Natalia Zinets and Pavel Polityuk

LVIV/KYIV Ukraine (Reuters) – Talks between Ukraine & Russia are tense, but they’re moving ahead, President Volodymyr Zeleskiy declared on Wednesday. As the West prepares to add sanctions against Russia, amid a worsening humanitarian situation,

As street fighting and bombings raged throughout the port city, the council of Mariupol stated Tuesday that Russian air strikes have made Mariupol a “ashes land”.

Many thousands of people are trapped in buildings without access to heat, food, or water. Pavlo KYrylenko, regional governor of the region said that both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians came under Russian attack.

According to Russia’s RIA news agency, Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists had taken half the city. This is normally where around 400,000 people live.

Zelenskiy expressed hope in a morning address that negotiations might be possible, but these have not yielded much since the February 24th invasion.

He said, “It is very challenging and sometimes confrontational.” But we keep moving forward, step by step.

More than 3.5 Million Ukrainians fled Russia after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. This unprecedented isolation caused Russia to lose its economy and raised concerns about a wider conflict with the West that had not been considered for many decades.

Mariupol is now the focal point of the conflict that broke out when Putin’s troops crossed the border to conduct what he called a “special military operations” in order to demilitarize Ukraine and replace the pro-Western leaders.

It is situated on the Sea of Azov. Russia could capture it to connect areas of east held by proRussian separatists to the Crimean peninsula. Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

The Kremlin is under more pressure from the West.

While he is visiting Brussels this week, Joe Biden, President of the United States, will likely announce new sanctions and tightening existing ones.

According to The Wall Street Journal which quoted unnamed officials as well as internal documents, the United States has begun to prepare sanctions against more than 300 Russian members of Russia’s lower house. The White House didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.

Biden’s Europe trip will include an announcement regarding joint action on energy security for the continent. Biden also plans to visit Poland as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.

Russia has failed to capture the capital Kyiv and other cities with swift attacks. Instead, it is engaging in a war against attrition, which has left some areas of the city in rubble. This raises Western concerns that the conflict might escalate to nuclear war.

Dmitry Peskov of the Kremlin stated to CNN that Russia’s security policy requires it only to use these weapons if threatened.

“If there is an existential risk to our country, it (the nuclear weapon) can be used in conformance with our concept,” said he.

He stated earlier that “nobody” thought the operation would last just a few days in Ukraine and that the campaign was on track, TASS news agency reported.

Officials from the West said that Russian forces are stalled in Kyiv, but were making progress towards the east and south. They said that Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian troops at times but can’t roll them back.

According to a top U.S. defense officer, Russia’s combat strength in Ukraine fell below 90% since the invasion. However, there was no evidence. This would mean that there are increasing losses in weaponry as well as increased casualties, if it is confirmed.

‘HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE’

On Tuesday, the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Office reported that it had registered 953 civilian deaths since the invasion and 1,557 injuries. Kremlin says civilians are not being targeted.

According to United Nations estimates, millions have fled to other countries, leaving Eastern Europe struggling to offer them care and schools.

According to three sources familiar with the matter, the United States will launch an initiative this week in order to ease the entry of some people after only a few refugees had been admitted to the country during the first two weeks.

On Tuesday night, Iryna Vereshchuk spoke on Ukrainian TV to say that at most 100,000 people want to leave Mariupol, but couldn’t.

A Reuters team visited a Russian-seized section of the city and found a desolate landscape with charred blocks of apartments, blanketed bodies along a road.

Ukraine reports that Russian missiles, bombs, shells and bombs were used to attack a theatre and an art school in the country. This resulted in hundreds of people being buried under their cellars.

Kyiv claimed that Moscow had deported residents from Mariupol, and other separatist-held regions of Ukraine to Russia. The “forced transfer” of 2 389 children to Russia, from Donetsk or Luhansk areas was included in the statement by Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova.

Moscow says it does not force anyone to leave and that they are taking in refugees.

Officials in Ukraine claimed that Moscow was preventing civilian supplies from reaching Kherson (a Russian-controlled city).

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said that 300k people in Kerson are facing a humanitarian disaster due to Russia’s blockade.

Russia has not yet commented on Kherson’s situation.

Zelenskiy warned that Ukraine’s crisis would lead to widespread famine.

“How do we plant crops (crops), under the Russian artillery strikes?” He spoke to Italian legislators.