Ukraine prepared Sunday for a "relentless defence" of Kyiv as the capital faced possible encirclement by advancing Russian forces who have also kept up a bombardment of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.
A mosque in Mariupol, where 80 civilians were taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine's foreign ministry said today. This comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the mayor of Melitopol was kidnapped by Russian soldiers occupying the city.
Russian forces have advanced ever closer to the capital from the north, west and northeast, raising fears of Kyiv becoming encircled imminently. Russian strikes also destroyed an airport in the town of Vasylkiv, south of the city, while troops shot at a group of women and children evacuees leaving a village near Kyiv, killing seven.
The war, which began on February 24 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour, has continued for over two weeks now.
Here are the Highlights on Ukraine-Russia War:
Up to 30,000 men, women and children joined an anti-war demonstration in central Berlin on Sunday, with many waving Ukrainian flags or holding banners with slogans opposing the Russian invasion.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Germany on Sunday to call for peace and protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, police and organisers said.
A sea of people carrying yellow and blue signs that read "Stop Putin" and "Stop the War" massed at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, with police estimating turnout in the capital at between 20,000 and 30,000.
In Frankfurt, around 11,000 people gathered in solidarity with Ukrainians, according to a police spokesman, who said the rallies proceeded "peacefully and without incident".
Demonstrators there waved Ukrainian and European Union flags and chanted "Stoppt den Krieg" (Stop the war), a reporter at the scene said.
Colourful marches also took place in Stuttgart, Leipzig and Hamburg, drawing in young and old, including families with children.
The demos were organised by an alliance of more than 40 rights organisations, campaign groups, unions and church groups.
A senior Ukrainian police officer has accused Russian forces of launching phosphorous bomb attacks in the eastern region of Lugansk.
A high-level US delegation meets in Rome Monday with a top Chinese official, the White House said as it warned Beijing would face severe "consequences" if it helps Russia evade sanctions over its war in Ukraine.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party's chief diplomat, "will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine on regional and global security," National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Sunday in a statement.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday to discuss Russia's war against Ukraine and its impact on regional and global security, a source familiar with the plans said.
The meeting had been in planning for some time as part of a broader effort by Washington and Beijing to maintain open channels of communication and manage competition, but the war in Ukraine would be "a significant topic," the Reuters' source said.
Waving national flags and chanting "Kherson is for Ukraine" and "Glory to Ukraine", several thousand protesters gathered in a show of defiance on the central Freedom Square, the Suspilne Kherson public broadcaster reported.
Protesters marched down a central boulevard past a line of Russian armoured vehicles marked with the "Z" symbol used by the invaders and manned by troops wielding guns and wearing face coverings, a witness video posted by Suspilne Kherson on Telegram showed.
At one point, troops fired several volleys, which Suspilne Kherson reported were "warning shots".
Russia's expansion of attacks to new targets in Ukraine near the Polish border reflects its growing frustration about the pace of the invasion, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday.
Sullivan said Washington had no plans to have U.S. military forces operating in Ukraine, but the United States would defend "every inch" of NATO territory, while increasing assistance to Ukrainian fighters, including through provision of anti-aircraft weapons.
A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded on Sunday in Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv, medics and witnesses told AFP.
Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for the Ukrainian territorial defence, said one of the Americans died instantly and he had treated the other.
Stung by criticism of its lacklustre approach to refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK on Sunday unveiled a new scheme to allow them to stay with Britons for up to three years.
Nearly 125,000 people have been evacuated via humanitarian corridors from conflict zones in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday.
"Today the key task is Mariupol," he said, adding that a humanitarian supply convoy was now only 80 kilometres (50 miles) away from the besieged port city where more than 400,000 people are trapped.
Nine people have been killed by a Russian airstrike on the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv near the strategic port of Odessa, the regional governor Vitaliy Kim said Sunday.
Ukraine is working with Israel and Turkey as mediators to finalise a location and framework for peace negotiations with Russia, Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Sunday.
"When it is worked out, there will be a meeting. I think it won't take long for us to get there," he said on national television.
Nine people have been killed by a Russian airstrike on the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv near the strategic port of Odessa, the regional governor Vitaliy Kim said Sunday.
"Scum!!!!!! 9 people died as a result of the bombing by assholes. Mykolaiv," Kim wrote on Telegram.
Kim wrote earlier that according to preliminary information, the Russians bombed a gas turbine factory in the city on Sunday morning.
The local authorities announced an air raid warning early Sunday.
Turkey has asked Russia to help evacuate Turkish citizens stranded in the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, Ankara's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Sunday.
"Yesterday, we called (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov) and asked him for his help evacuating our citizens," Cavusoglu said.
The Indian embassy in war-hit Ukraine has been temporarily relocated to neighbouring Poland amid "deteriorating security situation" in the country, said New Delhi today.
Stung by criticism of its lacklustre approach to refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK on Sunday unveiled a new scheme to allow them to stay with Britons for up to three years.
The "Homes for Ukraine" programme will allow "tens of thousands" to gain access to work, healthcare and education, even without family ties to Britain, cabinet secretary Michael Gove said.
The government wanted to try to ensure that "every available home" is opened up "to those who are fleeing persecution", he told Sky News.
"There are a large number of people in this country, generous hearted and in a position to provide homes, and businesses and charities as well," added Gove, whose portfolio includes housing.
Hosts will be given £350 ($457, 418 euros) a month and must commit to a minimum stay of six months -- potentially a stumbling block when Britons are grappling with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
A Russian tank reportedly blew up a Ukrainian woman who was leaving her home in Kyiv to get medicine for her ailing mother. The woman, Valeriia Maksetska, worked for a USAID partner organisation and was allegedly killed in a town near Kyiv.
Russian forces have advanced closer to Ukraine capital Kyiv from the north, west and northeast. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Russia was sending new forces after suffering what he said were its biggest losses in decades. Here is a ten-point cheat sheet on the Russia-Ukraine war today.
It was the middle of an emergency session of the UN Security Council, late on the evening of February 23, and Vassily Nebenzia looked shaken -- his face pale, his shoulders sagging.
Russian troops shot at a group of women and children evacuees leaving a village near Kyiv, killing seven, one of them a child, Ukraine's military intelligence service said Saturday, stating this happened on Friday.
