Russian forces tried to storm a steel plant sheltering soldiers and civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he would meet Sunday in Kyiv with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The visit would be the highest-level visit by U.S. officials to the country since the start of the war on Feb. 24. While visiting Poland in March, Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil to meet with the country’s foreign minister.
No confirmed travel plans are announced by the White House for Blinken and Austin.
As the war enters its third month, there is no end in sight to the fighting that has shocked the world, killed thousands, uprooted millions and reduced cities to rubble.
In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier holds an Easter cake and an icon during a blessing ceremony on Easter eve at a military position outside Kyiv, Eastern Orthodox churches observe the ancient Julian calendar, and this year celebrate the Orthodox Easter on April 24-AP
"Usually we would come to our churches with Easter baskets. But now this is impossible," Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai posted on his Telegram channel. "Seven churches in Luhansk region have been mutilated by Russian artillery."
Russian President Vladimir Putin crosses himself during the Orthodox Easter service in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow -AP
Earlier Saturday the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released the video of around two dozen women and children. Its contents could not be independently verified, but if authentic, it would be the first video testimony of what life has been like for civilians trapped underground there.
The video (Video Courtesy:nbcnews) shows soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives “haven’t seen neither the sky nor the sun” since they left home Feb. 27.
Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still there. The United Nations and Red Cross say the civilian toll is at least in the thousands.
Russian forces were also partially blockading the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, and had moved Iskander-M missile launchers some 60 km (40 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The Iskander-M system fires short-range ballistic missiles that can hit targets 500 km away.
In Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukrainian forces said they repelled 12 attacks on Saturday.
-Reuters/AP