Russia keeps up pounding of Ukrainian cities amid ‘nightmare’ for civilians

Russian forces have kept up their relentless bombardment of Ukraine's major cities as the number of people fleeing the country neared 3 million, with the Red Cross describing conditions for those left behind as "nothing short of a nightmare".

As Russian airstrikes and artillery fire continued to pound residential areas across the country, Ukrainian prosecutors said 90 children had now died in the conflict. The UN said it had confirmed 636 civilian deaths, but the real toll would be much higher.

UN data also showed that more than 2.8 million civilians had fled the onslaught since it began on 24 February, with millions more internally displaced. EU officials have said 5 million people may end up fleeing abroad and others have put the figure higher.

Multiple airstrikes again hit residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and second city of Kharkiv on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, authorities said.

One body was recovered and three people were hospitalised after a missile partially destroyed a nine-storey block of flats in Kyiv's Obolon district, local officials said, with a second person killed later by falling missile fragments on a nearby street.

In Kharkiv, two people were killed by artillery fire on a residential street and a 15-year-old boy died from shrapnel wounds after shells hit a kindergarten in the nearby town of Chuguiv, approximately 25 miles (40km) south-east of the city.

At least nine people were also reportedly killed and nine more wounded in an airstrike on a television tower in Ukraine's northern Rivne region. "There are still people under the rubble," governor Vitaliy Koval said.

Some civilians were able to flee, with frontline towns around Kyiv being partly - if slowly - evacuated for a fifth consecutive day, according to the regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, who added that a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave was "holding, albeit it is very conditional".

A senior official in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said more than 1,700 people had also been evacuated through humanitarian corridors in the eastern region of Luhansk, despite what Ukrainian authorities described as constant fire.

After several days of failed attempts to deliver supplies to Mariupol and provide safe passage out for trapped civilians, authorities said a local ceasefire was holding, with more than 160 private cars able to leave in what appeared to be the first successful attempt to evacuate civilians from the encircled and devastated city.

Andrei Rempel, a city council representative, said the southern port "continues to be bombed, but this road is not being shelled." The council described the situation in Mariupol on Friday as "critical", while the Red Cross has said conditions there were "apocalyptic".

A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said more than 2,500 residents of the Black Sea city, many of whose residents have been without power, heat or water for more than two weeks, had died since the invasion began on 24 February.

Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the war had become "nothing short of a nightmare" for those living in such besieged cities. "The situation cannot, cannot continue like this," he said. "History is watching what is happening in Mariupol and other cities."

Some of those who have decided to stay in Kyiv said they were doing so because they were determined to help with their country's defence.

"The sirens are going constantly, but one basically ignores them at this point," said Maria Koudriavtseva, 37, a former marketing manager who is now a volunteer helping to make body armour and tank traps for the army.

"As we made the decision to stay and help the army until the end, we are staying and doing what we can," she said. We're in the centre and it's relatively quiet. There are cars, the traffic lights are working," she said. "But as you know there were serious attacks on Obolon and Kurenivka." Oleksandr Tanashchuk, a paramedic, said that for him "the situation hasn't changed in the past week or so". He said most people who wanted to leave had now done so and those who have stayed had made their choice.

"Either they are people who are active, like us, or people who can't leave, or people who are like children, closing their eyes to the danger," he said, adding that he believed Ukraine's troops would be able to hold off the coming assault. The Russian force's resources were becoming depleted, he said, and their morale was falling.

A close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, national guard chief Viktor Zolotov, said on Monday that Russia's military operation in Ukraine had not gone as quickly as the Kremlin had wanted, blaming the lack of progress on what he said were far-right Ukrainian forces hiding behind civilians, an accusation repeatedly made by Russian officials.

Zolotov was contradicted by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, however, who said the invasion was "going according to plan and will be completed on time and in full", adding: "The defence ministry of the Russian Federation, while ensuring the maximum safety of the civilian population, does not exclude the possibility of taking major population centres under full control."

Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, denied Russian accusations that a Ukrainian missile in separatist-controlled Donetsk killed 20 people. The local separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, said the victims were waiting at a bus stop and an ATM.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Leonid Matyukhin, however, denied the allegation, saying the missile was Russian. "It is unmistakably a Russian rocket or another munition, there's not even any point talking about it," he said.

Peace talks between the two sides resumed on Monday, with Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak stating they would continue on Tuesday via video after a "technical pause" to allow additional work by subgroups and clarification of terms.

While previous rounds had focused on humanitarian issues, the latest talks were aimed at achieving a ceasefire, securing Russian troop withdrawals and establishing security guarantees for Ukraine, Podolyak said, describing negotiations as "hard".

Both sides had earlier reported progress, with Ukraine saying Russia was "beginning to talk constructively" and results may be possible "literally in a matter of days". Russian delegate Leonid Slutsky suggested draft agreements may not be far off.

Zelenskiy said one aim was to set up a meeting between himself and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with the ultimate goal of "Ukraine getting the necessary result for peace and for security", but Russia said it had received no formal request for a meeting.

Washington and its EU allies have sent funds and military aid to Ukraine and imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia, but ruled out any direct intervention, with the US president, Joe Biden, saying Nato fighting Russia "is world war three".

The west has imposed sanctions on Russian billionaire oligarchs close to Putin, frozen Russian state assets and cut off much of the country's corporate sector from the global economy in an attempt to force Moscow to change course.

Russia warned on Monday that while it had approved a temporary procedure for repaying its foreign currency debt, payments would be made in roubles if sanctions prevented banks from honouring debts in the currency of issue.

Several US officials have said Russia has also asked China for military equipment. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who was due to meet China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome on Monday, said China would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade western sanctions.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said US assertions that Russia asked Beijing for military equipment for its campaign in Ukraine were "disinformation" from the US, while the Kremlin said Russia had sufficient military resources to fulfil its aims without any need for help from China.

The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said on Monday that an earlier decision by Putin to place Russia's nuclear forces on higher alert was a "bone-chilling development", adding that the once-unthinkable prospect of nuclear conflict "is now back within the realm of possibility".