Two "super powerful bombs" rocked Mariupol on Tuesday as Ukrainian authorities made a fresh attempt at rescuing civilians from the besieged southern port city.
Almost 100,000 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 says.
Kyiv is under curfew until Wednesday morning as Russian troops continue their advance on the capital.
After several rounds of inconclusive negotiations, Russia said that it would like its peace talks with Ukraine to be "more substantial." The Kremlin also said Tuesday that it would only use nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict if it were facing an "existential threat."
So far, a Kremlin-allied tabloid has reported that 9,861 Russian troops have been killed and 16,153 injured in the nearly month-old war, 20 times the official tally.
