Russian forces fired eight missiles at a Ukrainian military facility near the Polish border on Sunday, officials said, in what appeared to be the westernmost attack of the war, and air raid sirens again woke residents in the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian police officers help residents to cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate Irpin, northwest of Kyiv. Photo: AFP
"The occupiers launched an air strike on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security" in Yavoriv, the Lviv regional military administration said in a statement. "According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles."
The administration did not say whether the training facility was hit or offer further details.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian forces they face a fight to the death if they try to occupy the capital Kyiv, as air raid sirens again woke residents on Sunday morning.
"If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region ... and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that's their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves," Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
The president, who has repeatedly appeared on social media from the capital, said some small towns no longer existed in the third week of Russian attacks, the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two.
Russian shelling has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Ukraine accused Russian forces on Saturday of killing seven civilians in an attack on women and children trying to flee fighting near Kyiv. France said Russian President Vladimir Putin had shown no readiness to make peace.
The Ukrainian intelligence service said the seven, including one child, were killed as they fled the village of Peremoha and that "the occupiers forced the remnants of the column to turn back." read more
Reuters was unable immediately to verify the report and Russia offered no immediate comment.
Moscow denies targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on 24 February. It blames Ukraine for failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusation Ukraine and its Western allies strongly reject.
Zelenskiy said Moscow was sending in new troops after Ukrainian forces put 31 of Russia's battalion tactical groups out of action in what he called Russia's largest army losses in decades. Reuters could not verify his statements.
"We still need to hold on. We still have to fight," Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Saturday, his second of the day. Saying about 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed, he urged the West to get more involved in peace negotiations.
The United States said it would rush up to $200 million in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, where officials have pleaded for more military aid. read more
The Kremlin describes its actions as a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a media conference in Kyiv saying 1300 Ukranian troops had been killed so far. Photo: AFP / 2022 Anadolu Agency
Zelenskiy discussed the war with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who urged Putin to order an immediate ceasefire.
A Kremlin statement on their 75-minute call made no mention of a ceasefire. A French presidency official said: "We did not detect a willingness on Putin's part to end the war."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the United States of escalating tensions and said the situation had been complicated by convoys of Western arms shipments to Ukraine that Russian forces considered "legitimate targets".
In comments reported by the Tass news agency, Ryabkov made no specific threat. Any attack on such convoys before they reached Ukraine would risk widening the war.
Crisis talks between Moscow and Kyiv have been continuing by video link, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia's RIA news agency. He gave no details, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would not surrender or accept any ultimatums.
Humanitarian corridors
Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported.
Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase and hit an ammunition depot near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych as saying.
The exhausted-looking governor of Chernihiv, around 150km northeast of Kyiv, gave a video update in front of the ruins of the city's Ukraine Hotel, which he said had been hit.
"There is no such hotel any more," Viacheslav Chaus said, wiping tears from his eyes. "But Ukraine itself still exists, and it will prevail."
Britain's defence ministry said fighting northwest of the capital continued, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25km from the centre of Kyiv, which it has said Russia could attack within days.
Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled under heavy Russian shelling, it said.
Putin launched the invasion on 24 February in an operation that has been almost universally condemned around the world and that has drawn tough Western sanctions on Russia.
The Russian bombardment has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries. Zelenskiy said the conflict meant some small Ukrainian towns no longer existed.
Firefighters in Dnipro after airstrikes hit civil settlements on 11 March. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Anadolu Agency via AFP
Moscow has denied targeting civilians in what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and unseat leaders it refers to as neo-Nazis. It has not responded to Ukrainian challenges to provide evidence.
Ukrainian officials had planned to use humanitarian corridors from Mariupol as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas on Saturday.
The governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were continuing on Saturday morning though some evacuations were proceeding.
The Donetsk region's governor said constant shelling was complicating bringing aid into the southern city of Mariupol.
"There are reports of looting and violent confrontations among civilians over what little basic supplies remain in the city," the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
"Medicines for life-threatening illnesses are quickly running out, hospitals are only partially functioning, and the food and water are in short supply."
A resident examines a destroyed tram depot in Kharkiv which remains under heavy Russian shelling. Photo: AFP
Makeshift burials
People were boiling ground water for drinking, using wood to cook food and burying dead bodies near where they lay, a staff member for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in Mariupol said.
"We saw people who died because of lack of medication," he said, adding that many people had also been wounded or killed. "Neighbours just dig a hole in the ground and put the dead bodies inside."
At least 1582 civilians in Mariupol have been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said on Friday. It was not possible to verify casualty figures.
Moscow has previously blamed Kyiv for failed evacuations.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of kidnapping the mayor of the southern city of Melitopol, which Russia controls.
Zelenskiy called on Saturday for his release and more than 2000 residents protested outside the city administration building to demand the release of the mayor's release, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, said.
Russia has not commented on the fate of Fedorov.
Efforts to isolate Russia economically have stepped up, with the United States imposing new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs on Friday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would on Saturday suspend Moscow's privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel goods from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods in the other direction.
- Reuters