Stop trying to halt offensive

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said his campaign in Ukraine was going according to plan and would not end until Kyiv stopped fighting, as efforts to evacuate the heavily bombarded city of Mariupol failed for a second day in a row.

He made the comments in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for a ceasefire in the conflict that the United Nations says has created the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

"It was underlined that the suspension of the special operation is only possible if Kyiv stops military operations and carries out well-known Russian demands," the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying.

Russian media said Putin also held almost two hours of talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has stayed in regular contact but, as with other international efforts, has yet to persuade Moscow to call off a campaign now in an 11th day.

On Saturday Vladimir Putin threatened the existence of Ukrainian statehood.

"The current (Ukrainian) authorities must understand that if they continue to do what they are doing, they are putting in question the future of Ukrainian statehood," Putin said.

"And if this happens, they will be fully responsible."

Authorities in Mariupol had said yesterday they would make a second attempt to evacuate some of the 400,000 residents, after the Ukrainian coastal city endured days of shelling that has trapped people in without heat, power and water.

But the ceasefire plan collapsed, as it had on Saturday, with each side blaming the other for the failure.

Putin told Erdogan he was ready for dialogue with Ukraine and foreign partners but any attempt to draw out negotiation would fail, a Kremlin statement said. Turkey said Erdogan had called for a ceasefire to ease humanitarian concerns.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a surprise visit to the Kremlin Saturday for three hours of talks -- Putin's first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader since the invasion began.

The Israeli leader later spoke with Zelensky.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said he is to launch an international "plan of action" to ensure Russia's invasion of Ukraine fails, including a flurry of diplomatic meetings next week.

Kyiv renewed its appeal to the West to toughen sanctions beyond existing efforts that have hammered Russia's economy. It also requested more weapons, including a plea for Russian-made planes, to help it repel Russian forces.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington was "very, very actively" considering how it could backfill aircraft for Poland, if Warsaw decided to supply its warplanes to Ukraine, speaking on a trip to neighbouring Moldova.

Putin says he wants a "demilitarised", "denazified" and neutral Ukraine and on Saturday likened Western sanctions "to a declaration of war".

Moscow calls the campaign it launched on Feb 24 a "special military operation", saying it has no plans to occupy Ukraine, which was once part of the Soviet Union under Moscow's sway but which has now turned West seeking membership of Nato and the European Union.

"They're destroying us," Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko told Reuters in a video call, describing the plight of the city of 400,000. "They will not even give us an opportunity to count the wounded and the killed because the shelling does not stop." Read full story

Russia, which denies attacking civilian areas, has poured troops and equipment into Ukraine. A huge Russian convoy on a road north of Kyiv has made limited visible progress in recent days, although Russia's defence ministry released footage yesterday showing some tracked military vehicles on the move.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian rockets had destroyed the civilian airport of the central-western region capital of Vinnytsia yesterday. He also said Russia was preparing to bombard another southern city, Odessa.

The World Health Organization said there had been several attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities during the conflict. The attacks caused deaths and injuries, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Twitter message, but gave no details.

"Attacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law," he said.

Ukrainians continued to spill into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said more than 1.5 million people had fled in the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two

The agency has said the number could hit 4 million by July.

The West, which calls Putin's reasons for invading baseless, has ratcheted up sanctions and scaled up effort to rearm Ukraine, sending in items ranging from Stinger missiles to anti-tank weapons.

But Washington and its Nato allies have resisted Ukraine's appeals for a no-fly zone for fear that it would escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine's borders.

Western sanctions have pushed many companies to exit investments in Russia, while some Russian banks have been shut out of a global financial payment systems, driving down the rouble and forcing Moscow to jack up interest rates.

Increasing the pressure further, US payment companies Visa Inc V.N and MasterCard Inc MA.N said they would suspend credit card operations in Russia.

Ukraine's military said more than 11,000 Russian troops had been killed so far and 88 Russian aircraft shot down since the start of the invasion. Reuters could not corroborate the claim. Russia has not given regular updates on its death toll.

More than 350 civilians have been killed, according to the UN rights office on Saturday, with hundreds more injured.