Russian air strikes and shelling smashed into buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Tuesday as invading forces tightened their grip.
Ukrainian soldiers inspect the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in Kyiv on 15 March 2022. Photo: AFP
At least five people were killed in the renewed bombardments on Kyiv on the 20th day of the Russian assault, authorities said, and the mayor announced a 35-hour curfew.
Buildings were set ablaze and people lay buried under the rubble. Two large blasts echoed across the centre of the city just before dawn on Tuesday. Late on Monday, tracer bullets flashed across the night sky as Ukrainian forces apparently targeted an enemy drone.
"Today is a difficult and dangerous moment," mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
"The capital is the heart of Ukraine, and it will be defended. Kyiv, which is currently the symbol and forward operating base of Europe's freedom and security, will not be given up by us."
He called on men who took wives and children to the relative safety of the west of the country earlier in the conflict to return to the capital to fight. Some have done so already, he and his brother Wladimir told Reuters in a recent interview.
Reuters witnesses saw a high-rise apartment block in flames after being struck by artillery. Firefighters tried to douse the blaze and rescue workers helped evacuate residents trapped inside using mobile ladders. A body lay on the ground in a bag.
The Artem weapons factory in central Kyiv was also hit, with footage taken by a local resident showing smoke coming from the roof. Outside kiosks nearby, shopkeepers and helpers swept up glass and other debris from the impact of the explosions.
Russia said on Monday that it planned to attack Ukrainian arms factories in retaliation for what it said was a Ukrainian strike on the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, and urged workers and local residents to stay away. Ukraine denied launching an attack.
Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February but the Russian military is slowly closing in on the city and the shelling has intensified.
An evacuated resident is comforted by a rescue worker outside a burning apartment building in Kyiv on 15 March 2022, after strikes on residential areas. Photo: AFP
Peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations via a video link resumed on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials played up hopes the war could end sooner than expected, saying Moscow may be coming to terms with its failure to impose a new government on Kyiv by force.
In a hint of compromise, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was prepared to accept security guarantees that stop short of its long-term objective of membership of the Nato alliance, which Moscow opposes.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg announced its members' leaders would meet in Brussels on 24 March to discuss the invasion and show support for Ukraine.
"At this critical time, North America and Europe must continue to stand together," Stoltenberg said.
US President Joe Biden will attend, the White House said.
'Where history is forged'
The leaders of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic were meanwhile heading to Kyiv by train on Tuesday in a show of solidarity. Their visit was a symbol of Ukraine's success so far in fending off an assault that Western countries believe was aimed at seizing the city weeks ago.
"It is our duty to be where history is forged. Because it's not about us, but about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
A convoy of civilians headed out of the besieged port city of Mariupol for safer parts. About 2000 cars managed to leave Mariupol and a further 2000 were waiting to follow, the city council said.
But a convoy with supplies for Mariupol, whose residents have been sheltering from repeated Russian bombardments and are desperate for food and water, was stuck at nearby Berdyansk, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
She accused Russia of lying about fulfilling agreements to help trapped civilians.
About half of Kyiv's 3.4 million population has fled and residents are spending nights sheltering in metro stations.
Sitting on the ground outside an apartment building struck by artiller and in flames, Igor Krupa said he survived because he had slept under a makeshift shelter of furniture and metal weights.
"All the windows went out and all the debris went into the apartment," he said.
But despite reducing parts of cities to rubble, Russian forces have been halted at the gates of Kyiv and failed to capture any of Ukraine's 10 biggest cities since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on 24 February.
Still, hundreds of civilians have been killed and nearly 3 million people, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine for safety in neighbouring countries. Zelensky said on Tuesday that 97 children had died so far in the invasion.
On the Romanian border, a woman named Tanya said she had fled the southern frontline town of Mykolaiv to save her child. "Because the people that are there now are Russians, Russian soldiers, and they kill children."
Zelensky calls on Russian troops to surrender
Zelensky, who has won admiration in the West for his leadership under fire, called on Russian troops to surrender.
"You will not take anything from Ukraine. You will take lives," he said in a video message. "But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive."
He also indicated Kyiv might be ready to compromise on its aspirations for NATO membership, an aim that has riled Moscow.
"If we cannot enter through open doors, then we must cooperate with the associations with which we can, which will help us, protect us...and have separate guarantees."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to predict progress in the talks: "The work is difficult, and in the current situation the very fact that (the talks) are continuing is probably positive."
One of Zelensky's top aides said the war would be over by May or even within weeks as Russia had run out of fresh troops.
"We are at a fork in the road now," Oleksiy Arestovich said in a video. He said he expected either a peace deal within one or two weeks or another Russian attempt with new reinforcements, which could prolong the conflict for another month.
At the United Nations, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow would end what it calls its "special military operation" when its goals were achieved.
A Russian woman who denounced the war in Ukraine during a live news bulletin on state television was fined 30,000 roubles (NZ$360) on Tuesday.
Marina Ovsyannikova, a Channel One employee, was found guilty of flouting protest laws. It was not immediately clear if she could also face other, more serious charges.
- Reuters