Zelensky urged Ukrainians to keep fighting. “[It is] impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it,” he said.

In a joint 75-minute call on Saturday, Scholz and Macron urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare an immediate ceasefire, the German Chancellor’s spokesperson said. Macron’s office said that Putin showed no willingness to end the war.

The Kremlin said Putin had briefed them about negotiations and responded to their concerns about the humanitarian situation.

Zelensky said the conflict meant some small Ukrainian towns no longer existed and that any negotiations must start with a ceasefire. Existing talks had started to broach concrete topics rather than just exchange ultimatums, he said.

The Kremlin readout of the call with Macron and Scholz did not mention a ceasefire and accused Ukraine of using civilians as human shields.

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Zelensky said Ukraine could not stop fighting, but was committed to a ceasefire around an agreed “humanitarian corridor” out of Mariupol. He called on Russia to do the same.

The Ukrainian President remained resolute, saying that it would take Russia to carpet-bomb the capital and kill all its residents to take the city.

“If that is their goal, let them come,” he said, adding Russia would need to “raze” Kyiv to the ground in order to take it.

Putin launched the invasion on February 24 in an operation that has been almost universally condemned around the world and that has drawn tough Western sanctions on Russia.

The bombardment has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Evacuation attempts

Ukrainian officials had planned to use humanitarian corridors from Mariupol as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas on Saturday.

The Governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were continuing on Saturday morning.

“We will try to get people out every day, as long as it’s possible to observe a ceasefire,” he said.

The Donetsk region’s Governor said constant shelling was complicating getting aid into Mariupol.

“There are reports of looting and violent confrontations among civilians over what little basic supplies remain in the city,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“Medicines for life-threatening illnesses are quickly running out, hospitals are only partially functioning, and the food and water are in short supply.”

People were boiling groundwater for drinking, using wood to cook food and burying dead bodies near where they lay, a staff member for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) in the city said.

“We saw people who died because of lack of medication,” he said, adding that many people had also been wounded or killed. “Neighbours just dig a hole in the ground and put the dead bodies inside.”

At least 1582 civilians in Mariupol alone have been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said on Friday. It was not possible to verify casualty figures.

Sirens and tears

Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported.

The exhausted Governor of Chernihiv, around 150 kilometres north-east of Kyiv, gave a video update in front of the ruins of a hotel, which he said had been hit on Saturday.

“There is no such hotel anymore,” Viacheslav Chaus said, wiping tears from his eyes. “But Ukraine itself still exists and it will prevail.”

Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase and hit an ammunition depot near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted Vasylkiv mayor Natalia Balasynovych as saying.

Ukraine said it expected a new wave of attacks on the regions around Kyiv, the country’s second city Kharkiv, and the Donbas region in the east, where Russian-backed separatists have expanded their control.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said fighting north-west of the capital continued, with the bulk of Russian ground forces now 25 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv, which it has said Russia could attack within days.

Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled and under heavy attack.

Close Russian ally Belarus said it was sending five battalion tactical groups to its border with Ukraine, but it denied it had plans to send troops in to help Russian forces.

Reuters, AP