Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine eyes Mariupol evacuation bid as Kyiv locks down

More than 200,000 people are trapped in the city described by those who managed to escape as a "freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings", Human Rights Watch said, quoting data provided by a local official.

"We know that there will not be enough space for everyone" on Tuesday, but "we will try to carry out the evacuation until we have gotten all the inhabitants of Mariupol out," vowed Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a video address.

As Russian troops continued their relentless assaults on their neighbour, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said all issues would be on the table if Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed to direct talks to end the war, including contested Crimea and Donbas.

But he warned his country would be "destroyed" before it surrenders.

The Kremlin in return said it would like to see negotiations with Kyiv to be "more active and substantial".

With Russia's military appearing to make little headway in capturing key targets, fears are growing that Putin may resort to even more drastic means to turn the tide.

US President Joe Biden warned that Putin was considering using chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine as he held talks with European leaders on Monday on what he called Moscow's increasingly "brutal tactics".

The US leader is due to travel to Brussels on Thursday for a series of summits gathering NATO, EU and G7 leaders, before heading to Poland, which has received the bulk of the three million Ukrainians fleeing war in their country.

- 'Desperate bid' -

Since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, at least 117 children have been killed in the war, Ukraine's federal prosecutor said.

Some 548 schools have been damaged, including 72 completely destroyed.

But both Western and Ukrainian experts believe the war was not going the way the Kremlin had expected.

Moscow has stepped up its military activity, flying 300 sorties in the past 24 hours, in a "desperate" bid to turn the tide against the Ukrainian resistance, a senior US defence official said.

Ukraine's army command said Russian troops now had ammunition, food and fuel to last just three days.

Three hundred Russian soldiers have defected in the north-eastern Sumy region, added the army command on Facebook.

But even in areas Russia has captured, resistance has continued, with Ukraine's leaders on Tuesday accusing Russian troops of firing on unarmed protesters in the occupied southern city of Kherson.

A series of videos posted on social media and the messaging app Telegram showed citizens gathering in Kherson's "Freedom Square" protesting against Russia's recent seizure of the city.

Russian soldiers could be seen firing into the air, and video footage showing a bleeding elderly man being carried away, though local officials said there were no fatalities.

- 'Massive war crime' -

On the frontlines, authorities said evacuation of residents from Mariupol will be the priority on Tuesday. Three routes have been drawn up linking the port city to Zaporizhzhia, Vereshschuk said.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had described as a "massive war crime" the siege of Mariupol, which had killed more than 2,000 people.

Russia had given Mariupol until 5:00 am on Monday to surrender, but Kyiv rejected the ultimatum and said the city's resistance was bolstering the defence of all of Ukraine.

Mariupol is a pivotal target in Putin's war -- providing a land bridge between Russian forces in Crimea to the southwest and Russian-controlled territory to the north and east.

While little progress had been made from diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict, Zelensky once again renewed a call for direct discussions with his Russian counterpart.

"If I have this opportunity and Russia has the desire, we would go through all the questions," he told Ukrainian journalists in an interview published by media outlet Suspilne.

"Would we solve them all? No. But there is chance, that we partially could -- at least to stop the war," he added.

Zelensky said he was even willing to discuss Russian-occupied Crimea and the breakaway Russian regions in Donbas, though he insisted he still believes they must be returned to Ukraine.

"At the first meeting with the president of Russia, I am ready to raise these issues," he said, adding that any agreement involving "historic" changes would be put to a national referendum.

"This is a very difficult story for everyone. Crimea and Donbas... And to find a way out, we need to take this first step, which I spoke about: security guarantees, the end of the war," he said.

He repeated his assertion that Ukraine "already understood" it could not join NATO, but he added that his countrymen would not simply "hand over" the capital, the eastern city of Kharkiv, or the heavily bombarded and besieged southern port of Mariupol.

"Ukraine cannot fulfil Russian ultimatums," he said. "We should be destroyed first."

- Trust fund -

In Kyiv, a 35-hour curfew came into effect from 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) Monday, after Russian strikes laid waste to the "Retroville" shopping complex, killing at least eight people.

"It's the biggest bomb to have hit the city until now," said 30-year-old Dima Stepanienko, who found himself flung to "the foot of his bed" by the explosion.

Russia claimed the mall was being used to store rocket systems and ammunition.

The war has displaced around 10 million Ukrainians, with around a third becoming refugees, according to the UN, and sparked fears of famine elsewhere because Russia and Ukraine are both major agricultural exporters.

The funds would "provide support to the Ukrainian Government for its immediate needs and, once the Russian onslaught has ceased, for the reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine."

burs-hmn/spm

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST