Rocket attack destroys major airport in Dnipro

One of Ukraine's largest airports has been flattened after Russian forces fired rockets into the country's Luhansk and Dnipro regions.

Valentin Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said that the latest Russian assault on Dnipro international airport had left it and the infrastructure around it "destroyed" with five wounded.

"There is nothing left of it," he said. "Rockets keep flying and flying."

Reznichenko said attacks on the city, Ukraine's fourth largest which lies on the banks of Dnieper River, intensified on Sunday as Moscow focuses on eastern regions.

Emergency workers are also combing through an infrastructure facility struck in a nearby town of Zvonetsky, where Russia's Defence Ministry said "high-precision missiles destroyed the base and headquarters of the nationalist Dnepr battalion".

​​Follow the latest updates in Monday's live blog.

03:15 PM

That's all for now

We will be back with live updates in the morning. Here's a summary of key developments in the war on Sunday:

• Russia has been forced to draft in retired troops to bolster depleting ranks ahead of a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine, British intelligence officials warned.

• A full Western embargo on Russian energy could halt the war in Ukraine, one of Vladimir Putin's former closest aides said.

• The airport in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was completely destroyed in fresh Russian shelling, according to a local official.

• At least two bodies were found in a ditch on a highway near the village of Buzova, west of Kyiv, as a mother broke down shouting "my son, my son" upon visiting the manhole.

• Boris Johnson's visit to Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Saturday was "very timely and very important" and came on the personal invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky, his chief diplomatic adviser said.

• Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine, leading to negotiations and peace.

• Mr Zelensky warned in a late-night speech that Russia's target is "the whole European project".

• The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine said he has not seen such suffering anywhere else in recent history.

03:10 PM

Kyiv readies for 'big battles' with Russia in east

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak has said Ukraine must beat back Russia in the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow controls two separatist territories, before a meeting can take place between the Ukrainian leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Ukraine is ready for big battles. Ukraine must win them, including in the Donbas. And once that happens, Ukraine will have a more powerful negotiating position," he said on national television, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"After that the presidents will meet. It could take two weeks, three."

It comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his country was readying for a Russian onslaught.

03:02 PM

Russians stole deadly radioactive substances from labs

Russian forces who occupied the Chernobyl nuclear plant stole radioactive substances from research laboratories that could potentially kill them, Ukraine's State Agency for Managing the Exclusion Zone said on Sunday.

Moscow's forces seized the defunct power plant on the first day of their invasion of Ukraine on February 24. They occupied the highly radioactive zone for over a month, before retreating on March 31.

The agency said on Facebook that Russian soldiers pillaged two laboratories in the area. It said the Russians entered a storage area of the Ecocentre research base and stole 133 highly radioactive substances.

“Even a small part of this activity is deadly if handled unprofessionally,” the agency said.

Earlier this week Ukraine's energy minister German Gulashchenko warned after visiting the exclusion zone: “They dug bare soil contaminated with radiation, collected radioactive sand in bags for fortification, breathed this dust."

Calling it "shocking", he added: “After a month of such exposure, they have a maximum of one year of life. More precisely, not life but a slow death from diseases."

02:54 PM

Over 1,200 bodies found in Kyiv region, say prosecutors

Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova on Sunday said 1,222 bodies have been found in the region around the capital Kyiv so far.

"We have actually now, only for this morning, 1,222 dead people only in Kyiv region," Venediktova said in an interview with Sky News.

The scenes of mass civilian deaths in towns surrounding Kyiv, recently liberated from retreating Russian forces, shook the world last week.

02:53 PM

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians flee war

More than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the Russian invasion on February 24, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The UNHCR said there were 4,503,954 Ukrainian refugees on Sunday. That was 62,291 more than the previous day. Europe has not seen such a flood of refugees since World War II.

Ninety percent of those who have fled Ukraine are women and children, as the Ukrainian authorities do not allow men of military age to leave.

According to the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM), around 210,000 non-Ukrainians have also fled the country, sometimes encountering difficulties returning to their home countries.

A further 7.1 million people have been displaced within the country, according to figures published by the IOM on April 5.

02:31 PM

Russia appoints new Ukraine war commander

After its striking post-invasion setbacks, Russia has appointed a new Ukraine war commander, a US official said Sunday.

Russia has turned to Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, one of Russia's most experienced military officers and, according to US officials, a general with a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and other war theaters.

The senior official who identified the new commander was not authorised to be identified and spoke on condition of anonymity, US media reported. More than a dozen Russian military brass have died during the war.

But the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said "no appointment of any general can erase the fact that Russia has already faced a strategic failure in Ukraine."

"This general will just be another author of crimes and brutality against Ukrainian civilians," Mr Sullivan told CNN.

"And the United States, as I said before, is determined to do all that we can to support Ukrainians as they resist him and they resist the forces that he commands."

02:09 PM

Kremlin resorts to retired troops for eastern attack amid 'mounting losses'

Russia has been forced to draft in retired troops to bolster depleting ranks ahead of a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine, British intelligence officials have warned.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the Kremlin was recruiting personnel discharged from military service since 2012, "in response to mounting losses" during its invasion so far.

Russian forces have retreated from northern areas surrounding the capital Kyiv and are now regrouping in the east, with assaults focused on the Donbas region and Black Sea ports.

The MoD said Moscow's attempts to shore up troop numbers include trying to recruit from the unrecognised post-Soviet Transnistria region of Moldova.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's use of force is "a catastrophe that will inevitably hit everyone... the whole European project is a target for Russia".

01:31 PM

In pictures: Satellite images show large Russian convoy move south

01:27 PM

Pro-Russian protesters in Germany outnumbered by Ukraine backers

Protesters in Germany supporting Vladimir Putin's war have been outnumbered by Ukrainian defenders in lively scenes in the city of Hanover.

Around 600 pro-Russian protesters in a 350-car motorcade set off on a demonstration in the northern German city on Sunday, where there was also a counter-demonstration of around 700 people supporting Ukraine.

The motorcade, flying Russian and also a few German flags, is protesting against discrimination in Germany towards Russians since the war began.

Police said fences had been put up to separate the pro-Russian protesters from the counter-demonstration and protests have been peaceful so far.

Around 235,000 Russian citizens live in Germany, according to government statistics from late 2020. About 135,000 Ukrainians lived in Germany before Russia's invasion but around 300,000 have arrived since.

12:58 PM

Dnipro airport 'destroyed' by Russian shelling

The airport in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has been completely destroyed in fresh Russian shelling, according to a local official.

"There has been another attack on Dnipro airport. There is nothing left of it. The airport itself and the infrastructure around it has been destroyed. Rockets keep flying and flying," the head of the city's military administration, Valentin Reznichenko, said on Telegram.

He added that authorities were seeking to clarify information about victims.

Reznichenko said attacks on the city, which lies on the banks of Dnieper River, intensified on Sunday as Moscow focuses on eastern regions.

The industrial city of one million people has been targeted by Russian forces since the Russian invasion but has so far been spared major destruction.

12:48 PM

Russian invasion 'would end' if West blocked energy

A full Western embargo on Russian energy could halt the war in Ukraine, one of Vladimir Putin's former closest aides has said.

Dr Andrei Illarionov, the former chief economic adviser to the Russian president, said Russia was not threatened by countries' current vows to wean off of their supplies.

The European Union remains heavily reliant on Moscow for around 40 per cent of its natural gas imports, and more in countries such as Germany. The EU is still paying Russia around a billion euros a day for its energy.

He told the BBC that if Western countries "would try to implement a real embargo on oil and gas exports from Russia... I would bet that probably within a month or two, Russian military operations in Ukraine, probably will be ceased, will be stopped".

"It's one of the very effective instruments still in the possession of the Western countries," he added.

