The United Nations is “ready to fully mobilize” humanitarian efforts in Mariupol, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In frank talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the UN is proposing a coordinated effort between the Red Cross, Ukrainian and Russian forces to save lives in the besieged city.
This comes after weeks of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Donbass region and other eastern parts of Ukraine, with the city of Kremina reportedly falling under Moscow.
Mr Guterres said: “Thousands of civilians are in need of life-saving humanitarian aid and many are being evacuated. The United Nations is ready to fully mobilize its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol.
“And we urgently need humanitarian corridors that are truly safe and effective and that are respected by all, in order to evacuate civilians and deliver much-needed assistance.”
However, Mr Lavrov said it was too early to consider mediation talks between the two nations, adding that the conflict should serve as a “dangerous wake-up call for the UN”.
If peace was the intention behind the Russia-UN talks, the goal could be a long way off, according to correspondent Peter Smith.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has vowed to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get the weapons he needs to repel the new offensive, even when Moscow warns that such support risks escalating the war.
Two months after the devastating conflict, Western weapons have already helped Ukraine delay the Russian invasion – but its leaders have said they quickly need more support.
To this end, Germany has announced that it has cleared the way for the supply of anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine.
Part of Ukraine’s urgency for support is due to reports of Kremina, a city in the Luhansk region in the eastern part of the country, falling from Russian forces.
“The city of Kremina has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting has been reported south of Izyum as Russian forces try to advance on the cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the British Defense Ministry said in a tweet.
It does not say how he knows that the city, located 355 miles southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, has fallen. The Ukrainian government did not comment immediately.
The assessment of the Ministry of Defense came after the continuation of Russian attacks against Ukrainian targets.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Haidai said Russian forces had fired on civilians 17 times in the past 24 hours, with the cities of Popasna, Lisichansk and Girske suffering the most.
Elsewhere, a 14-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl are among four killed after a Russian shelling in the Donetsk region, according to its governor, Pavlo Kirilenko.
Russian forces are said to be fighting to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which include Donbass in Ukraine’s eastern industrial center, and to establish a land corridor to Crimea.
A mother hugs her daughter while they wait for a bus to escape from the city of Slavyansk in Donetsk. Credit: AP
Some of today’s key developments:
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The Minister of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom James Happy said that he supported Ukraine, which struck Russian land with British weapons.
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Officials from more than 40 countries gather on Tuesday at Germany’s Ramstein Air Force Base for US-hosted defense talks.
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The Luhansk Oblast governor said Russian forces had fired on civilians 17 times in the past 24 hours.
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The city of Kremina in the Luhansk region has reportedly fallen, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
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Moldova’s president has called an emergency security meeting following reports of several explosions in the breakaway pro-Russian Moldovan region of Transnistria.
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The EU’s High Representative for Energy Policy said the bloc’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia is expected to be imposed “very soon”.
U.S. Army General Mark Millie said a key goal of the defense gathering was to coordinate growing security aid to Kyiv. Credit: AP
This came when Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine not to provoke World War III and said the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.”
In an in-depth Russian television interview, Mr Lavrov accused Ukraine of stalled talks between the two countries and accused the United States and the United Kingdom of putting pressure on Kyiv not to reach an agreement.
“Everyone is reciting spells that we can never allow World War III,” Lavrov said, accusing Ukrainian leaders of provoking Russia by asking NATO to join the conflict.
People watch a residential building burn after a Russian bombing in Kharkov. Credit: AP
By providing weapons, NATO forces are “adding fuel to the fire,” he said, according to a Russian transcript on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
The Minister of the Armed Forces, James Happy, rejected the claim of the Russian Foreign Minister that the Western allies were intensifying the war by giving Ukraine firepower.
On Tuesday morning, he backed Ukraine’s military strikes behind Russian lines, even if the weapons used were supplied by the United Kingdom.
Mr Happy said, “Of course”, that the United Kingdom supported the reported strikes on fuel depots in Russia.
He told Times Radio that “it is not necessarily a problem” if British-donated weapons are used to strike targets on Russian soil, as weapons supplied by Ukraine’s allies have the scope to be used across borders.
His comments come as officials from more than 40 countries gather in Germany for US-organized defense talks focused on arming Kyiv.
U.S. Army General Mark Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the main goal of the talks was to agree on how best to coordinate the delivery of military weapons – such as drones, ammunition and howitzer artillery – to Ukraine.
At the beginning of the meeting, which was being held at Rammstein Air Force Base, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressed confidence that Ukraine could defeat Russia in the war, saying that their resistance “brought inspiration to the free world.”
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