Zelensky denounces Russian 'terror' as school bombed in Ukraine

Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday denounced Russia s bombardment of a school sheltering hundreds as an act of "terror" while urging direct talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as the only way to end the war.

People remained "under the rubble" at the school in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, authorities said, in the latest attack on civilians to mark Russia s more than a three-week-old invasion of its eastern European neighbour.

The bombardment came as Moscow said it had again used a new-generation hypersonic missile and as China -- under pressure to denounce its ally s invasion -- said it was not sending Russia weapons.

In his daily video message, Zelensky said the siege of Mariupol, a strategic port cut off by Russian forces from food, water and supplies, would go down as a war crime, describing it as "a terror that will be remembered even in the next century".

"Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us," the president said.

Authorities in Turkey, where Russian and Ukrainian representatives have been negotiating, said the two sides were close to a deal to stop the fighting, amid reports of a mounting civilian death toll and of hundreds of Ukrainians being forcibly deported to Russia.

But Zelensky said that an ultimate solution to the brutal conflict would require direct talks with Russia s leader Putin.

"Dialogue is the only way out," he said on CNN on Sunday. "I think its just the two of us, me and Putin, who can make an agreement on this."

Since Putin launched the war on February 24, it has sparked a refugee crisis of historic proportions, wreaked havoc on the global economy and drawn fierce denunciations from much of the world.

Russia's ally China has walked a cautious line, calling for peace talks but refraining from denouncing Moscow.

China's ambassador to the US on Sunday denied that his country was sending weapons to Russia for the war, days after US President Joe Biden warned Beijing not to do so.

"What China is doing is sending food, medicine, sleeping bags and baby formula, not weapons and ammunition," Ambassador Qin Gang told CBS, while making no promises about the future.

- From Guernica to Mariupol -

Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, has been one of the worst-hit cities.

"Yesterday, the Russian occupiers dropped bombs on art school No 12" where 400 women, children and elderly people were sheltering, destroying the building, the Mariupol city council said on Telegram Sunday.

It was the latest potentially devastating strike on a shelter for civilians. Last Wednesday, a theatre where more than 1,000 people had sheltered was hit, with hundreds still presumed missing in the rubble.

Thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped inside the city without water, electricity or gas.

A Greek diplomat who remained in Mariupol during some of the bombardment said Sunday the destruction there would rank alongside the world’s most ruinous wartime assaults.

"Mariupol will be included in a list of cities in the world that were completely destroyed by the war, such as Guernica, Stalingrad, Grozny, Aleppo," Manolis Androulakis said after flying back to Athens.

City authorities also claimed that more than 1,000 Mariupol residents had been forcibly taken to Russia.

"The occupiers are sending the residents of Mariupol to filtration camps, checking their phones and seizing (their) Ukrainian documents," said local official Pavlo Kyrylenko.

A group of children stuck in a Mariupol clinic had been taken to Russian-controlled Donetsk, a carer and a relative of a clinic worker told AFP.

Russia said Saturday it had broken through Mariupol’s defences and its troops were inside.

- Hypersonic missiles -

Elsewhere, Russian forces -- stymied by unexpectedly fierce Ukrainian resistance, and reportedly facing shortages of weapons and supplies -- have made increasing use of long-range missiles.

Russia's defence ministry said Sunday that Moscow had again fired its newest Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile, destroying a fuel depot in the southern Mykolaiv region.

A day earlier, Russia said it had used the sophisticated weapon to destroy an arms depot near Ukraine s border with Romania.

The Pentagon, however, played down the claim, saying that the weapon was not a "game changer".

In Kyiv, where Russian forces are trying to encircle the capital, a shell exploded outside a ten-storey apartment block, injuring five people.

While in Chernigiv, which is already encircled, Mayor Vladislav Atroshenko said Sunday that dozens of civilians had been killed after shelling hit a hospital.

Humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate in the mostly Russian-speaking south and east, where Russian forces have been pressing their advance, as well as in the north around Kyiv.

Aid agencies are struggling to reach people trapped in besieged cities, where the UN says the situation is "dire".

Around 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, roughly one-third going abroad, the UN refugee agency said.

- Ukraine's sovereignty -

They are fleeing fighting that, according to Zelensky, has left around 14,000 Russian servicemen dead, a number that "will only continue to rise".

Russia has provided no death toll since early March when it said nearly 500 servicemen had been killed. Ukrainian officials said on March 12 that some 1,300 Ukrainian troops had died.

Ukraine has not been providing a civilian toll, except for children, saying at least 115 have now perished.

With the bloodshed soaring on both sides, Turkey, which has strong ties to both Russia and Ukraine, said the parties were making progress in talks.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told Turkish media the sides were negotiating Ukraine s neutrality, disarmament and security guarantees, so-called "de-Nazification", and the status of the Russian language, the breakaway Donbas region and annexed Crimea.

Turkey has also said it is ready to host a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

But the Ukrainian leader appeared to draw some red lines.

"You cannot just demand from Ukraine to recognise some territories as independent republics," he told CNN. "We have to come up with a model where Ukraine will not lose its sovereignty."

- Lasting economic effects -

Russia s war has sparked an unprecedented wave of Western sanctions against Putin, his entourage and Russian companies.

France said Sunday it had seized 850 million euros ($920 million) of Russian oligarchs’ assets on its soil.

The war has sparked turmoil for an already vulnerable world economy. Russia is a major exporter of oil, gas and commodities, while Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat.

Commodity prices have rocketed, further fuelling high inflation, the chief economist with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development told AFP.

"Even if the war stopped today, the consequences of this conflict would be felt for months to come," Beata Javorcik said.

SOURCE: AFP