12:22 PM

'Bureaucratic nightmare' preventing families from hosting child refugees

Visa restrictions and bureaucratic delays are preventing children in Ukraine fleeing to Britain for safety, say children’s charities.

Child refugees are falling through cracks in the system, with long delays by the Home Office in issuing visas coupled with the Ukrainian authorities’ caution over children travelling abroad.

Families in Britain who have offered to take in children from families they have made contact with in Ukraine say they have received little assistance from the Home Office.

Charities have contrasted it to the efforts that were made during the Second World War to rescue the 'kindertransport' children from the clutches of the Nazis.

• Here's more on this story

11:59 AM

'UN veto is like Hitler getting to veto Nuremberg trials'

Russia needs to be kicked off the UN Security Council or to be stripped of its veto powers, a leading lawyer has said.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who led the prosecution of the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal, believes it is a way to correct and make the current system "more effective".

He told Times Radio: "A very important step that should be taken is to kick Russia off the security council, or withdraw its veto, or in some other way stop it from having the power to stop itself being tried.

"That power, just think about this, is the equivalent of Hitler being given the veto power in 1944 to say who would be tried at Nuremberg in 1946."

He added: "Saying that the present system is a bit broken or incomplete, doesn't mean to say we should not put all our effort into ensuring that it is improved.

"Certainly one of the ways it can be improved is by getting rid of Russia's veto and then it could stand trial for the crime of aggression.

"Another way is to ensure that after this conflict ends that identified Russian potential defendants are handed over by Russia."

11:38 AM

In maps: Russia's eastern Ukraine offensive

11:22 AM

PM praises 'spirit' of Ukraine rail workers

Boris Johnson praised the resilience of Ukrainian rail workers in the war with Russia when he took the train from Poland to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.

His video address was posted on Facebook on Sunday by Ukrainian railways spokesman Oleksandr Shevchenko.

"I gather you are called the 'iron people'," the Prime Minister said. "This is not just because of the industry you work in. It also reflects that you are showing the spirit of Ukraine in standing up to the appalling aggression that we are seeing."

Ukrainian trains have played a key role in evacuating civilians from conflict zones, and have been targeted by shooting and shelling.

This week 52 people were killed by shelling at a railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk as they awaited evacuation.

11:18 AM

Russian soldiers in Chernobyl 'picked up radioactive material with bare hands'

Russian soldiers who seized control of Chernobyl spread radioactive material around the plant, its staff have said, while one soldier even picked up a source of radiation with his bare hands.

Employees at the power plant have described how Russian soldiers, who seized the plant for a month in late February, may have been exposed to potentially harmful doses of radiation.

This brings a high risk of cancer and other health issues, even decades later. One soldier is already reported to have died.

Drone footage released by the Ukrainian military revealed that the soldiers dug trenches in the nearby Red Forest, to this day one of the most radioactive places on earth at the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.

• More from Rozina Sabur here

10:52 AM

War in Ukraine: latest pictures

10:45 AM

'My son, my son': Two bodies found in manhole outside Kyiv

A mother has broken down after recognising her son in a manhole west of Kyiv.

At least two bodies were found in the ditch next to a petrol station, on a highway near the village of Buzova, an AFP news agency reporter saw.

The distraught woman arrived at the manhole and peered inside, before breaking down and clawing the earth. "My son, my son," she wailed, recognising the body from the distinctive footwear.

Police are awaiting demining teams before recovering the bodies and using a tanker to suck water out from the manhole.

The improvised grave is at the back of a destroyed motorway petrol station. Tank marks are visible on the road and there are two destroyed tanks near the station.

10:27 AM

Pope calls for Easter truce in Ukraine

Pope Francis on Sunday called for an Easter truce in Ukraine, leading to negotiations and peace.

"Put the weapons down!" he said at the end of a Palm Sunday service for tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.

"Let An Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations," he said.

