In war-torn areas of Ukraine, residents fled on footpaths and grief-stricken parents mourned dead children as Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities.
A promised cease-fire in the port city of Mariupol collapsed Saturday amid scenes of terror in the besieged town, while in the outskirts of Kyiv, a stream of residents with pets and children crossed the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge destroyed by a Russian airstrike.
Russian forces have intensified shelling in the port city of Mariupol, including with the use of airplanes, the mayor said Saturday night.
“The city is in a very, very difficult state of siege,” Vadym Boychenko told Ukrainian TV. “Relentless shelling of residential blocks is ongoing, airplanes have been dropping bombs on residential areas.”
Boychenko said that thousands of children, women and the elderly came under fire as they arrived in the morning for a possible evacuation through a safe passage corridor. Russia promised to stop the shelling of Mariupol, a port city of 430,000, and Volnovakha, a city in the east, but violated the cease-fire.
Russia has made significant advances in the south, clearly seeking to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea. Capturing Mariupol, which has been fending off the attack for six days, could allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated a call for a no-fly zone to be established over his country during a video-call with over 300 US lawmakers.
Nato leaders have repeatedly rejected the request, which they say would bring the west into direct confrontation with Russia.
His call came as Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, having earlier offered to mediate between leaders in Moscow and Kyiv.
The summit took place as heavy fighting continued across Ukraine, where Russian forces have been heavily shelling the southern city of Mariupol and the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Sumy.
Meanwhile, there has been intense fighting to the north-west of the capital Kyiv around the strategic Hostomel airfield, while Russian forces have also been bombarding Irpin- a small town on the outskirts of Kyiv.
