Macron fears worst to come in Ukraine as Zelenskyy demands Putin talks

Russian president vows no let-up in his invasion of Ukraine as Kyiv appeals for western military aid

Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA

Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters

Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters

Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP

A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP

Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA

Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP

A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo

Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo

A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo

A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo

Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA

Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP

A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA

Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP

A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP

A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters

Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters

MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP

Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty

Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters

Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP

Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP

A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters

An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters

People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters

A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters

A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters

A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters

A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP

A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP

Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP

Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP

People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP

A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP

Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP

An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP

Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP

Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters

US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters

Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP

Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP

A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP

Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters

Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Thursday for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Moscow captured its first major urban centre since its attack began a week ago.

Mr Zelenskyy said it was sensible to have negotiations, saying: “Any words are more important than shots.”

He suggested the two countries could find a way out of the war.

“There are things in which some compromises must be found so that people do not die, but there are things in which there are no compromises,” he said.

He called on the West to increase military aid to Ukraine, saying Russia would advance on the rest of Europe otherwise.

“If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference. “If we are no more than, God forbid, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia will be next,” he said.

Mr Putin vowed the invasion of Ukraine would continue, even as the warring sides met for ceasefire talks at an undisclosed location on the Belarus-Poland border.

In televised comments, he said that Russia's military operations in Ukraine were going according to plan and praised its soldiers as heroes.

He made a series of allegations against Ukrainian forces for which he did not provide evidence, including that they were holding foreign citizens hostage and using human shields

Earlier, he spoke by telephone to French President Emmanuel Macron, telling him Russia would achieve its goals, including the demilitarisation and neutrality of Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Mr Macron believes “the worst is to come” in Ukraine after a 90-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart, who appears intent on seizing “the whole” of the country, an aide to the French leader said.

“There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation.

“He will, in his own words, carry out his operation to 'denazify' Ukraine to the end.”

“You can understand the extent to which these words are shocking and unacceptable and the president told him that it was lies,” the aide said.

In a second round of talks, Ukraine and Russia agreed to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians.

"The second round of talks is over. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have the results it needs yet. There are decisions only on the organisation of humanitarian corridors," Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

The talks between the Russian and Ukrainian officials took place on the Poland-Belarus border.

Russian negotiators confirmed that both sides had agreed to creating a way out for civilians.

"The main question that we decided on today was the issue of saving people, civilians, who are in the zone of military clashes," Russia's main negotiator and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky said.

"Russia calls on civilians who find themselves in this situation, if military actions continue, to use these humanitarian corridors," he said.

Another Russian negotiator, nationalist lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, said the agreements will be "implemented in the near future."

The Russian military said on Thursday it had taken control of Kherson, the strategically important southern Dnipro River port, which its tanks entered on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russian forces had taken over local government headquarters in the Black Sea port that is home to 280,000 people.

Moscow’s advance on Ukraine’s capital has apparently stalled over the past few days, with a huge armoured column north of Kyiv at a standstill, but the military has made significant gains in the south as part of an effort to sever the country’s connection to the Black and Azov Seas.

Ukrainian media reports said Russian troops had entered the southern city of Enerhodar, a major energy hub on the Dnieper River that accounts for about a quarter of the country’s power generation. It is the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the biggest in Europe.

Heavy fighting continued on the outskirts of another strategic port, Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, plunging it into darkness. Electricity and phone service were largely down, and homes and shops faced food and water shortages.

The UN said more than one million refugees had fled Ukraine in the past seven days, one of the fastest exoduses in memory.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has already begun investigating possible war crimes in Ukraine.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said he would start collecting evidence as part of a formal investigation.

Mr Khan said his office would be examining possible crimes against humanity and genocide — offences under the court's jurisdiction — by all parties in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov turned the focus on western politicians, accusing them of fixating on nuclear war.

“It's clear that World War Three can only be a nuclear war,” Mr Lavrov said in an interview with Russian and foreign media. Mr Putin placed his strategic nuclear forces on high alert earlier this week.

“I would like to point out that it's in the heads of western politicians that the idea of a nuclear war is spinning constantly, and not in the heads of Russians,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief said a rising nuclear threat put all humanity at risk.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet said that Russia's full-scale invasion “is generating massive impact on the human rights of millions of people across Ukraine".

Russia's attack is not only putting people in Ukraine at risk, Ms Bachelet said, but also “opened a new and dangerous chapter in world history".

“Elevated threat levels for nuclear weapons underline the gravity of the risks to all of humanity,” she said.

The UN nuclear watchdog urged Russia to “cease all actions” at Ukraine's nuclear facilities, including the site of the Chernobyl disaster.

Russian oil company Lukoil has called for an immediate halt to fighting in Ukraine, one of the first major domestic firms to speak out against Moscow's invasion of its pro-western neighbour.

The company said in a statement its board backs “the immediate cessation of the armed conflict and fully supports its resolution through the negotiation process and through diplomatic means".

France said on Thursday it had seized a superyacht owned by Russia's oil chief Igor Sechin, following through on threats to hit sanctioned oligarchs close to Mr Putin.

The vessel, Amore Vero, was seized at a shipyard at La Ciotat on the French Riviera.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Thursday that legal threats would not prevent it from sanctioning Russian oligarchs and that London had a further list of businessmen who could be designated.