10:13 AM

Exclusive: Full-scale Nato military force to defend borders

Nato is drawing up plans to deploy a permanent full-scale military force on its border in an effort to combat future Russian aggression following the invasion of Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary general has revealed.

In an interview with The ­Telegraph, Jens Stoltenberg said Nato was “in the midst of a very fundamental transformation” that will reflect “the long-term consequences” of Vladimir Putin’s actions.

As part of a major “reset”, the relatively small “tripwire” presence on the alliance’s eastern flank will be replaced with sufficient forces to repel an attempted invasion of member states such as Estonia and Latvia.

Options for the reset are being developed by Nato military commanders.

• Edward Malnick has the story

09:51 AM

Two killed in shelling of town in northeastern Ukriane

Two people were killed and several injured on Sunday in the Ukrainian town of Derhachy in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said.

Russian forces had carried out 66 artillery attacks across several regions the governor said in a Facebook post.

He added: "Two people were killed, there are casualties. As you can see, the Russian army continues to 'fight' with the civilian population, because it has no victories at the front."

09:43 AM

PM's Kyiv visit came on personal invitation of Zelensky

Boris Johnson's visit to Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Saturday was "very timely and very important" and came on the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky, his chief diplomatic adviser has said.

"Any visit that is happening now to the Ukraine is done on the invitation of the president of the Ukraine. Prime Minister Johnson received this invitation and he agreed," Igor Zhovkva told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme.

"It might be a surprise for you but it is not a surprise for us. We were preparing for a while. This visit was very timely and very important in terms of war."

Mr Zhovkva said Mr Johnson was "very supportive" during previous discussions before the war began about "the potential danger which Russian aggression might have".

He said many leaders are coming to Kyiv with their support, in a message to the Kremlin that it is now deemed safe enough following its failed attempt to capture it.

09:28 AM

In pictures: Boris Johnson's secret visit to Kyiv

09:14 AM

Strike on Ukrainian civilian rail station 'was a war crime'

A missile attack on a railway station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk which killed more than 50 people was a Russian war crime, Ukraine's prosecutor general has said.

Iryna Veneditktova told Sky News: "Absolutely, it's a war crime. It was a Russian missile which killed more 50 people.

"These people just wanted to save their lives. They wanted to be evacuated with kids. It was women, it was children, and they just wanted to save their lives."

08:54 AM

Sanctions for Russian troops and generals may be looming

Britain could impose sanctions on Russian troops and generals suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine, policing minister Kit Malthouse has said.

Mr Malthouse said that it was important that evidence of atrocities was gathered as "assiduously as possible" during the conflict.

"While that is ongoing we can take action domestically around sanctions we are able to put on individuals, including combatants, leading generals and others involved in it, to signal our recognition of their part in this dreadful, dreadful assault upon a free democratic country," he told Sky News.

He admitted that progress in bringing Ukrainian refugees to the UK had been disappointing but that it is "motoring" now.

08:37 AM

'The level of suffering is immense'

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine has said he has not seen such suffering anywhere else.

Pascal Hundt told Sky News: "Today we were in Chernihiv, north of the country and we see basically the same image everywhere and this is truly appalling and heart-breaking.

"We are discussing with the people there, we find people in total despair with no food, no electricity, no water, no heating system, they have to go out in the streets to make some fire and cook - these people were living in in horrible conditions.

"The level of suffering that we are seeing is just immense and I don't recall having seen that in recent history."

08:18 AM

'No excuse' for weeks of delays in UK-Ukraine refugee scheme

Labour would only apply security checks on Ukrainian immigrants coming to the UK, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said, in checks that would take "just hours".

"So we described a kind of emergency visa, which is effectively just the security checks", she told Sky News amid repeated delays in the Government's refugee scheme.

"That's what we need to do. You don't need a lot of this additional fees or requirements, for example, to come on the homes for Ukraine scheme, Ukrainian families are supposed to prove their residence as to where they were living before the first of January.

"So people are uploading utility bills or other kinds of details that then has to be checked by caseworkers that then adds to delays.

