INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian forces inched toward Kyiv Saturday and pounded civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities as concerns grew over the besieged southern
port of Mariupol, where officials said more than 1,500 people had been killed.Air raid sirens sounded Saturday in several cities, including
the capital Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro and Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian media.More than two weeks after Moscow shocked the world by invading
Ukraine, the United Nations and others said it may be committing war crimes in cities such as Mariupol, which for days has been under attack
by Vladimir Putin's forces.Survivors have been trying to flee Russian bombardment in a freezing city left without water or heating and
The situation is "desperate," a Doctors Without Borders official said."Hundreds of thousands of people..
are for all intents and purposes besieged," Stephen Cornish, one of those heading the medical charity's Ukraine operation, told AFP in an
interview."Sieges are a medieval practice that have been outlawed by the modern rules of war for good reason."Ukrainian President Volodymr
Zelensky said they were trying to arrange evacuations from besieged cities but Russian forces were disrupting efforts."Mariupol remains
Russian troops did not let our aid into the city and continue to torture our people, our Mariupol residents," Zelensky said in a video
address late Friday."Tomorrow we'll try again
Once again, send food, water and medicine for our city."As Russia widens its bombardment and talks between Moscow and Kyiv seemingly go
nowhere, Zelensky's pleas for NATO to intervene have grown increasingly desperate.U.S
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
export of their luxury goods to Russia."Putin must pay the price
He cannot pursue a war that threatens the very foundation of international peace and stability and then ask for help from the international
mother-in-law was still there and told them "the attacks don't stop.""There are many corpses on the street and nobody buries them," she told
AFP.In a video address released Saturday, Zelensky appealed to Russian mothers to prevent their sons from being sent to war."I want to say
this once again to Russian mothers, especially mothers of conscripts
Do not send your children to war in a foreign country," he said.Zelensky said more than 12,000 Russian troops had been killed in the
estimates put the number of Russian fatalities at 2,000 to 4,000 while Moscow's only official toll, announced last week, said 498 Russian
troops had been killed.In Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, doctors at a hospital described spending two days pumping ash from the stomach of
an eight-year-old child whose home was blasted by a Russian missile."He still has cinders in his lungs," Dima Kasyanov's doctor told
AFP.Dnipro, an industrial hub of 1 million inhabitants, saw its image as a relatively safe haven shattered when three missiles hit civilian
Kharkiv and Mariupol as testimony to the brutal conflict."Today, we were supposed to host people who need a lot of support," said Svetlana
Kalenecheko, who lives and works in a clinic that was damaged."Now we can't help anyone."The attacks on civilians prompted a new flurry of
warnings from the Hague and the United Nations on Friday that Russia is committing war crimes."We are really heading toward an unimaginable
tragedy," Cornish, of Doctors Without Borders, warned, insisting that "there is still time to avoid it, and we must see it
avoided."'Catastrophe'Meanwhile, the Kremlin is slowly surrounding Kyiv, with Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak calling it a
"city under siege."He tweeted that it was "ready to fight," with checkpoints prepared and supply lines in place, adding: "Kyiv will stand
until the end."The Ukrainian military has said Russia is trying to take out Kyiv's defenses to the north and west, where suburbs including
Irpin and Bucha have already endured days of heavy bombardment.Russian armored vehicles are also advancing on the capital's northeast.As the
slow but steady advance continues, so has the tide of refugees.About 100,000 people have been able to leave the northeastern city of Sumy,
deteriorating fast."In the Sumy, Kyiv and Donetsk regions, there is no more electricity
Yes, there are problems with heating
There is no gas, no water," he said."It's a humanitarian catastrophe."'Murderers from Syria'Foreign combatants have already entered the
furious Zelensky accused Russia of hiring "murderers from Syria, a country where everything has been destroyed..
like they are doing here to us."In southern Ukraine, Russian soldiers abducted the mayor of Melitopol, which Zelensky said was a "sign of
weakness" and a "crime against democracy."The global ripple effects of the conflict continued elsewhere.Last-minute Russian demands related
to the conflict threatened to derail the near-complete process of reviving the Iranian nuclear deal Friday.And the fighting spurred vows to
bolster the European Union's defenses, with EU leaders describing the invasion as a wake-up call."There's no denying the fact that two weeks
Instagram and launch a criminal case against its owner Meta, as Moscow fired back at the tech giant for allowing posts calling for violence
against Russian forces.'We will not fight'Talks have so far made no progress toward ending the fighting.Putin has said negotiations were
being held "almost daily," but U.S
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Bucharest, said the Russian leader had shown "no sign of engaging in serious diplomacy."At the
United Nations, Western countries accused Russia of spreading "wild" conspiracy theories after Moscow's envoy told diplomats that America
envoy said Russia had made the claims as part of a "false flag effort" for using chemical weapons of its own in Ukraine.Biden warned Russia
would pay a "severe price" if it used chemical weapons.But he again carefully steered clear of any indication that such an attack would be a
red line that could draw direct U.S
