Arms shipments are a legitimate military target, Kremlin warns west

Russian forces continued to pulverise the besieged port city of Mariupol, shelling a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian government said on Saturday, while fighting also raged on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Columns of smoke were seen rising over the southwest of the city after a strike on an ammunition depot in the town of Vasylkiv.

In a bleak coda that spoke of the continuing levels of destruction, Zelenskiy added that some small Ukrainian towns had ceased to exist.

Ukrainian officials continued efforts to evacuate besieged cities, including the capital, as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas.

The governor of the Russian-controlled territory of Donetsk said constant shelling was complicating bringing aid into Mariupol.

People were boiling ground water for drinking, using wood to cook food and burying dead bodies near where they lay, a staff member for the international group Médecins Sans Frontières in the city said.