"The point about security checks is ministers and officials have themselves admitted you can do them on the spot. You can do them within a matter of hours, so there's absolutely no excuse for these weeks of delays."

08:07 AM

Fresh shelling in eastern Ukraine

Russian forces fired shells into Ukraine's Luhansk and Dnipro regions early on Sunday hitting several buildings, wounding one person and causing a fire, officials said.

A school and a high-rise apartment building were shelled in the city of Sievierodonetsk in the besieged region of Luhansk, the region's governor said.

"Fortunately, no casualties," Serhiy Gaidai wrote on Telegram.

In the central city of Dnipro, one person was wounded when a building was hit. The shelling sparked a fire that was eventually put out, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said in a post.

A missile hit a building in the Pavlograd district of the Dnipro, Reznichenko said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.

07:47 AM

Russia confirms prisoner exchange with Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine carried out a prisoner exchange on Saturday, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said this morning.

Moskalkova said that among those exchanged to Russia, there were four employees of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and soldiers.

"Early this morning they landed on the Russian soil," Moskalkova said in an online post.

07:42 AM

Dozens of Ukrainians found in grave near Kyiv

A grave with dozens of civilians has been found in Buzova village near Kyiv, a Ukrainian official said, the latest reported mass grave to be discovered after Russian forces withdrew from areas north of the capital to focus their assault on the east.

Taras Didych, head of the Dmytrivka community that includes Buzova, said the bodies were found in a ditch near a petrol station. He said the number of dead had yet to be confirmed.

"Now we are returning to life but during the occupation we had our 'hotspots', many civilians died," Didych told Ukrainian television late on Saturday. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the report.

Mounting civilian casualties have triggered widespread international condemnation and new sanctions, in particular over hundreds of deaths in the town of Bucha, just outside Kyiv.

Russia has rejected allegations by Ukraine and Western countries of war crimes.

07:28 AM

Nine humanitarian corridors agreed from the east

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said this morning that Kyiv had agreed the use of nine humanitarian corridors to help people to escape heavy fighting in the east of the country, including in private cars from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.

"All the routes for the humanitarian corridors in the Luhansk region will work as long as there is a ceasefire by the occupying Russian troops," Vereshchuk said in a statement on her Telegram channel, referring to separatist-controlled Luhansk.

07:22 AM

Briton drives ambulances packed with supplies to Ukraine

A British executive has described the "incredible reception" he received as he and a friend drove two ambulances full of medical supplies into Ukraine.

Charles Blackmore, who founded commercial intelligence specialists Audere International in 2015, drove one of the two vehicles from the UK to Lutsk via Warsaw, arriving on Friday evening.

Speaking from Warsaw's Chopin Airport on his way back to the UK, he told the PA news agency: "To be given this incredible reception by the Deputy Mayor of the Oblast, the region where we were going, where there were speeches, and patriotic songs, and the appreciation, made the journey worthwhile.

"When you drive through checkpoints, when you drive through cities in curfew, when 70 per cent of the city of Lutsk - which is 200,000 people - have left the city, you're going into a ghost town."

The company has delivered two tonnes of food and 300 litres of liquids, along with first aid, clothes and extensive medical supplies.

06:44 AM

Novoselivka's residents determined to rebuild

What had once been a peaceful community where people spent their days tending to their gardens and resting in their homes, it is now nothing more than a wasteland of flattened buildings and craters - some as large as seven metres wide and three metres deep - in the ground.

Volodymyr Stoyhi, 61, was resting on his sofa when a bomb flew into the living room of his Novoselivka home in the middle of March. His head was struck by falling debris but by some miracle he survived.

“We have to rebuild because we need somewhere to live,” he said, deflated.

However, he asked where he would even begin a project like this when “there is no money and nothing to build on”.

He described how houses fell “one after one” and that the small village, which once had a couple of shops and almost every house kept either chickens, ducks, or even pigs, in their back gardens, was unrecognisable.

