Sydney's whirlwind property market has recorded its first price decline in 17 months after experiencing the greatest explosion in values since the 1980s.

New data from property research firm CoreLogic revealed that for the month of February, Sydney housing values fell 0.1 per cent, the first dip since September 2020.

The median value of a dwelling in Sydney – which includes both houses and apartments – is now just over $1.1 million.

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Sydney was the only capital city to record a monthly decline, with Melbourne (0.0 per cent) and Perth (+0.3 per cent) only showing flat or meagre growth.

On a national basis dwelling values increased 0.6 per cent in February, marking the 17th consecutive month in which Australian house prices as a whole have grown.

CoreLogic director of research Tim Lawless said while Sydney and Melbourne were showing signs of decline, regional areas were still booming.

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"Sydney and Melbourne have shown the sharpest slowdown, with Sydney (-0.1 per cent) posting the first decline in housing values since September 2020, while Melbourne housing values (0.0 per cent) were unchanged over the month, following similar results in December (-0.1 per cent) and January (+0.2 per cent)," he said.

"Conditions are easing less noticeably across the smaller capitals, especially Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart, where housing values rose by more than 1 per cent in February. 

"Similarly, regional markets have been somewhat insulated to slowing growth conditions, with five of the six rest-of-state regions continuing to record monthly gains in excess of 1.2 per cent."

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The biggest winner of February 2022 was Brisbane, where dwelling values grew 1.8 per cent to a median of $722,433.

Hobart (+1.2 per cent), Adelaide (+1.5 per cent) and combined regional centres (+1.6 per cent) all continued to show strong growth.

Mr Lawless said the regions were continuing to enjoy the COVID-19 trend of city dwellers opting to buy property in lifestyle-focused destinations.

"Regional housing markets aren't immune from the higher cost of debt as fixed-term mortgage rates rise. These markets are also increasingly impacted by worsening affordability constraints as housing prices consistently outpace incomes," he said.

"However, demographic tailwinds, low inventory levels and ongoing demand for coastal or treechange housing options are continuing to support strong upwards price pressures across regional housing markets."

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While many are keenly watching the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for any change in interest rates, Mr Lawless said the headwinds weighing on the property market extend "well beyond" the cash rate.

"The slower growth conditions in Australian housing values goes well beyond the rising expectation of interest rate hikes later this year," Mr Lawless said.

"The pace of growth in housing values started to ease in April last year, when fixed-term mortgage rates began to face upwards pressure, fiscal support was expiring and housing affordability was becoming more stretched.

"With rising global uncertainty and the potential for weaker consumer sentiment amidst tighter monetary policy settings, the downside risk for housing markets has become more pronounced in recent months."

Australia's capital city property prices February 2022*

*CoreLogic National February Home Value Index

Well-known Northern Territory personality Chris 'Willow' Wilson has been identified as the victim of a chopper crash in West Arnhem.

The Outback Wrangler cast member was killed and another person was seriously injured just before 11am yesterday.

Northern Territory Police sent officers from Goulburn Island to attend the site on King River, several hours away.

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https://twitter.com/tahliasarv/status/1498443605400522755

Senior Sergeant Erica Gibson said authorities reached the site in the afternoon and confirmed the death of the 34-year-old man.

"The survivor, a 28-year-old man, was transported to Royal Darwin Hospital," Ms Gibson said.

CareFlight sent a rescue helicopter, while several agencies were notified including the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and Northern Territory WorkSafe.

Outback Wrangler host Matt Wright told the NT News the entire team has been left 'devastated' by the tragedy.

"Our love and thoughts are with Chris' wife Danielle and two little boys Ted and Austin as well as the families and friends of Chris and Seb during this incredibly tough time," read a statement provided to NT News by the company behind the show.

An investigation into the crash is underway.

The Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island – who were all feared dead after their defiant response to threats from a Russian warship – are actually "alive and well," according to the Ukrainian Navy.

All of the soldiers on the tiny island in the Black Sea were thought to have been killed in an attack on the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.

According to a purported audio exchange, one of the Ukrainian troops had responded to a warning from an approaching Russian vessel to lay down their weapons or face bombing by saying, "Russian warship, go f— yourself."

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said later on Thursday that 13 soldiers on Snake Island all died "heroically" by Russian bombardment.

But – after the Ukrainian border force said that it had information disputing the deaths – a statement on Monday from the country's navy suggested this was certainly not the case.

According to the navy the soldiers on the island repelled two attacks by Russian forces but in the end were forced to surrender "due to the lack of ammunition".

The statement added that Russian attackers have completely destroyed the island's infrastructure, including lighthouses, towers and antennas.

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Russian state media also showed the arrival of the Ukrainian soldiers in Sevastopol, Crimea where they are being held.

Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, sits about 48 kilometres off the southern tip of the Ukrainian mainland in the northwestern Black Sea.

It's about 250 kilometres west of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed in 2014.

Though it is only about 18 hectares in size, a report last year from the non-partisan Atlantic Council think tank called it "key to Ukraine's maritime territorial claims" in the Black Sea.

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Russian forces have shelled Ukraine's second-largest city rocking a residential neighbourhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 30 kilometre convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles.

Talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.

Amid ever-growing international condemnation, Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion, while also facing unexpectedly fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine and economic havoc at home.

For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the spectre of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putin's orders over the weekend.

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Stepping up his rhetoric, Mr Putin denounced the US and its allies as an "empire of lies".

Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Mr Putin, who has long accused the US of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow's orbit.

A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys "found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen".

He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days.

As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly three million.

The vast convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 25 kilometres from the centre of the city, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.

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Video from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts. Flashes of fire and grey plumes of smoke could be seen.

Footage released by the government from Kharkiv depicted what appeared to be a home with water gushing from a pierced ceiling. What looked like an undetonated projectile was on the floor.

Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher.

"They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way," said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment and gave just his first name and his Russian-style middle name out of fear for his safety.

More than 500,000 people have fled the country since the invasion, another UN official said Monday — among millions who have left their homes.

The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

Fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country.

The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is "hanging on," said Mr Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich.

An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.

In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts.

"Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat," Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone.

He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes.