A Ukrainian politician said the situation in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was so critical that people were starving and forced to drink sewage.
The city still faces a barrage of Russian missiles and is suffering from severe food and water shortages.
Ukrainian politician Lesia Vasylenko said civilians in Kyiv were “forced to stay in basements and subway stations” as they tried to avoid Vladimir Putin’s bomb attack.
Ms Vasilenko added in an interview with Time Radio: “People are literally starving without food and drinking sewage.
While Russia’s advance in Kyiv remains stalled due to Ukrainian forces’ counterattack, continued bombardment has led the city’s authorities to declare a new 35-hour curfew in the city.
A worker removes debris from a food warehouse targeted by missiles in the Brovary district of Kyiv on Saturday
Volunteers lay sandbags around statues in Kyiv as Russia’s attack on the city continued on Sunday
A damaged library is seen after the shelling of the village of Byshiv in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the curfew would last from 8 p.m. local time on Saturday to 7 a.m. on Monday, with local residents only allowed to leave their homes to go to bomb shelters.
Shops, pharmacies, gas stations and public transport will be closed during the curfew, Klitschko said.
Ms Vasylenko also pointed to “atrocities” taking place across Ukraine, including in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
She noted that as many as 15,000 civilians have been forcibly deported since Russian troops took over the Mariupol Left Bank region earlier this week.
“In Mariupol, thousands of people were forcibly deported to Russia, apparently for safety, but then they were sent in an unknown direction and no one heard from them again,” Ms Vasilenko said.
“So atrocity, it’s the same everywhere.”
Authorities in Mariupol have warned that an estimated 100,000 people who remain in the city face desperate plight without food, water or electricity.
View of destroyed buildings and vehicles after shelling in Kyiv
Ukrainian civilians wait to be evacuated through a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol on Saturday
Mariupol has seen some of the heaviest fighting since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24. Russian troops have been shelling the city indiscriminately, leveling swathes of the city.
Officials said at least 2,400 civilians were killed in the southern port city, but there are fears the true toll was much higher. An official said earlier this month that he feared as many as 20,000 people could be killed.
The United Nations said on Friday it had received information about a mass grave in the city, the site of a devastating Russian attack on a theater that killed 300 people.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the West of lacking courage in Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion, calling for fighter jets and tanks to maintain the defense in what has turned into a war of attrition.
After U.S. President Joe Biden met senior Ukrainian officials in Poland on Saturday, Mr Zelensky slammed the West “about who and how to hand jets and other defensive weapons to our ping pong balls”, while Russian missile strikes Killed and trapped civilians.
“I have spoken to the defenders of Mariupol today. I have been in touch with them. Their determination, heroism and steadfastness is astounding,” Mr Zelensky said in a video earlier on Sunday. In his speech, he said he was referring to the besieged southern city, which had suffered the worst deprivation and terror of the war.
“If only people who thought about handing over dozens of jets and tanks for 31 days had 1% courage.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many regions, faltering in the face of Ukrainian resistance backed by weapons from the United States and other Western allies.
A wrecked tank is seen near a damaged building during the evacuation of civilians along a humanitarian corridor in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday
Collapsed buildings appeared in the city of Mariupol after it was slammed by Russia on Saturday
So far, Western military aid has not included fighter jets. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine through the United States has been scrapped as NATO fears getting involved in a conflict with Russia.
“So who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow because of its intimidation tactics?” Mr Zelensky said. “Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine. “
The British Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that the battlefield in northern Ukraine had remained largely static as local counterattacks thwarted Russia’s attempts to restructure its forces.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces appeared to be trying to surround Ukrainian forces directly facing separatist areas in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow claims its focus is on seizing the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine from Ukrainian control. The region has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A senior Russian military officer said on Friday that troops were being moved to the east from the rest of the country.
Despite these assertions, Russian rockets hit the western city of Lviv on Saturday while Biden visited neighboring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that it used air-launched cruise missiles to attack a fuel depot and a defense factory in Lviv.
In Plesetsk, west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, another sea-based missile strike destroyed a warehouse containing anti-aircraft missiles, he said.