The destruction is all because of a man who “is crazy and that is all”, he said of Vladimir Putin.

“We were friends with Russia and now everything is ruined.”

Read the full story here.

06:14 AM

Russia wants to boost armed forces with discharged personnel

British military intelligence said on Sunday that the Russian armed forces were seeking to strengthen troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service since 2012, as losses mount from the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian forces' efforts to boost their fighting power also include trying to recruit from the unrecognised Transnistria region of Moldova, the Ministry of Defence said in a regular bulletin on Twitter:

05:31 AM

Zelensky committed to pressing for peace amid attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is committed to pressing for peace despite Russian attacks on civilians that have stunned the world.

In an interview with Associated Press he said: "No one wants to negotiate with a person or people who tortured this nation. It's all understandable. And as a man, as a father, I understand this very well.

"[But] we don't want to lose opportunities, if we have them, for a diplomatic solution."

Mr Zelensky looked visibly exhausted yet animated by a drive to persevere. He spoke inside the presidential office complex, where windows and hallways are protected by towers of sandbags and heavily armed soldiers.

"We have to fight, but fight for life. You can't fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That's why it is important to stop this war," Mr Zelensky said.

Russian troops that withdrew from northern Ukraine are now regrouping for what is expected to be an intensified push to retake the eastern Donbas region, including the besieged port city of Mariupol that Ukrainian fighters are striving to defend.

The president said those defenders were tying up "a big part of the enemy forces", characterising the battle to hold Mariupol as "the heart of the war" right now.

"It's beating. We're fighting. We're strong. And if it stops beating, we will be in a weaker position," he said.

04:04 AM

Biden an 'old man in his senility', says North Korea

North Korea has come to the defence of Russia by describing Joe Biden as an "old man in his senility".

The personal attack on the US president comes after he accused the Russian leader of war crimes in Ukraine.

Mr Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a war criminal" and called for him to be put on trial over alleged atrocities against civilians in Bucha.

"The latest story is the US chief executive who spoke ill of the Russian president with groundless data," said a commentary carried by the official KCNA news agency.

"Such reckless remarks can be made only by the descendants of Yankees, master hand at aggression and plot-breeding."

It described Mr Biden as a "president known for his repeated slip of tongue", but stopped short of referring to him by name.

"The conclusion could be that there is a problem in his intellectual faculty and that his reckless remarks are just a show of imprudence of an old man in his senility," said the commentary, which was issued on Saturday evening.

"Gloomy, it seems, is the future of the US with such a feeble man in power."

Pyongyang has sided with Moscow in its war with Ukraine, accusing the US of being the "root cause" of the crisis.

03:52 AM

Today's top stories

• Nato is drawing up plans to deploy a permanent full-scale military force on its border in an effort to combat future Russian aggression following the invasion of Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary general has revealed
• Boris Johnson made a secret visit to Ukraine on Saturday to offer Volodymyr Zelensky a new aid package including armoured vehicles and anti-ship missiles and praise the “invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people”
• Russian soldiers who seized control of Chernobyl spread radioactive material around the plant, its staff have said, while one soldier even picked up a source of radiation with his bare hands
• A general who bombed Syrian cities into the ground has been appointed Russia’s top commander in Ukraine and is already suspected of ordering a missile strike that killed 50 civilians at a railway station
• Vladimir Putin may insist that his invasion of Ukraine is going to plan but thousands of Russian women disagree
• Mr Zelensky has not seen his family since the beginning of the war with Russia over a month ago, his wife has revealed
• Visa restrictions and bureaucratic delays are preventing children in Ukraine fleeing to Britain for safety, say children’s charities
• Russian troops reportedly fired on a convoy of civilians fleeing a village near Kyiv despite waving them through a checkpoint and promising they would be safe, The Telegraph has learnt
• Russian trawlers still have access to £16 million of fish in UK waters because of a loophole that affects a stretch of sea off the coast of Scotland, government officials have warned