INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kyiv prepared on Saturday for its first wartime visit from two top U.S
officials, as Ukraine accused Russia of killing six people in a strike on Odessa that all but buried hopes of a truce for Orthodox
port city of Mariupol remains bleak
The latest of many attempts to evacuate civilians failed Saturday, and the situation facing an embattled unit of Ukrainian fighters
sheltering in tunnels under a sprawling steel mill there appeared increasingly desperate.A series of European leaders have already traveled
cabinet members, the State Department declined.Zelensky, who announced the visit, also issued a new call for a meeting with Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin "to end the war.""I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it," Zelensky said, adding he was
"not afraid" to meet the Russian leader.But he again stressed that Kyiv would abandon talks with Moscow if its troops in Mariupol were
killed.Zelensky also criticized a decision by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to visit Moscow on Tuesday, before heading to
Kyiv."There is no justice and no logic in this order," he said.Around 200 residents gathered at a designated evacuation point in Mariupol on
Saturday but were "dispersed" by Russian forces, city official Petro Andryushchenko said on Telegram, adding: "The evacuation was
Moldova.Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are holed up inside the Mariupol steel plant
safely.But on Saturday a Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said Russian forces had resumed air strikes on the factory."Our
defenders hold on regardless of the very difficult situation and even carry out counter-raids," he said.Eight dead in OdessaFurther west, a
missile struck a residential building in the Black Sea port of Odessa, killing eight people, including a three-month-old baby, and wounding
at least 18, according to Zelensky.And Russia's defense ministry also said it had targeted a major depot stocking foreign weapons near
services in Odesa of preparing a "provocation with the use of toxic chemical substances" that could then be blamed on Russia.Western powers
have accused Russia in the past of making such accusations as a cover or diversion for attacks its own forces are planning.There were new
attacks overnight in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, in the northeast."It was a terrifying night," said Yelena, with black bags under
Residents there said Russian strikes could come at any hour, day or night."Everything shook," she recalled
"There were two strikes, later there were more, we were no longer able to sleep and spent all night in the corridor."The governor of the
Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had retaken three villages near the Russian border after "fierce
clock" and urged people near the front to "evacuate if you have the chance."The latest fighting comes a day after a senior Russian military
officer announced the beginning of "the second phase of the special operation.""One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full
control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine," Major General Rustam Minnekaev said.Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the
north of Ukraine after being frustrated in their attempts to take the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the
south.Minnekaev said the focus was to "provide a land corridor to Crimea," which Russia annexed in 2014, and possibly toward Transnistria, a
breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova where the general claimed Russian-speaking people were "being oppressed".'What could be worse'After
changing their strategic focus to southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian forces left behind a trail of indiscriminate destruction around
Kyiv, including in the commuter town of Bucha.A United Nations mission to Bucha documented "the unlawful killing, including by summary
execution, of some 50 civilians there," the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.Russian forces had "indiscriminately
shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may
amount to war crimes."Tania Boikiv, 52, said Russian troops took her husband from their home in Bucha, held him for two weeks, then beat him
to death as they retreated."The most terrible thing in my life is that my husband, my loved one, is gone," she told AFP
"I don't know what could be worse."Also Saturday, Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia's region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, said on
Telegram that a Russian border post had been hit by Ukrainian mortar fire, although there were no casualties.
