The latest:
- Russian president urges more talks to make ceasefire agreement work.
- Rate of Russian air and artillery strikes over past 24 hours lower than in previous days, U.K. says.
- Indian students trapped in northeast Ukraine plead for humanitarian corridor to be opened to allow safe passage.
What looked like a breakthrough ceasefire to evacuate residents from two cities in Ukraine quickly fell apart Saturday as Ukrainian officials said continued shelling had halted the work to remove civilians hours after Russia announced the deal.
The Russian defence ministry earlier said it had agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces for Mariupol, a strategic port in the southeast, and the eastern city of Volnovakha. The vaguely worded statement did not make clear how long the routes would remain open.
"The Russian side is not holding to the ceasefire and has continued firing on Mariupol itself and on its surrounding area," said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office. "Talks with the Russian Federation are ongoing regarding setting up a ceasefire and ensuring a safe humanitarian corridor."
Russia breached the deal in Volnovakha as well, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told reporters. "We appeal to the Russian side to stop firing," she said. Meanwhile, Russian outlet RIA Novosti carried a Russian defence ministry claim that the firing came from inside both cities against Russian positions.
The struggle to enforce the ceasefire showed the fragility of efforts to stop fighting across Ukraine as people continued to flee the country on the 10th day after Russian forces invaded the country.
"We are doing everything on our part to make the agreement work," Zelensky said. "This is one of the main tasks for today. Let's see if we can go further in the negotiation process."
Mariupol had become the scene of growing misery in recent days amid an assault that knocked out power and most phone service and raised the prospect of food and water shortages for hundreds of thousands of people in freezing weather. Pharmacies are out of medicine, Doctors Without Borders said.
A top official in Mariupol had said the evacuations were to start at 11 a.m. local time and the ceasefire was to last until 4 p.m. Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Donetsk military-civil administration that includes the city, said the humanitarian corridor would extend to Zaporizhzhia, 226 kilometres away.
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In comments carried on Ukrainian television, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said thousands of people had gathered for safe passage out of the city and buses were just departing when shelling began.
"We value the life of every inhabitant of Mariupol and we cannot risk it, so we stopped the evacuation," he said.
- NATO rejects Ukraine no-fly zone, as EU preps more Russia sanctions
As Russian forces batter strategic locations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has lashed out at NATO for refusing to impose a no-fly zone over his country, warning that "all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you."
NATO rejects appeal for no-fly zone
In a bitter and emotional speech late Friday, Zelensky said a lack of a no-fly zone will fully untie Russia's hands as it escalates its air attack.
"The alliance has given the green light to the bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages," he said, warning that "the history of Europe will remember this forever."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned against a move that would put NATO planes in a position to shoot down Russian aircraft and said implementing a no-fly zone could provoke a "full-fledged war" in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia.
Conflict pulling in many countries
With more than a million refugees from Ukraine relocating in Europe, the conflict is drawing in countries far beyond Ukraine's borders.
- Singapore on Saturday announced sanctions against Russia, becoming one of the few governments in Southeast Asia to do so. The sanctions target include four banks and also involve an export ban on electronics, computers and military items.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Turkish leader said. "This war must be stopped immediately and there must be a return to the negotiating table," Ibrahim Kalin told broadcaster NTV in Istanbulj on Saturday.
- Germany will deploy air defence capabilities to Lithuania and the United States will send a troop battalion armed with tanks, Lithuania's defense minister said on Saturday. Lithuania had asked NATO to add more troops and equipment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
- Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least xjmtzyw140 million euros ($153 million US) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list following Moscow's attack on Ukraine, sources said on Saturday.
- At least 4,000 people marched in Tokyo on Saturday protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We cannot accept the Russian government's violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another sovereign state," Sinapore's foreign ministry said in a statement, which gave no timeframe for when the sanctions would take effect.
"For a small state like Singapore, this is not a theoretical principle, but a dangerous precedent. This is why Singapore has strongly condemned Russia's unprovoked attack," the ministry said.
Russia's shelling of a nuclear plant in Ukraine on Friday and Putin's implied threat of nuclear war have struck a nerve in Japan, which suffered atomic attacks at the end of the Second World War in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in Fukushima in 2011.
The protest, one of the largest in Tokyo in recent years, included people from Europe and went through the fashionable Omotesando district, extending for blocks.
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Russia, meanwhile, continues to crack down on independent media reporting on the war, blocking Facebook and Twitter, while multiple media outlets say they are pausing their work inside the country. Russia's communications regulator on Friday said it's blocking Meta Platforms Inc.'s Facebook in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform.
Ukraine's president was set to brief U.S. senators on Saturday on a video conference call as Congress considers a request for $10 billion US in emergency funding for humanitarian aid and security needs.
'If we fall, you will fall'
In a separate video message to anti-war protesters in several European cities, Zelensky continued to appeal for help. "If we fall, you will fall," he said.
In New York, the UN Security Council will hold an open meeting on Monday on the worsening humanitarian situation. The UN estimates that 12 million people in Ukraine and four million fleeing to neighbouring countries in the coming months will need humanitarian aid.
What's happening on the ground
- Russian defence ministry released a video on Saturday showing what it said was military helicopters hitting targets during a special operation in Ukraine. According to the ministry, the footage shows Ka-52 attack helicopters destroying armoured vehicles of Ukrainian forces with anti-tank missiles. The ministry did not specify where of when the video was filmed.
- Russian forces did not make significant progress Friday in their offensive to sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, which would deal a severe blow to its economy. There were also no changes in the north and the east, where the Russian offensive has stalled, meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance.
- Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said battles involving airstrikes and artillery continued northwest of Kyiv, and the northeastern cities of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka came under heavy fire.
Arestovich said Ukrainian forces were still holding the northern city of Chernihiv and the southern port city of Mykolaiv. Ukrainian artillery also defended Ukraine's biggest port city, Odesa, from repeated attempts by Russian ships, he said.
Hundreds of students from India been unable to leave Sumy, a city 40 kilometres from the Russian border in northeast Ukraine, which has faced heavy shelling by Russian forces for the past week. Students at Sumy State University reported a large explosion near their school on Friday. An oil depot in the city was reportedly bombed last Monday.
Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne cited authorities in Sumy as saying that there is a risk of fighting in the city's streets. Students have posted a video to social media calling for a humanitarian corridor in Sumy.
The rate of Russian air and artillery strikes in Ukraine over the past 24 hours has been lower than in previous days but Russian forces were believed to be advancing in the south of the country, Britain said in an intelligence update on Saturday.
In the video, a student of Sumy State University says, “We are afraid, we have awaited a lot and we cannot wait anymore. We are risking our life; we are moving towards the border. If anything happens to us, all the responsibility will be for government and Indian Embassy.” <a href=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/”https://t.co/q1NnK2BCdk”>pic.twitter.com/q1NnK2BCdk
—@IndianExpress
"Ukraine continues to hold the key cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol," the British defence ministry said on Twitter early on Saturday. "There have been reports of street fighting in Sumy. It is highly likely that all four cities are encircled by Russian forces."
Russian forces are "probably advancing" on Mykolaiv, the ministry said, adding some forces could attempt to circumvent the city to prioritize progression toward Odesa.
