Fighting stopped about 200,000 people from evacuating the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol for a second day in a row on Sunday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press ahead with his invasion unless Kyiv surrendered.
"Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second attempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt," the ICRC said in a statement.
Most people trapped in the port city are sleeping underground to escape more than six days of near-constant shelling by encircling Russian forces that have cut off food, water, power and heating supplies, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Mariupol city council said a convoy of evacuees was not able to depart on Sunday because Russian forces continued shelling despite a ceasefire agreement that was meant to last into the evening. A similar evacuation plan was thwarted by shelling on Saturday.
"It is extremely dangerous to take people out under such conditions," the city council said in a statement.
In a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Mr Putin told Mr Erdogan he was ready for dialogue to end the fighting but that any attempt to draw out talks would fail, according to the Kremlin.
The suspension of what Moscow describes as a special operation "is only possible if Kyiv stops military operations and carries out well-known Russian demands," the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
The civilian death toll from hostilities across Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion on 24 February stood at 364, including more than 20 children, the United Nations said on Sunday, adding hundreds more were injured.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said most civilian casualties were caused by the use of "explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes."
Russia has launched about 600 missiles so far, according to a senior US defense official.
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said late on Sunday that the Russians were "beginning to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv".
Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilian areas.
A fire is seen in Mariupol on 3 March after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in this image obtained from social media by Reuters. Source: Reuters
Residents fleeing town near Kyiv caught in shelling
In Irpin, a town some 25 kilometres northwest of the capital Kyiv, men, women and children trying to escape heavy fighting in the area were forced to take cover when missiles struck nearby, according to Reuters witnesses.
Soldiers and fellow residents helped the elderly hurry to a bus filled with frightened people, some cowering as they waited to be driven to safety.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Sunday it would continue the evacuation of civilians from Irpin after recent shelling of the town and its environs.
The State Emergency Service also said it was setting up tents to provide medical care to all those who needed it.
The invasion has drawn almost universal condemnation around the world, sent more than 1.5 million Ukrainians fleeing from the country, and triggered sweeping Western sanctions against Russia aimed at crippling its economy. The Biden administration said on Sunday it was exploring banning Russian oil imports.
"War is madness, please stop," Pope Francis said in his weekly address to crowds in St Peter's Square, adding that "rivers of blood and tears" were flowing in Ukraine's war.
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee across the Irpin River in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 5 March, 2022. Source: AAP / Emilio Morenatti/AP
Mr Macron told Mr Putin he was concerned about a possible amphibious attack on Ukraine's historic port city of Odessa, Mr Macron's office said.
The United States does not believe such an attack is imminent, the senior US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has driven more than 1.5 million people to flee to neighbouring countries in the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Sunday.
Millions more have been displaced internally, trying to get to the relative safety of western Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has seen credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians in Ukraine, adding that Washington was documenting them to support a potential war crimes investigation.
Speaking on a trip to neighbouring Moldova, Mr Blinken said Washington was considering how it could backfill aircraft for Poland if Warsaw decided to supply its warplanes to Ukraine.
Mr Putin says he wants a "demilitarised", "denazified" and neutral Ukraine, and on Saturday likened Western sanctions "to a declaration of war".
The West, which calls Mr Putin's reasons for invading baseless, has expanded efforts to rearm Ukraine, sending in items from Stinger missiles to anti-tank weapons. But Washington and its NATO allies have resisted Ukraine's plea for a no-fly zone, saying it would escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine's borders.
Russian convoy makes limited progress
A huge Russian convoy north of Kyiv appears to have made limited progress in recent days, although Russia's defence ministry released footage on Sunday showing some tracked military vehicles on the move.
The US defense official estimated that Russia has deployed about 95 per cent of the combat forces it had staged outside Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian rockets had destroyed the civilian airport of the central-western region capital of Vinnytsia. Troops who committed atrocities against civilians would ultimately face punishment, he said.
"For you there will be no peaceful place on this earth, except for the grave," he said in a televised evening address.
Russian forces opened fire at a protest against their occupation of the southern Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka on Sunday, wounding five people, Ukrainian news agency Interfax Ukraine said, citing eyewitnesses.
Barricades and trenches in Kyiv
In Kyiv itself, Ukrainian soldiers bolstered defences by digging trenches, blocking roads and liaising with civil defence units as Russian forces bombarded the surrounding areas.
While the armed forces and civilian volunteers dug in, thousands of people continued to try to flee the city as fears of a full assault mounted.
Russia has concentrated much of its firepower on the south and east of the country since its assault began, besieging cities including Mariupol and Kharkiv with shelling and airstrikes and causing extensive damage and casualties.
Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting so far, but intense battles have raged in neighbouring towns and villages and Russia's defence ministry released footage on Sunday of some of its tracked military vehicles on the move near the capital.
Video provided by Ukraine's armed forces taken on Saturday in the Kyiv region showed Ukrainian efforts to defend the capital, with piles of sandbags and concrete slabs laid across a main road where Ukrainian soldiers checked passing cars.
A smaller road was blocked by metal "hedgehog" anti-tank barriers, and machine-gun positions had been erected. Civilians who have vowed to join the battle to protect Kyiv stored dozens of Molotov cocktails.
A Ukrainian serviceman is seen in the window of a damaged residential building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Source: AFP / DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
She reached a small village 50 kilometres away where her family has a house, and has stayed there with her three-year-old son, Simon, her pregnant sister, who is due to give birth in two weeks and their parents.
"Of course, I'm frightened as is everybody, but I have so many people I'm responsible for. I'm responsible for my family, I'm responsible for my business," she told Reuters via Zoom.
"But to tell the truth, I thought I would be even more frightened. Now I feel like a soldier. I feel that I have a lot of energy to just to fight, because I know that we will win."
Ukraine's military said more than 11,000 Russian troops had been killed so far and 88 Russian aircraft shot down since the start of the invasion. Reuters could not corroborate the claim. Russia has not given regular updates on its death toll.
Tass news agency cited Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying virtually the entire Ukrainian air force had been destroyed. In the last 36 hours alone, he said, Ukraine had lost 11 combat aircraft and two helicopters. Reuters had no way of corroborating the claim.
