Fighting intensified northwest of Kyiv on Saturday, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25 km (16 miles) from the centre of the Ukrainian capital. The UK Defence Ministry said that several other cities were encircled and under heavy shelling.
Russian forces appeared to make progress to reach the capital, Kyiv, while tanks and artillery pounded places already under siege with shelling so heavy it prevented residents of one city from burying the growing number of dead.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said she hoped that several humanitarian corridors would open on Saturday for thousands of residents in the bombarded cities, including from the besieged port city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia.
At least 1,582 civilians in the south-eastern city of Mariupol were killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said in an online statement on Friday. It was not possible to check casualty figures.
Mariupol’s death toll has conceded 1,500 in 12 days of attack, the mayor’s office said. A strike on a maternity hospital in the city of 446,000 this week that killed three people sparked international outrage and war-crime allegations. Sustained shelling forced crews to stop digging trenches for mass graves, so the “dead aren’t even being buried,” the mayor said.
Russian forces have hit more than a dozen hospitals since they invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to the World Health Organization. Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that heavy artillery damaged a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in Mykolaiv, a city 489 kilometers (304 miles) west of Mariupol.
As part of a multi-front attack on the capital, the Russians’ push from the northeast appeared to be advancing, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to give the U.S. assessment of the fight. Combat units were moved up from the rear as the forces advanced to within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles miles) of Kyiv.
New commercial satellite images appeared to capture artillery firing on residential areas that stood between the Russians and the capital. The images from Maxar Technologies showed muzzle flashes and smoke from big guns, as well as impact craters and burning homes in the town of Moschun, 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) from Kyiv, the company said.
Efforts to isolate Russia economically have stepped up, with the United States imposing new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs and the European Union set to strip Russia of its privileged trade status on Saturday.
The move to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” status was taken in coordination with the European Union and Group of Seven countries. “The free world is coming together to confront Putin,” Biden said.
The United Nations political chief said the international organization had received credible reports that Russian forces were using cluster bombs in populated areas. International law prohibits the use of the bombs, which scatter smaller explosives over a wide area, in cities and towns.
Putin calls for foreign volunteers
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for foreign volunteers to be able to fight against Ukrainian forces. Speaking at a Russian security council meeting, he said those who wanted to volunteer to fight with Russia-backed forces should be allowed to.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 16,000 volunteers ready to fight alongside Russia-backed forces. US officials said these could include Syrians skilled in urban combat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding in a video message, said "thugs from Syria" would be coming to kill people "in a foreign land".
humanitarian corridors have been agreed for the embattled northeastern city of Sumy on Saturday morning, said Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmitry Zhyvytsky in a post on Telegram.
According to Zhyvytsky, evacuation efforts starting at 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT) will see vehicles departing from six destinations around the region.
-BBC/Reuters/AP