer to Ukrainian soldiers, and is seen as a way to denigrate the country’s armed forces.

Russia’s Defense Ministry posted on Telegram that it had also destroyed aircraft equipment at the Kanatovo military airfield in the Kirovograd region, a large ammunition depot in the city of Nikolaev and a fuel storage facility for Ukrainian military equipment in the Nikolaev region.

Two warehouses of military equipment at a military airfield near Kramatorsk were also hit, it claimed.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia is likely to use snap military drills by its ally Belarus as a way to divert Ukrainian forces away from Donbas in eastern Ukraine, the focus of Russian assaults, as it seeks to seize the entire region, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

“Russia will likely seek to inflate the threat posed to Ukraine by these exercises in order to fix Ukrainian forces in the North, preventing them from being committed to the battle for the Donbas,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update on Twitter this morning.

Belarus announced it was beginning combat-readiness drills yesterday, saying the purpose of the exercises was “to assess the readiness and ability of personnel to quickly respond to possible crises.” The move raised speculation that Belarus might join Russia’s war effort in a potential renewed assault on northern Ukraine. Belarus insisted there was no threat to its European neighbors.

The U.K.’s Defence Ministry said Thursday that Belarusian land forces “have been observed deploying from garrison to the field, for exercises” and that this is in line with seasonal norms as Belarus enters the culmination of its winter training cycle in the month of May. 

“Deviation from normal exercise activity that could pose a threat to allies and partners is not currently anticipated,” the ministry added.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian forces have reportedly renewed their assault on the Azovstal steelworks complex, a last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the southern port city of Mariupol, in what is widely seen as a bid to bring the standoff to an end.

In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks.

“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.

Hundreds of civilians, including the elderly and children, have been sheltering in the network of underground tunnels and bunkers underneath the steelworks. After a number of failed attempts to evacuate civilians, several hundred have been evacuated to the relative safety of the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporhizhia in recent days.

— Holly Ellyatt

Moscow is trying to “weaken Ukrainian resolve” by striking civilian targets in Ukraine, the British government said on Wednesday night.

“As Russian operations have faltered, non-military targets including schools, hospitals, residential properties and transport hubs have continued to be hit, indicating Russia’s willingness to target civilian infrastructure in an attempt to weaken Ukrainian resolve,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.

The U.K. ministry said in an intelligence update that Russian ground operations are focusing on the eastern part of Ukraine, but missile strikes continue across the country because Moscow wants to disrupt the Ukrainians’ ability to resupply their troops in the east.

The press office of the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moscow has repeatedly denied that it strikes civilian targets, though such attacks have been widely documented. Russian instead accuses Ukraine of attacking civilian targets.

The British ministry said Russia is attacking cities including Odesa, Kherson and Mariupol in order to take over Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline and cut off its sea line of communication and maritime trade.

WATCH: Russian troops breach steel plant in Mariupol

— Ted Kemp

Another 344 civilians were evacuated from the city and suburbs of Mariupol and are on the way to Zaporizhzhia, a city in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

This is the second batch of people rescued from the besieged Ukrainian city following the evacuation of 156 women and children from the Azovstal steel plant who arrived in Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.

“All of them will receive the most caring treatment from our state,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s attempt to take over Mariupol has led to grim conditions in the city where thousands are running out of food, water and medical aid, as civilians and soldiers are holed up in the Azovstal steel plant – the last stronghold for fighters in the heavily bombarded city.

— Chelsea Ong

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region of Ukraine, following weeks of resupply and reposition efforts.

“Russians have not made the kind of progress in the Donbas and in the south that we believe they wanted to make,” Kirby said during a daily Pentagon press briefing. “We do believe they’re behind schedule. We do believe it has been slow at every turn and they have met a stiff Ukrainian resistance,” he added.

Kirby’s comments come as the U.S. and its allies rush to send additional security assistance ahead of what was believed to be an intensifed Russia surge in eastern and southern Ukraine. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to quickly pass $33 billion in additional U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.

Biden’s latest military aid package of $800 million announced on April 21, the eighth such installment of security assistance, brings U.S. commitment to $3.4 billion since Russia’s late February invasion.

— Amanda Macias