Russian forces close in on Kyiv

Russian forces upped pressure on Kyiv yesterday, pummelling civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities, amid fresh efforts to get aid to the devastated port city of Mariupol.

Russian strikes destroyed the airport in the town of Vasylkiv yesterday morning, about 40 kilometres south of Kyiv, while an oil depot was also hit and caught fire, the mayor said.

The northwest suburbs of the capital, including Irpin and Bucha, have already endured days of heavy bombardment while Russian armoured vehicles are advancing on the northeastern edge.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Friday called it a "city under siege", while Mayor Vitali Klitschko yesterday said Kyiv was reinforcing defences and stockpiling food and medicine.

Buses were continuing to bring refugees into the city from the hard-hit suburbs Klitschko said in a video message, adding: "We will not give up."

Other cities have already fallen or been surrounded following Russia's invasion of its neighbour on February 24, with civilians targeted in what the United Nations warned could amount to war crimes.

The southern port city of Mariupol is facing what Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called "the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet", with more than 1,500 civilians dead in 12 days.

Kyiv yesterday said that Russian forces shelled a mosque in Mariupol where 80 civilians, including Turkish citizens, had taken shelter.

However, this was denied by Ismail Hacioglu of the local mosque association, who told Turkish television the area was under fire but the mosque was not hit.

A humanitarian convoy carrying food and medicine for around 400,000 residents in Mariupol yesterday left Zaporizhzhia, to the north east, city officials said. The buses will bring back stranded civilians.

Meanwhile an AFP reporter in the southern city of Mykolaiv said a hospital in the northern district of Ingulski came under fire, while heating is out in the area, forcing many residents to flee.

"They shot at the civilian areas, without any military objective," said the hospital's head, Dmytro Lagochev, adding: "There's a hospital here, an orphanage and an ophthalmological clinic."

Mykolaiv, which lies on the road to the strategic port city of Odessa, has been under attack for days.

The United Nations estimates that 2.6 million people had fled Ukraine since the invasion, most of them to Poland, in the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

As Russia widens its bombardment and talks between Moscow and Kyiv seemingly go nowhere, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky's pleas for Nato to intervene have grown increasingly desperate.

Washington and its EU allies have sent funds and military aid to Ukraine, taken action against its economy and oligarchs, and a cultural and sporting boycott has squeezed Russia's soft power.

But US President Joe Biden on Friday again ruled out direct action against nuclear-armed Russia, warning that it would lead to "World War III".

Instead, Washington added more layers of sanctions to those already crippling Russia's economy, this time ending normal trade relations and announcing a ban on signature Russian goods vodka, seafood and diamonds.

Numerous efforts are underway to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis, with Turkey on Thursday hosting the first talks between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers since war erupted.

There was no breakthrough but Putin said Friday there were some "positive shifts" and that negotiations were being held "almost daily".

US Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Bucharest, said the Russian leader had shown "no sign of engaging in serious diplomacy".

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday slammed what he said was the "flagrant violation" of international humanitarian law by Ukraine's forces as he held phone talks with the leaders of France and Germany, the Kremlin said.

"Putin informed (them) about the real state of affairs" in Ukraine, his office said in a statement. "In particular, numerous examples of the flagrant violation of the norms of international humanitarian law by Ukrainian security forces were cited," the statement said.

Putin accused the Ukrainian army of "extrajudicial executions of dissenters" and "taking hostages and using civilians as human shields", the Kremlin said.

He also claimed that the Ukrainian army were deploying heavy weapons near hospitals, schools, and kindergartens.

"At the same time, nationalist battalions are systematically disrupting operations to rescue the population, intimidating civilians during evacuation attempts," the Kremlin said.

Putin urged France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Olaf Scholz to pressure Kyiv authorities into halting these "criminal activities," the Kremlin said.