Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow are holding a second round of talks.Russian troops have seized control of Kherson, in Ukraine’s south.Several other cities, including the capital, Kyiv, northeastern Kharkiv and Mariupol, in the southeast, continue to be attacked.Mariupol’s city council says Russian forces are constantly and deliberately shelling critical civilian infrastructure there.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s defence lines are holding.The United Nations says more than one million people have fled Ukraine amid Russia's assault.Ukraine’s president has called on Western powers to deliver more military aid to his country, warning that Russia’s military will not stop at Ukraine’s borders if Moscow seizes full control of its neighbour.
“If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes!” Zelenskyy said at a news conference, referring to refusals from Kyiv’s Western allies to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“If we [Ukraine] are no more then, God forbid, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia will be next,” he added.The term “no-fly zone” refers to an area of airspace in which it has been determined that certain aircraft are not permitted to fly. In a conflict setting, the measure is primarily used to prevent aerial attacks from taking place.Ukraine’s emergency service says at least 22 people have been killed in Russian air raids on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region.
The service said in a post on Twitter that rescue work was ongoing. It did not specify where the alleged attack took place.
Earlier the regional governor said at least nine people had been killed by an air raid on two schools and private houses.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify either claim.Forty-five of the 57 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) member states are triggering a system to set up a mission of experts looking into possible war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, the United Kingdom has said.
“They are invoking the so-called ‘OSCE Moscow Mechanism’ to set up a mission of independent experts to … establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including due to deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure,” the UK’s mission to the OSCE said.
Russia and Ukraine are both members of the body.