Russian forces pounded the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday, shelling its downtown as residents hid in its iconic mosque and elsewhere to avoid the explosions.
Mariupol has endured some of Ukraine's worst misery since Russia invaded. Unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring food, water and medicine into the city of 430,000 and to evacuate its trapped civilians.
More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol during the siege, according the mayor's office, and the shelling has even interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves.
"There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the city and the dead aren't even being buried," Mariupol's mayor's office said in a statement Friday, calling for Russian forces to lift the siege.
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The Ukrainian government said Saturday that the Sultan Suleiman Mosque was hit, but an unverified Instagram post by a man claiming to be the mosque association's president said the building was spared when a bomb fell about 700 metres away. About 80 residents, including children, were reportedly hiding inside.
"They are bombing [Mariupol] 24 hours a day, launching missiles. It is hatred. They kill children," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a video address.
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On Friday, an Associated Press journalist in Mariupol witnessed tanks fire on a nine-story apartment building and was with a group of hospital workers who came under sniper fire. A worker shot in the hip survived, but conditions in the hospital were deteriorating as electricity was reserved for operating tables and people with nowhere else to go lined the hallways.
Among them was Anastasiya Erashova, who wept and trembled as she held a sleeping child. Shelling had just killed her other child as well as her brother's child, Erashova said.
"We came to my brother's [place], all of us together. The women and children went underground, and then some mortar struck that building," she said. "We were trapped underground, and two children died. No one was able to save them."
Ukraine's military said Saturday that Russian forces captured Mariupol's eastern outskirts, tightening the armed squeeze on the strategic port. Taking Mariupol and other ports on the Azov Sea could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
With Mariupol's electricity, gas and water supplies knocked out, aid workers and Ukrainian authorities described an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. Aid group Doctors Without Borders said Mariupol residents are dying from a lack of medication and are draining heating pipes for drinking water.
Areas around Kyiv under barrage
Fighting also raged in the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, as Russia kept up its bombardment of several resisting cities.
In multiple areas around the capital, artillery barrages sent residents scurrying for shelter as air raid sirens wailed. Britain's Defence Ministry said Russian ground forces that had been massed north of Kyiv for most of the war had edged to within 25 kilometres of the city centre and spread out, likely to support an attempted encirclement.
As artillery pounded Kyiv's northwestern outskirts, black and white columns of smoke rose southwest of the capital after a strike on an ammunition depot in the town of Vasylkiv caused hundreds of small explosions. A frozen food warehouse just outside the capital also was struck in an apparent effort to target Kyiv's food supply.
Ukraine's military and volunteer forces have been preparing for an all-out assault. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday that about two million people, half the metropolitan area's inhabitants, had left and that "every street, every house, is being fortified."
Zelensky said Saturday that Russia would need to carpet-bomb the Ukrainian capital and kill its residents to take the city.
"They will come here only if they kill us all," he said. "If that is their goal, let them come."
Zelensky calls for no-fly zone, talks with Putin
Zelensky said he's open for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Israel, but only if there is a ceasefire in place.
Zelensky said Saturday he told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he would be ready to meet Putin in Jerusalem. Bennett visited Moscow for a meeting with Putin and spoke repeatedly with Zelensky and the leaders of France and Germany as he sought to help mediate an end to the war.
Zelensky said Bennett informed him about his talks with Putin, adding that he can't share details. Putin has ignored numerous previous offers of talks from Zelensky.
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Zelensky also again deplored NATO's refusal to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine despite its repeated pleas. He said that Ukraine has sought for ways to procure air defence assets, but he wouldn't mention any details.
Meanwhile, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said his three-way call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Putin was "very frank and also difficult."
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French officials said the Russian leader gave no indication during the call Saturday lasting more than an hour that he intends to stop the fighting in Ukraine.
European leaders are working on what they describe as a punishing new set of "massive" economic sanctions against Moscow in the hope of getting Putin to change his mind.
Biden authorizes up to $200M more aid
U.S. President Joe Biden is authorizing the State Department to provide additional aid to Ukraine of up to $200 million US.
The funds would cover weapons as well as military services, education and training as Ukrainians seek to repel the Russian invasion.
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The aid is part of broader U.S. support in the form of aid and sanctions. When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that $1 billion US in aid had been provided to Ukraine.
The ongoing warfare has led to additional support with Congress this week approving $13.6 billion US in additional aid, a sum that includes $6.5 billion US for the costs of sending troops and weapons to Eastern Europe and $6.8 billion US for refugees and economic aid.
Biden plans to sign the spending bill with the additional aid when he receives it next week.
Heavy causalities
Thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been killed along with many civilians. At least 2.5 million people have fled the country, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The UN human rights office says at least 579 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war, and more than 1,000 have been injured.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Saturday that 42 of those killed were children, while 54 were injured. The Geneva-based office had documented 564 civilian deaths and 982 injured a day earlier.
It said most recorded civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a "wide impact area," such as shelling from heavy artillery and missile strikes.
UN officials said they believe the actual number of casualties is considerably higher than so far recorded because the receipt of information has been delayed and many reports still need to be corroborated.
The UN's crisis co-ordinator for Ukraine says the global body is seeking agreement with both sides in the conflict to establish corridors for delivering much-needed aid.
Amin Awad told The Associated Press on Saturday that progress is being made on the corridors and accompanying cease-fires but expressed frustration over resistance to quickly implement them.
He said the most pressing humanitarian needs are in Mariupol, a besieged city on the eastern edge of Ukraine near the Russian border that would be one of the most difficult for aid convoys to reach. Several attempts to establish evacuation routes from Mariupol have failed.
Awad said overall as many as many as 12 million Ukrainians may need aid.
